Repeal Day is Saturday, December 5, and if you are going to be anywhere near Louisville, Kentucky, you might want to consider the Bourbon Society's Repeal Day Party. Special guests include Chris Morris from Woodford Reserve, Al Young from Four Roses, and Mike Veach from the Filson Historical Society. Somebody (they don't know who yet) is supposed to be there from Wild Turkey too.
Those folks are great and all, but the real attraction is the venue; the fabled Pendennis Club.
Louisville's Pendennis Club is a private club, so you can't just stroll in on a normal day and have a drink at their bar. Back when Louisville was full of whiskey barons, this was their hang out. By legend, the Old Fashioned Cocktail was invented there. On December 5, 1933, you can bet the place was jumping.
It's a jacket-and-tie affair, but tickets are only $30. For more information go to The Bourbon Society web site.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Steve Cole, Whiskey Professor
I had lunch today with Steve Cole, Whiskey Professor.
Cole is quick to admit that "whiskey professor" is a marketing term. He doesn't have a PhD in Whiskey nor is he tenured faculty at Whiskey U. He is an employee of Beam Global and his job is more generically known in the industry as brand ambassador. Beam chose the whiskey professor title, according to Cole, because his job is education, not sales. He teaches consumer and trade audiences about whiskey generally and the Beam Small Batch Bourbons Collection specifically.
The Small Batch Bourbons Collection consists of four brands: Knob Creek, Booker's, Baker's and Basil Hayden. The biggest seller of the group is Knob Creek and most of the time, that's the brand Cole and the other two whiskey professors talk about. He was wearing a Knob Creek fleece pullover when we met.
Steve Cole grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, and went to college at Middle Tennessee State, where he discovered whiskey. His roommates happened to be from Lynchburg and patronized their local brand. Rebelling against that peer pressure, Cole became a Maker's Mark drinker.
In the course of post-graduate job seeking, Cole worked as a bartender and fell in love with that profession. He moved to Chicago and began tending bar at an upscale joint on the North Side that had a good whiskey selection. Fear of appearing unknowledgeable to his patrons fueled his desire to learn all he could about bourbon, scotch and other whiskeys. One day about three years ago, one of those customers happened to be a Beam brand manager and a new career was born.
During the next phase of his whiskey education, Cole was put to work at Beam Global distilleries in Kentucky and Scotland. Suddenly he was working beside one of his idols, Fred Noe, then digging peat on Islay. Heady stuff.
In addition to making presentations at whiskey shows, whiskey professors answer questions submitted to the Knob Creek web site.
As more and more audiences clamor for information about whiskey and other spirits, and the public schedules of people like Fred Noe and other distillers and blenders become overbooked, more and more companies are recruiting people like Steve Cole for the brand ambassador role. Diageo, for example, has its Masters of Whiskey, who perform a similar function.
As the saying goes, nice work if you can get it.
Cole is quick to admit that "whiskey professor" is a marketing term. He doesn't have a PhD in Whiskey nor is he tenured faculty at Whiskey U. He is an employee of Beam Global and his job is more generically known in the industry as brand ambassador. Beam chose the whiskey professor title, according to Cole, because his job is education, not sales. He teaches consumer and trade audiences about whiskey generally and the Beam Small Batch Bourbons Collection specifically.
The Small Batch Bourbons Collection consists of four brands: Knob Creek, Booker's, Baker's and Basil Hayden. The biggest seller of the group is Knob Creek and most of the time, that's the brand Cole and the other two whiskey professors talk about. He was wearing a Knob Creek fleece pullover when we met.
Steve Cole grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, and went to college at Middle Tennessee State, where he discovered whiskey. His roommates happened to be from Lynchburg and patronized their local brand. Rebelling against that peer pressure, Cole became a Maker's Mark drinker.
In the course of post-graduate job seeking, Cole worked as a bartender and fell in love with that profession. He moved to Chicago and began tending bar at an upscale joint on the North Side that had a good whiskey selection. Fear of appearing unknowledgeable to his patrons fueled his desire to learn all he could about bourbon, scotch and other whiskeys. One day about three years ago, one of those customers happened to be a Beam brand manager and a new career was born.
During the next phase of his whiskey education, Cole was put to work at Beam Global distilleries in Kentucky and Scotland. Suddenly he was working beside one of his idols, Fred Noe, then digging peat on Islay. Heady stuff.
In addition to making presentations at whiskey shows, whiskey professors answer questions submitted to the Knob Creek web site.
As more and more audiences clamor for information about whiskey and other spirits, and the public schedules of people like Fred Noe and other distillers and blenders become overbooked, more and more companies are recruiting people like Steve Cole for the brand ambassador role. Diageo, for example, has its Masters of Whiskey, who perform a similar function.
As the saying goes, nice work if you can get it.
Want To Learn About Distilling? Apply For A Michael Jackson Internship.
Readers of this blog are one of the few audiences that won't immediately associate the name "Michael Jackson" with the recently-departed King of Pop.
Our Michael, also deceased, was a writer, lecturer, thinker, and champion of beverage alcohol. The English-born Jackson made his reputation educating the world about beer, then became the world's leading authority on whiskey too.
The Michael Jackson Education Fund was initially created by the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Wine & Food (AIWF) in the early 1990s. The Fund is now managed by the AIWF Foundation which has partnered with the American Distilling Institute (ADI) to develop an internship program. Applications are being accepted now.
The Michael Jackson Internship is intended to foster scholarship in all aspects of distilled spirits manufacture. Though based in the United States, international applicants and international hosts are welcome. Applications for the internship are reviewed by a committee of distilled spirits professionals drawn from the spirits production, sales and writing communities. Depending on the availability of funds, there will be at least one internship awarded per year. The internship will be awarded at a special dinner in honor of the Michael Jackson Fund in conjunction with the annual ADI meeting.
For more information, contact:
Daniel Farber
Chair of the Michael Jackson Internship Committee
Osocalis Distillery
5579 Old San Jose Rd.
Soquel, CA, 95073
Our Michael, also deceased, was a writer, lecturer, thinker, and champion of beverage alcohol. The English-born Jackson made his reputation educating the world about beer, then became the world's leading authority on whiskey too.
The Michael Jackson Education Fund was initially created by the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Wine & Food (AIWF) in the early 1990s. The Fund is now managed by the AIWF Foundation which has partnered with the American Distilling Institute (ADI) to develop an internship program. Applications are being accepted now.
The Michael Jackson Internship is intended to foster scholarship in all aspects of distilled spirits manufacture. Though based in the United States, international applicants and international hosts are welcome. Applications for the internship are reviewed by a committee of distilled spirits professionals drawn from the spirits production, sales and writing communities. Depending on the availability of funds, there will be at least one internship awarded per year. The internship will be awarded at a special dinner in honor of the Michael Jackson Fund in conjunction with the annual ADI meeting.
For more information, contact:
Daniel Farber
Chair of the Michael Jackson Internship Committee
Osocalis Distillery
5579 Old San Jose Rd.
Soquel, CA, 95073
Monday, November 9, 2009
Review: Old Forester Birthday Bourbon 2009
Then all hell broke loose on straightbourbon.com. The very first reviewer wrote, "Odd… must and baby diapers were my first impression as I waved it past my nose." It went downhill from there.
Now that I've had a chance to taste it properly, I can see what some people might not like about it. There is very little of the candy notes that many bourbons, and even typical Old Forester, exhibit. It's slightly bitter with what I characterize as a dry wood note predominating. It's not char and it's not the caramel-vanilla flavor you usually get from wood. It's more like what you expect from an old scotch that has spent a long time in a barrel that was already spent before the whiskey even got there.
It is 12-years-old and in some ways tastes older. It definitely leans toward the herbal side of the bourbon taste wheel.
One thing I enjoy about the Birthday Bourbon series is that it's always different, sometimes very different. That's not what producers usually do. Even Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage strives for continuity from year to year. Old Forester Birthday Bourbon doesn't. What Master Distiller Chris Morris is going for, I think, is more of a "that's interesting" reaction.
I'm not saying the people who dislike it are wrong, it's not for everyone, but I would hate for someone to be scared away from it because it got so many negative reviews.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Please Don't Give Food To Food Banks.
Stay with me on this.
My neighborhood food bank, Lakeview Pantry, is one of my favorite charities. They do great work right here in my neighborhood at very low cost, and they use food as an entry point for assisting their clients with other needs, such as clothing, housing and employment. I donate to them whenever I can.
I encourage everyone to support their local food bank, but please give them money, not food. The reason is simple. Unless you are a food producer yourself (farmer, processor), you probably will buy all the food you plan to donate. Since very few of us are food producers, virtually all food donations start with the donor buying the food at a supermarket.
Why is this a bad idea? In addition to it being a hassle, lugging all that food from place to place, you are cheating the charity out of the full value of your intended donation. You might be the smartest shopper in town but I guarantee that the food bank can make a dollar go much further than you can. Plus, they can't pay the electric bill with macaroni.
Yet this is counterintuitive to most people and when I have tried to make this argument in the past, I have gotten some really angry responses. People just don't get it. Part of the problem is that food producers and retailers heartily support food drives. Why wouldn't they? It's more money for them. The food pantrys don't discourage it, also for obvious reasons. They're afraid that if they tell people, "don't give us food," they won't get anything.
Food drives have their place, especially when children are involved, because it helps them understand the importance of feeding hungry people, but if you are older than about ten you should be able to grasp this simple logic. A check for $25 dollars feeds many more hungry people than the $25 you spend on their behalf at the supermarket. By all means, write that check, but let the food bank do the shopping.
My neighborhood food bank, Lakeview Pantry, is one of my favorite charities. They do great work right here in my neighborhood at very low cost, and they use food as an entry point for assisting their clients with other needs, such as clothing, housing and employment. I donate to them whenever I can.
I encourage everyone to support their local food bank, but please give them money, not food. The reason is simple. Unless you are a food producer yourself (farmer, processor), you probably will buy all the food you plan to donate. Since very few of us are food producers, virtually all food donations start with the donor buying the food at a supermarket.
Why is this a bad idea? In addition to it being a hassle, lugging all that food from place to place, you are cheating the charity out of the full value of your intended donation. You might be the smartest shopper in town but I guarantee that the food bank can make a dollar go much further than you can. Plus, they can't pay the electric bill with macaroni.
Yet this is counterintuitive to most people and when I have tried to make this argument in the past, I have gotten some really angry responses. People just don't get it. Part of the problem is that food producers and retailers heartily support food drives. Why wouldn't they? It's more money for them. The food pantrys don't discourage it, also for obvious reasons. They're afraid that if they tell people, "don't give us food," they won't get anything.
Food drives have their place, especially when children are involved, because it helps them understand the importance of feeding hungry people, but if you are older than about ten you should be able to grasp this simple logic. A check for $25 dollars feeds many more hungry people than the $25 you spend on their behalf at the supermarket. By all means, write that check, but let the food bank do the shopping.
Scotland Moves To Protect Scotch Whisky.
New Scottish regulations aimed at protecting Scotch whisky will come into force later this month. Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy announced the new regulations, which will require single malts to be bottled in Scotland. At the same time, the Scottish government is also considering minimum pricing standards for all alcohol as a way to combat alcohol abuse, on the misguided theory that buyers of cheap alcohol are more prone to abusing it.
How important is scotch to Scotland's economy? It represents fully 20% of all export income.
Under the new rules, all scotch whiskies must carry a category description, such as "blended Scotch whisky." Use of the term "pure malt" will be banned, to prevent this description from being applied to blended whiskies in an attempt to make them appear superior to single malts.
There will also be new protection for the traditional regional names associated with Scotch whisky, and clear rules on statements about the age of the whisky.
The Scots want to get their own house in order before they take on India and other countries that make imitation scotch.
Although Scotland sells five times more of its whiskey to the rest of the world that the U.S. does, the U.S. has done a better job of protecting its product, probably as a result of learning from Scotland's mistakes.
How important is scotch to Scotland's economy? It represents fully 20% of all export income.
Under the new rules, all scotch whiskies must carry a category description, such as "blended Scotch whisky." Use of the term "pure malt" will be banned, to prevent this description from being applied to blended whiskies in an attempt to make them appear superior to single malts.
There will also be new protection for the traditional regional names associated with Scotch whisky, and clear rules on statements about the age of the whisky.
The Scots want to get their own house in order before they take on India and other countries that make imitation scotch.
Although Scotland sells five times more of its whiskey to the rest of the world that the U.S. does, the U.S. has done a better job of protecting its product, probably as a result of learning from Scotland's mistakes.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage Gets New Look, Earlier Ship Date.
The new vintage is shipping now.
Fans of Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage will also notice a new label, intended to better align the Single Barrel's look with the flagship Evan Williams Black Label, the world’s second-leading selling Kentucky Bourbon.
This is year 15 of the series, which is always a 9-year-old, rye-recipe bourbon, named for its distillation year. As in the past, each bottle is marked with the exact entry date and bottling date, as well as the barrel serial number. It is bottled at 86.6° proof (43.3% ABV). Suggested retail price is $25.99 for a 750 ml bottle.
Heaven Hill Distilleries, which produces the Evan Williams brand, makes a lot of whiskey. The Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage series can be viewed as the companys "best foot forward." Every year, they pick the very best whiskey they have available at that age and bottle it. Because it is a single-barrel and a vintage, it varies from bottle to bottle and year to year, but is invariably excellent.
For anyone who is just starting to explore American whiskey, especially the more esoteric bottlings prized by enthusiasts, Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage is an excellent place to start.
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