Memorial Day weekend I took a short road trip up to Kentucky. Mostly it was a favor for my friend and blogging partner, Keith, which bears a little explanation. Several years ago Keith told me he had signed up for the Maker’s Mark Ambassador program. They put your name on a brass plaque on a barrel of Bourbon, send you some nice little trinkets around Christmastime each year and never forget to send you a couple e-mails a month to tell you about events they are involved with and remind you to drink your Ovaltine...I mean, “drink your Maker’s Mark!” When your barrel is ready, they send you a notice so you can visit their distillery in Loretto, Kentucky, and purchase up to two personalized bottles. Keith is coming to town for the Chattanooga Tweet-Up in August, but won’t have enough time to get up to Kentucky, so he asked me if I’d take a little trip up there and pick up his bottles for him. I did...and boy, am I glad. This short, overnight excursion reminded me of how really beautiful Kentucky is and how much I’ve enjoyed the small amounts of time I was able to visit there.
I swung by Heaven Hill Distillery in Bardstown while I was there. Actually the distillery is not in Bardstown anymore since it burned down about 15 years ago; they bought a location in Louisville rather than rebuilding in the original location. Now you get to go through the Bourbon Heritage Center and take a tour of the aging warehouse, then finish off with a tasting of Evan Williams and Elijah Craig Bourbons. Not exactly what I had expected based on the tours I’ve had of other distilleries, but I do have to say that I finally discovered Elijah Craig 12 year. I may have had it before, but do not remember for sure...and it is excellent.
Loretto is a small town that is mainly known as the home of Maker’s Mark. If you get the chance, I would definitely recommend a visit as it is simply the most well-kept distillery grounds I have ever seen. Lush lawns, nice antique relics used as lawn art and immaculately kept buildings really make for a nice tour...and the whiskey’s really good, too! I, too, am a Maker’s Mark Ambassador so I will have to make a return journey in the next year or two to pick up my own personalized bottles. Maker’s has also joined the “moonshine revival,” producing a non-aged version of their recipe that they call Maker’s White. Bottling is limited and it is only available at the distillery gift shop. I tried some straight and have to admit that I don’t like it as well as Popcorn Sutton’s Tennessee White Whiskey, but Maker’s was good enough to include a recipe booklet for mixed drinks so I’ll give some of those a try and report back in a month or two.
I took a few pictures on the trip. If you’d like to see them, just visit my Facebook page (I know, I know...lots of you don’t like Facebook, but Twitter has no good mechanism for posting photo galleries). Making this trip also gave me the idea for a road trip which I may take with a few friends next year...need to hit the entire Kentucky Bourbon Trail.
EMILIO CIGARS
I got an e-mail yesterday pointing me to Gary Griffith’s latest blog entry, which details the plans he has for Emilio Cigars for the rest of 2012...and on into the future. Simply put, he has been working very hard and has a lot of new cigars coming down the pike. Read all about it HERE.
I am especially looking forward to the Draig K, the first release of a new line of limited releases and the Carpe Noctem which will feature a Broadleaf Maduro wrapper, one of my favorite varietals. I could go on, but Gary already did...read his article!
80 DAYS!
Can you go around the world in 80 days? I don’t know, but if you do, you should plan on making Chattanooga the last stop because the 2nd Annual Chattanooga Tweet-Up begins in 80 days. If you are a regular visitor here, you’ve heard me talk about this before and I won’t belabor the same points; if you don’t know about it, then you should click HERE to read all the details (all those that have been determined, anyway) and then go to BurnsTobacconist.com to buy your tickets. Don’t forget the baseball game tickets, which are a separate item.
More news is coming soon regarding the Tweet-Up. Within the next week or two, I’ll be finalizing the details of our group rate at a local hotel and will be publishing the initial sponsor list.
I swung by Heaven Hill Distillery in Bardstown while I was there. Actually the distillery is not in Bardstown anymore since it burned down about 15 years ago; they bought a location in Louisville rather than rebuilding in the original location. Now you get to go through the Bourbon Heritage Center and take a tour of the aging warehouse, then finish off with a tasting of Evan Williams and Elijah Craig Bourbons. Not exactly what I had expected based on the tours I’ve had of other distilleries, but I do have to say that I finally discovered Elijah Craig 12 year. I may have had it before, but do not remember for sure...and it is excellent.
Loretto is a small town that is mainly known as the home of Maker’s Mark. If you get the chance, I would definitely recommend a visit as it is simply the most well-kept distillery grounds I have ever seen. Lush lawns, nice antique relics used as lawn art and immaculately kept buildings really make for a nice tour...and the whiskey’s really good, too! I, too, am a Maker’s Mark Ambassador so I will have to make a return journey in the next year or two to pick up my own personalized bottles. Maker’s has also joined the “moonshine revival,” producing a non-aged version of their recipe that they call Maker’s White. Bottling is limited and it is only available at the distillery gift shop. I tried some straight and have to admit that I don’t like it as well as Popcorn Sutton’s Tennessee White Whiskey, but Maker’s was good enough to include a recipe booklet for mixed drinks so I’ll give some of those a try and report back in a month or two.I took a few pictures on the trip. If you’d like to see them, just visit my Facebook page (I know, I know...lots of you don’t like Facebook, but Twitter has no good mechanism for posting photo galleries). Making this trip also gave me the idea for a road trip which I may take with a few friends next year...need to hit the entire Kentucky Bourbon Trail.
EMILIO CIGARS
I got an e-mail yesterday pointing me to Gary Griffith’s latest blog entry, which details the plans he has for Emilio Cigars for the rest of 2012...and on into the future. Simply put, he has been working very hard and has a lot of new cigars coming down the pike. Read all about it HERE.
I am especially looking forward to the Draig K, the first release of a new line of limited releases and the Carpe Noctem which will feature a Broadleaf Maduro wrapper, one of my favorite varietals. I could go on, but Gary already did...read his article!
80 DAYS!
Can you go around the world in 80 days? I don’t know, but if you do, you should plan on making Chattanooga the last stop because the 2nd Annual Chattanooga Tweet-Up begins in 80 days. If you are a regular visitor here, you’ve heard me talk about this before and I won’t belabor the same points; if you don’t know about it, then you should click HERE to read all the details (all those that have been determined, anyway) and then go to BurnsTobacconist.com to buy your tickets. Don’t forget the baseball game tickets, which are a separate item.
More news is coming soon regarding the Tweet-Up. Within the next week or two, I’ll be finalizing the details of our group rate at a local hotel and will be publishing the initial sponsor list.
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