BOURBON + BBQ + DVFF FUNDRAISER + WIN A VERY RARE BOURBON BOTTLE
An Evening of Discovery: From Grain to Glass. Crafting Fine Bourbons Thursday, February 23rd 7- 8:30PM. Join us on Thursday, February 23 from 7pm-8:30pm at Joe Canal’s of West Deptford as we host a very special bourbon event and raffle to benefit the Delaware Valley Fields Foundation (DVFF). The DVFF is a non-profit foundation that works to help sustain and defend regional small agriculture including farmers who grow grains for use in spirits like whiskey. This year the DVFF will focus on the SeedSpark program which is helping fund a project at Penn State University to bring back an heirloom rye grain that hasn’t been in production since Prohibition. To help raise funds for this initiative, we are offering a night of bourbon tasting, food and a raffle...
Julian Van Winkle’s Legacy
Pappy Van Winkle has been on the brain this past week and I realized that it might be a good idea to be clear about what is actually in those very sought after bottles. I’ve written about Julian Van Winkle Sr. in recent blog posts. He was the man behind Stitzel-Weller and the establishment of that distillery. He made Old Fitzgerald bourbon and his son maintained the Old Rip Van Winkle brand copyright after the distillery closed its doors in the 70’s. United Distillers, which later became Diageo, became owners of Stitzel-Weller, but Julian Van Winkle Jr. maintained access to old stocks from the warehouses. He (“Pappy’s” son) began bottling those products under the Old Rip Van Winkle label. In 1981, Julian Van Winkle III became owner of the family...
Why is Buffalo Trace Not Part of “the Bourbon Trail”?
Did you know that Buffalo Trace is not part of the Kentucky bourbon trail? It all came to an end in 2009. The Kentucky Distillers Association has been around since about 1880. By banding together, the Kentucky distillers could attempt to reduce whiskey taxes and protect the industry. It broke up during Prohibition but reestablished itself afterward to help with repeal. It’s website says that it is a non-profit whose mission is “to protect the trade interests of the industry whenever they may be threatened and to handle common problems in a concerted action.” In 1999, the bourbon industry was growing and the KDA set up the Kentucky Bourbon Trail with the help of its 7 members (Buffalo Trace, Four Roses, Heaven Hill, Jim Beam, Woodford Reserve, Wild Turkey and...
Old Taylor Distillery Returns…
Old Taylor Distillery is coming back to us! The Old Taylor Distillery was built in 1877 by Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr. as his own “personal castle” distillery. The place is practically a medieval fortress! E.H.Taylor not only had plenty of experience in owning and operating distilleries by this time, but he also had toured many European distilleries, as well, and applied that knowledge to Old Taylor’s construction. He was now using rollers instead of mill stones to get more consistent mash. He was using copper mashtuns and made his own barrels -even experimenting with smaller barrels! This was the first distillery to build ricks in warehouses seperating the barrels from one another and allowing the barrels to “breathe”. (instead of stacking them...
Bourbon is Not Scotch…
Bourbon is not Scotch. Silly and obvious, I know, but after reading an article where a man was blasting bourbon distilleries for removing age statements, I feel it must be said. Many bourbon drinkers today are first introduced to brown liquors through scotch. It makes sense. You grow up, you want something a little stronger and little more “top shelf”. Scotch is wonderful stuff, so you try other brown liquors and discover that bourbon is sweeter and bolder in many ways and you want to explore more…but the age statements are lower and it can’t be as good, right? Wrong. Bourbon is not Scotch. Bourbon is aged in brand new, charred oak barrels. (They don’t need to in American white oak, but they tend to be.) I usually use the analogy of...