Category: bourbon
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Woodford Reserve Distillery Visit
This spring I visited eight American whiskey distilleries, including Woodford Reserve. Woodford Reserve's distillery is in a charming setting, nestled down next to a stream in a little valley. The distillery is in a grey stone building dating to 1838, though everything inside it is new. Like most American whiskey distilleries, it changed names and…
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Wild Turkey Distillery Visit
This spring I visited eight American whiskey distilleries, including Wild Turkey. The Wild Turkey brand has been around a while, but the current distillery is just three years old, having moved across the street from the old one. It's clean, modern, and spacious. Wild Turkey uses all non-GMO grains in their bourbon and rye, but…
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Jack Daniel’s Distillery Visit
This spring I toured eight American whisky distilleries, including Jack Daniel's. As you'd expect, Jack Daniel's is a huge operation with a very slick tour. You start with a video at the visitors' center, then take a shuttle up to the top of the hill. There, they burn sugar maple wood into charcoal for the…
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Distillery Visit: George Dickel
This spring I visited the George Dickel distillery, located in Cascade Hollow, Tennessee. Dickel and Jack Daniel's are the two defining Tennessee whiskies: both employ the "Lincoln County Process" of running the new spirit through 10+ feet of charcoal before it is aged. Contrary to popular belief, this is not a requirement of Tennessee whisky,…
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Summer Whisky Cocktails in Whisky Advocate Magazine
Holy Smokes! They put my story on Summer Whisky Cocktails on the cover of Whisky Advocate Magazine! Inside it's 7 pages of deliciousness, with recipes brought to you by: Alan Akwai Brendan Dorr Jon Santer David Delaney, Jr. Larry Rice Sam Ross Kevin Diedrich Kevin Kelpe Mike Ryan There are swizzles and punches and…
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Four Roses Bourbon Distillery Visit
This week I was in Kentucky for a quick visit to the Four Roses distillery. For some history on this brand, see this post a I wrote a few years ago. In short, Four Roses was only a bourbon in Japan for many years, and has recently come back to the US market. They use…
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Turkey Cocktail
In my latest post on FineCooking.com, I tell the tale of a recent Thanksgiving tradition: drinking Wild Turkey. I also link to my experiments with Wild Tofurkey and share a new-fangled Old Fashioned recipe from the brand. Check it out here.
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Home Bar Recommendations: One of Each
When Jonny Raglin and Jeff Hollinger were looking to open Comstock Saloon (hopefully this month), they had a big limitation to work with: the size of the back bar. It only has room for one or two types of each base spirit. This is a challenge for Raglin in particular as between his former post…
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Maker’s Mark Distillery Visit
As part of a visit to the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, I visited the Jim Beam and Maker's Mark distilleries in September. Today I'll talk about visiting Maker's Mark. The distillery has been around since 1805, but was purchased by Mr. Samuels, founder of Maker's Mark, in the early 1950's. This distillery will receive 70,000 visitors…
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A visit to the Jim Beam distillery
In September I visited the Jim Beam and Maker's Mark distilleries as part of the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. For all the distilleries I've been to in 10 different countries, I'd never seen a bourbon distillery. The Claremont Jim Beam distillery is a huge facility, and one of two where the product is distilled. They receive…