Carnivore Carnival 2009

A friend of mine in Houston has a party about this time every year called Carnivore Carnival. Here is what typically is on the board.

Two 40-pound hogs
200 hand made chicken/pork/beef enchilladas with homemade sauces
Smoked leg of lamb
Red Deer tenderloins (grilled)
Pasta salad
Smoked chickens
Smoked rib eye roasts

Beer, wine, whiskey

How did pasta salad get in there?

Celebrate White Dog Days at Buffalo Trace.

You are invited to celebrate “White Dog Days” at Buffalo Trace Distillery, Frankfort, Kentucky, October 15-17.

White Dog Days is a new annual event (last year was the first) at the Frankfort home of such iconic bourbons as Blanton's, Eagle Rare, W.L. Weller, Van Winkle, Ancient Age, and Old Charter, as well as Sazerac Rye.

Last week I wrote about how Buffalo Trace keeps coming up with new ways to entertain and entice fans of American whiskey. Here is another example, although this one is directed at their Frankfort neighbors as much as it is at whiskey enthusiasts.

White Dog Days celebrates the Trace’s first white dog of the fall distilling season. By Federal law there are two whiskey distilling seasons. January through June is spring, June through December is fall. Most distilleries take some kind of break in the summer and resume distilling according to their own production planning needs. For Buffalo Trace, the fall season begins the second week of October.

This will be the 236th distilling season at the plant now known as Buffalo Trace.

For more information, direct from the source, go here.

The main public event is Saturday, October 17, from noon to 6:00 PM on the distillery grounds. There will be live music, distillery tours, barrel rolling exhibitions and competitions, a corn hole tournament, and other activities. Admission is free. Food and beverages will be available for purchase. You are encouraged to bring your own chairs or blankets.

'White dog' is a colloquial term for spirit right off the still. The barreling of the season's first white dog is analogus to many familiar autumn harvest traditions.

Another Age Statement Falls.

Weller Antique is the latest American straight whiskey to take the age statement off its label and, as usual, the producer (in this case, Buffalo Trace) says the product isn't really changing. An age statement is, after all, just a number. What matters is how the whiskey tastes.

This reminds me of a conversation I had with one of my college deans several years after I graduated. He was a crusty sort anyway and we had butted heads more than once. Now he was talking to me more like a peer and bitching about alums who can't stand to see anything on campus change, anything. I think we're like that about whiskeys sometimes.

And who wouldn't be? Even the young people here know how a generation ago there were so many more distilleries. This is, in many ways, a golden age, but the paucity of different producers is a problem. That's why we hate to lose anything: an age statement, some proof points, anything. Buffalo Trace has done more than any other producer to try create as much variety as possible with the resources they have, but it's no substitute.

Which brings me back to the story about the dean. Are age statements really that important? Or do we just hate change?

Bourbon and Country Ham.

Of course they are perfect together. You can't believe you had to be told, but you did. It was Woodford Reserve Resident Chef Ouita Michel who enlightened you. Pairing food with American whiskey is tricky because the whiskey is so flavorful, it's hard to find foods that can stand up to it. Barbeque with a young rye or rye-recipe bourbon has always seemed the perfect pairing, but Ouita serves a fine, Kentucky country ham that could stand with any jamón serrano and it ideally complements the softer and more elegant bourbon made by her employer.

Goat cheese, fresh or aged, also very nice.

As Kentucky vies to be the Napa Valley of American whiskey, sophisticated locavore cuisine is a natural development. There was nothing like Ouita's food, or the food at Proof on Main, Limestone, or Corbett's, (all in Louisville) when I lived there 20 years ago. Now that's pretty much what fine dining means.

If you have trouble finding good country ham in the big city, Meachams, in Western Kentucky, is a good mail order source. With "ham" in their name, how could they not be?

Distilleries and Women.

You know those women who know exactly how to drive you crazy; the good way, bad way, or both? That's what Buffalo Trace is like for lovers of American whiskey. You want variety? They produce 25 different American straight whiskey brands, several with multiple expressions. They make a straight rye and three different bourbon recipes. They sell everything from white dog to 18-year-olds. They experiment with different kinds of wood, different grains, whatever they can think of. They do tons of limited editions, annual releases and single-barrel bottlings. They have production facilities in three of Kentucky's four whiskey-making regions, plus Virginia. They defy conventional wisdom. They do this thing where they bite your lower lip just as they ...

So far, unlike some women, Buffalo Trace has shown little down side. You wish they would disclose sales figures. They don't because they don't have to. They're a private company and keeping that stuff private gives them a small edge over the people who can't. It's just the only evidence you have their plan is working is that they're still running it.

Sometimes Buffalo Trace seems like a big playground for whiskey nuts. Other distilleries have tasting rooms, Buffalo Trace has a big, wooden bar. They have the biggest distillery in Kentucky and have built one of the smallest inside it. They have web cams all over the operation. Stampedes start when people see certain bottles hit the line in the single barrel hall.

There are so few whiskey distilleries in the United States, you can't afford to hate any of them, but you don't have to love them all. Buffalo Trace does everything it can to make you love them and you do, you can't help it, you just do. Sometimes it seems too good to be true as you wait, expectently, for each new day.

If You're In Northcentral Ohio, Come See Me This Thursday.

This Thursday, September 24, I'll be doing a tasting in Mansfield, Ohio; at Martinis on Main, 108 North Main Street, to benefit the Mansfield Art Center. The cost is $20 for the flight of five whiskies, or individual tastes for $5 each.

We're not going to taste anything unusual. It's mostly an American whiskey orientation tasting. The original list I submitted included JTS Brown BIB, Old Grand-Dad BIB, George Dickel No. 12, Maker's Mark, Wild Turkey Russell's Reserve Rye, and Woodford Reserve. I'm not sure what made the final cut. The idea was to taste as much variety in producers and styles as possible in five or six drinks, keeping in mind the limited selection available through the Ohio Division of Liquor Control.

(Mansfield, Ohio, is where I was born and raised, and learned to drink.)

Advance tickets are available, or guests can pay at the door. To register, call 419-756-1700.

You can read all about it in the Mansfield News Journal, here. (Be sure to read the comments!)

What Is Dusty Hunting?

Dusty hunting is when you comb liquor stores looking for old bottles of whiskey. The reason dusty hunting makes sense is because whiskey doesn't spoil, so many liquor stores don't worry about rotating old stock. Believe it or not, you can find bottles that have been sitting on the shelf for 30 years, hence "dusty."

The point of dusty hunting is that you can find really great stuff, from distilleries that are no longer producing, usually pretty cheap since just like they don't rotate old stock, they also often don't reprice it either.

If you want to know more, check out Greg Gilbert's blog, Bourbon Dork. He has posted a three-part series on the fine art of dusty hunting. Part one is here, part two is here, and part three is here. While you're there, check out some of his other posts. He has a lot of good stuff. He explains the weirdness that is Four Roses pretty well here.