Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2019 i American Whiskey Magazine

When The Kentucky Bourbon Festival began 27 years ago, it was just a dinner for master distillers and industry insiders on a golf course. Over the years it has grown to include more than 40 events, some free and some ticketed, designed to attract visitors from all over the world. Everyone seems to have a favorite event, and whether you are brand new to Bourbon or you have a bottle collection that would make a master distiller blush, there’s something for everyone at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival in Bardstown, Kentucky. THE GREAT BOURBON BARREL RELAY: THE FASTEST EVENT AT THE KBF If you’ve ever been to a Kentucky distillery in the spring or summertime, chances are you have seen a square track between a couple of rickhouses where the employees…

Do you remember the best thing you ate last month? Can you describe it in detail to a server in a restaurant so they can recommend something similar? The fact of the matter is, while you may remember that you liked it, the details have likely already faded away. It’s the same with whiskeys and with cigars, and especially so when you pair the two. You may remember your favorite whiskey or your favorite cigar, but you might have a difficult time recalling the particular details of either unless you are paying close attention to the flavor profile and partaking on a regular basis. This is why it is so important to keep a cigar journal, you want to be able to remember not just what you like, but also…

Quercus Alba and Quercus Suber Linnaeus, for those not fluent in Latin or closely engaged with the Google Translate app, American white oak and Portuguese cork oak. Cork oak is a subspecies of white oak, meaning they’re related. The twist in this family tree, no pun intended, is that they are equally important to the Bourbon (spirits) industry, but somehow cork oak doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Granted, cork is a critical line of defense against spillage, tampering and theft used by brands like Diageo, Heaven Hill and William Grant, to name a few, but once that bottle is open, the cork becomes invisible. Ask a serious wine lover about corks and there is a strong chance they will mention one of three places: Portugal, Spain or Morocco. After…

The Potomac River flows through American’s capital, past the iconic tidal basin, ringed by museums and monuments, and the perennially optimistic cherry trees. Close by are the gleaming edifices, the blocks of granite, cold or comforting, intimidating or inspiring depending on your business there. Radiating north, south and west from federal zone are the wealthy towns, suburbs, and farther still, the farmlands. Nature does not suffer human contrivances, instead it plants mountains, hills, valleys and forests, brooks and streams where she will. Criss-crossing the great river are its tributaries, no respecters of surveyed boundaries. Catoctin Creek, just as many other waterways, defiantly violates the state lines of Maryland and Virginia. Beyond the beltway, journeying an hour or two away from the noise that inundates our newsfeeds, are those pursuing lives…

During some of the year we live in the beautiful city of Charleston, South Carolina. It is one of the oldest cities in America, older than the USA. Charleston was founded in 1670 as part of the charter granted to the Lords Proprietor of Carolina by the English King Charles II. The heart of the city is situated on a peninsula between the Ashley and Cooper rivers, both running into, or as Charlestonians prefer to say, forming the Atlantic Ocean at its harbor. The city is steeped in literature and history. This is where Porgy and Bess played out, as well as some of Gone with the Wind. It is also where the first shots of the Civil War, by some southerners still euphemistically referred to as “The Late Unpleasantness,”…

Traverse City Whiskey Company has grown from its beginnings sourcing 20 barrels of Bourbon from MGP in 2012, to breaking ground on a third facility in Traverse City this year. The Traverse City Whiskey Co. Bourbon won Best Small Batch Bourbon at the 2019 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, accelerating demand for the distillery’s single barrels, both sourced and their own distillate. In just seven years these business partners have gone from thinking maybe 20 barrels was too much of a commitment, to building a massive distillery on the outskirts of town. Traverse City is seen by many as a summertime vacation destination and, in fact, the numbers support this, the regular population of the city is around 15,000, while the height of tourism, the National Cherry Festival, draws as…

There are varying accounts of where cocktails came from and what made them popular, and equally controversial is where the cocktail craze is headed. The current cocktail trend is at least partly responsible for bringing American whiskeys, particularly rye whiskey, roaring back into popularity and this craze was spearheaded by the professional bartenders and mixologists who have turned hospitality into their chosen career. One such person is Eron Plevan, bar manager at ALEX&NDER and teacher at the Ideal Bartender School, both at Copper & Kings American Brandy Distillery in Louisville, Kentucky, whose bartending philosophy is so robust he teaches it to other bartenders in hopes they will help to elevate the profession. But where did cocktails even come from to begin with? Plevan has some insight into this history, as…

Colorado enjoys the distinction of having more craft breweries (more than 280) per capita that any other state in the US. Its capital city, Denver, is the epicenter for suds, hosting the annual Great American Beer Festival, which in 2018 attracted more than 800 breweries from across the country serving north of 4,000 different beers. Among the first of the Denver craft purveyors, founded in 1988, was Wynkoop Brewing Company. One of its original partners, John Hickenlooper, was elected governor in 2011 and has served two terms. So perhaps it is not surprising that such a beer-centric place would also see the rise in the past 15 years of a serious craft spirits culture. After all, whiskey technically begins life as beer. To date, nearly 100 craft distillers call Colorado…

Acting on whispered rumors that a North Carolina jail was making whiskey, American Whiskey Magazine’s intrepid sleuths, ever thirsty as the Sahara sands, set out to investigate. The jail is in Mount Pleasant, 30 miles east of Charlotte, a rural hamlet surrounded by rolling woodlands, where, past the town cemetery a tall chain-link fence encircles the Carrabus (County) Correctional Facility. Built in 1929 the barracks-like complex held low security inmates until closing in 2011. Today it basks in newfound notoriety as America’s only “Whiskey Prison” – AKA Southern Grace Distilleries. We’re met by Leanne Powell, gregarious founder, president and CEO, who greets us with “Welcome to our jail!” while unlocking a padlocked gate and relating how a prison became a thriving small business distillery, built on family talent and hometown…

“…wee [sic] have found a waie to make soe good drinke of Indian corne as I [pro]test I have divers times refused to drinke good stronge Englishe beare and chosen to drinke that”Captain George Thorpe, Jamestown, Virginia 1620 When I think of America’s bestknown whiskey states, Tennessee and Kentucky come to mind. Both are renowned for countless legendary big-name distilleries, often dominating product news headlines. Then I recall Virginia also boasts many a noteworthy dram these days, not to mention the Commonwealth’s compelling history of early hoochmaking back in the day. Wasn’t it Colonial English settler Captain George Thorpe (1576-1622) himself who first wrote of corn as cultivated by native Powhatan Indians, then substituted for barley and commonly used in beer fermentation? Thorpe sailed from Bristol to the recently established…

The energy of a woman can sometimes be revealed by the way she says her name when meeting you for the first time. When you meet Christine Riggleman and ask what she does for a living? You will receive everything from hooch-mama, artist, box truck driver, brand creator, business owner, master distiller and mother, to name a few. The first time I met Christine I was conducting a food pairing class during the NOLA Bourbon Festival and she and her daughter Lauren raced up after the seminar with boundless zeal presenting me with a bottle of their Silverback product. This wasn’t the first bottle a distillery has ever presented to me, but it was a completely different feel. “I am Christine Riggleman, master distiller of Silverback Distillery”. My first take…