Thankful For Bourbon? Visit A Distillery.

Several of Kentucky’s bourbon distilleries will be open during the holiday weekend so you can celebrate the spirit of Thanksgiving with America’s only native spirit.

"Thanksgiving is a perfect time to visit our legendary distilleries on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail," said Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association. “If your family and friends are looking for an adventure this weekend, come savor the spirit of the holidays with us.

"And, as always, we ask everyone to enjoy Kentucky Bourbon responsibly."

All distilleries are closed Thursday, but open the following days (hours are Eastern Standard Time). For directions and more information, please visit the Kentucky Bourbon Trail web site.

• Buffalo Trace, Frankfort – open Friday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., closed Sunday.
  
• Four Roses, Lawrenceburg – open Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., last tour at 3:00 p.m., closed Sunday.
  
• Heaven Hill, Bardstown – open Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday noon to 4 p.m.
  
• Jim Beam, Clermont – open Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
• Maker’s Mark, Loretto – open Friday and Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Sunday tours 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30 p.m.
• Tom Moore, Bardstown – Closed for tours Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
• Wild Turkey, Lawrenceburg – Tours Friday and Saturday at 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Closed Sunday.
• Woodford Reserve, Versailles – Tours Friday and Saturday at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 12 p.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Tours on Sunday at 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.  

The Retro Bourbon You Really Must Try: Old Grand-Dad Bonded.

With its bright orange label, there is no chance you will mistake Old Grand-Dad for one of those new, trendy bourbon brands. Old Grand-Dad Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey is proudly retro, from its package to the taste of the whiskey inside.

There are several expressions of Old Grand-Dad, but my favorite is Bonded Old Grand-Dad. As a bond, it must by law be 100° proof (50% ABV) and the product of a single distillery during a single distilling season. There can be no mixing of younger and older barrels. It must also be at least four years old.

Old Grand-Dad is a bourbon, but it contains about twice as much rye as most bourbons do. The rest of its unique taste must come from its yeast. It's very flavorful, spicy and earthy like a rye, sweet and satisfying like a bourbon.

Many bourbons today are eight years and older, so wood notes overshadow the grain and yeast. Old Grand-Dad seems to have those three flavor elements more equally apportioned.

Old Grand-Dad is a genuinely old brand too, one of the oldest still on the market. It was created by Raymond Hayden in the late 19th century and dedicated to his grandfather, Basil, a follower of Lord Baltimore who brought the family to Kentucky from England by way of Maryland.

Basil Hayden Bourbon, which is one of those trendy new brands, is Old Grand-Dad bourbon aged eight years and diluted to 80° proof (40% ABV).

Old Grand-Dad itself also comes in 86° proof and 114° proof expressions. Unlike Basil Hayden, none of the Old Grand-Dad expressions bear an age statement, so they are at least four years old and probably less than six. Although bonded bourbons today are a shadow of their former selves, Bonded Old Grand-Dad has long been the most popular bottled-in-bond bourbon. It is a product of Beam Global.

Old Grand-Dad is, I imagine, what many bourbons tasted like back before blended scotches and Canadians spoiled the American palate for real swallow hard and make a face whiskey. It's the other end of the flavor spectrum from something like Weller 12-year-old, which I also favor. It's often overlooked but is an essential part of any whiskey fan's education.
 
It's also a great value at about $20 for a 750 ml.

Templeton Rye. Hoist On Its Own Petard?

There are some subjects that keep recurring, so often I get tired of writing about them. One is the great spelling controversy--to "e" or not to "e"--another is Jack Daniel's; bourbon or not?

Today it's whiskey producers who call themselves distilleries but whose products are made by somebody else. I wrote about it here and many, many other places, but when I saw this picture I just couldn't resist.

It's a picture, supplied by them, of Templeton Rye barrels. See, it says "Templeton Rye" right there on the head. But look at what else it says, "distilled 10/03."

Leaving open the possibility that "10/03" does not mean October, 2003, one can compare that date with the fact that Templeton Rye was formed and received its alcoholic beverage producers license in 2005. You can figure out the rest.

Gifts for Bourbon Lovers.

What should you give to the bourbon lover on your list? Well, it's pretty hard to beat bourbon, but let's say you want to give them something else.

Two great suggestions are, BOURBON STRAIGHT; The Uncut and Unfiltered Story of American Whiskey, and "Made and Bottled in Kentucky," the definitive bourbon documentary on DVD.

Need more? Many of the top American whiskey brands have online stores, where you can pick up T-shirts, hats, flasks and other gifts, helpfully emblazoned with the brand's logo. Here are a few of them.

Woodford Reserve

Jack Daniel's

Jim Beam

Evan Williams

Buffalo Trace

Maker's Mark

Knob Creek

Although you'll probably have to go through the age check, these links should take you directly to the online shops. By the way, not all brands have them. Wild Turkey does not, neither do Four Roses and Bulleit.

That does not, however, mean that just because a brand isn't mentioned here they don't have an online store. Don't hesitate to check the brand's website. A page of links directly to most producer web sites is here.

FDA Orders Manufacturers To Prove Caffeinated Alcoholic Beverages Are Safe.

You've seen it a thousand times in movies and TV shows. Someone needs to sober up quickly and starts pounding black coffee, even though science tells us that doesn’t work. Caffeine will not counteract the effects of alcohol, it just makes the drunk more alert.

A decade ago, Red Bull launched the craze for so-called energy drinks, which deliver a big dose of caffeine. Pretty soon, these drinks were being combined with alcohol. No one should have been surprised, therefore, when drinks companies put two and two together and started to sell caffeinated alcoholic beverages.

Almost immediately, these products became easy targets for anti-alcohol crusaders. They dubbed them alcopops and claimed, among other things, that they were being marketed to children. About a year ago, yielding to pressure, the big beer companies dropped their caffeinated products and promised not to make new ones.

But caffeinated alcoholic beverages did not go away, the niche was simply filled by small manufacturers who don’t have big market shares to protect in the mainstream beverage arena. Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered those companies—about 30 of them—to prove their products are safe or risk having them banned.

While it may sound like the FDA is requiring the manufacturers to prove a negative, it’s not quite that bad. Go here to read the FDA’s press release and see what the standard of proof is. The key is something called GRAS—Generally Regarded as Safe—a term-of-art. Caffeine itself is GRAS but that is apparently not good enough.

This order only affects pre-packaged products that contain both alcohol and caffeine. Bars can still serve Jager Bombs (Jagermeister and Red Bull) or any of the other popular energy drink-and-alcohol combinations. Or, for that matter, Jack and Coke or Irish Coffee, two popular caffeinated alcoholic drinks of long standing.

So is this just a political stunt? The FDA in its announcement today cited letters from 18 Attorneys General and one city attorney expressing concerns about caffeinated alcoholic beverages. Illinois AG Lisa Madigan chimed in over the weekend.

It will be interesting to see how the manufacturers respond, especially since the small fry are on their own now without a mega brewer to show them the way. Stay tuned.

Latest Research Provides Nuanced Picture Of Alcohol-Releated Problems.

"Alcohol abuse" is defined as use that repeatedly contributes, within a 12-month period, to the risk of bodily harm, relationship troubles, problems in meeting obligations and run-ins with the law. "Alcohol dependence" includes those symptoms, plus the inability to limit or stop drinking; the need for more alcohol to get the same effect; the presence of withdrawal symptoms; and a consumption level that takes increasing amounts of time.

With that as a starting point, everyone who enjoys beverage alcohol should frequently monitor both their own actions and those of the people close to them. The good news in the latest research is that most people can and do address their own alcohol use issues without drastic action, without outside intervention, and often without giving up alcohol.

This is not some kind of self-serving revisionism that denies alcohol abuse is a problem. For some it is a very big problem, a problem for which the only solution is complete abstinence. But not for everyone; not for most people.

To learn more, read Shari Roan's article in today's Chicago Tribune.

Popular beliefs about alcohol always have been driven more by ideology than science, in part because ideology provides unambiguous answers. We also have in this country a virtual industry dedicated to demonizing alcohol and stigmatizing drinkers, with a goal of reviving Prohibition or something like it. The facts are that most adults drink and have little or no trouble related to their alcohol consumption. Now there is science showing that most people who have problems solve them themselves, without a lot of drama. Good to know.

Canadian Whiskey Spills In Kentucky.

Early yesterday morning a tanker carrying 7,000 gallons of Canadian whiskey ran off the road and overturned in Scott County, Kentucky. The accident occurred on US Route 460 near the Craig Lane intersection. US-460 was closed for most of the day. Although the tank was damaged and some of the whiskey escaped, it is not yet known how much of it was lost. Fire is the primary danger in an accident of this sort, which is why the road had to be closed.

Craig Lane was named for Rev. Elijah Craig, who founded Georgetown, Kentucky (the county seat of Scott County), and was an early Kentucky distiller.

The shipment was on its way to the Beam Global bottling facility on US-460 at Forks of the Elkhorn, just east of Frankfort. It was destined to become Canadian Club Canadian Blended Whisky.

No other vehicles were involved and Scott County Emergency Management Agency director Jack Donovan told the Lexington Herald-Leader that the truck driver was not hurt, although another media report said he was taken to an area hospital complaining of leg pain. The driver has not been identified.

Why was Canadian whiskey being shipped to Kentucky for bottling? Beam Global owns the Canadian Club brand but not the Canadian distillery where it is made, which is owned by Pernod. The distillery is in Walkerville, Ontario, just across the river from Detroit. The whiskey is distilled and aged there. When it is ready for sale the barrels are dumped and the whiskey is tankered for bulk shipment to the U.S. for bottling.

The tanker would have entered the country at Detroit and come down Interstate 75 to Georgetown, Kentucky, then to US-460.

Beam Global has substantial bottling lines at Forks of the Elkhorn, which is the former Old Grand-Dad distillery, and also at the Jim Beam Distillery at Clermont in Bullitt County, near Shepherdsville. Canadian Club is bottled at both locations.

Much of the Canadian whisky intended for sale in the U.S. is bottled here, frequently by bourbon producers in Kentucky. This is also true of other international spirits such as rum, tequila and scotch. A substantial amount of California brandy is shipped in bulk to Kentucky to be aged (in used bourbon barrels) and bottled.

By consolidating bottling at as few locations as possible, the producer automatically consolidates its finished goods inventories, which makes distribution more efficient.