On occasion, Joe
Canal
I recently had the opportunity to travel to Kentucky and Tennessee
We flew from Philadelphia on
a recent Tuesday, heading to our first road home in Louisville , KY.
If you’ve never traveled the Bourbon Trail, or to any of the
other distilleries in Kentucky or Tennessee
Our first stop was the Buffalo Trace Distillery, owned by
the Sazerac Company. In addition to
Buffalo Trace Bourbon, Eagle Rare, Blanton’s, W. L. Weller and E. H. Taylor are
among the brands produced at their distillery in Franklin County, KY.
We got the full tour, although not in chronological order.
We actually started on the bottling line, where Blanton’s was getting its
distinctive labeling and topper. But the sweet smell of corn being cooked does
dominate the area. The grounds crew has made the property truly beautiful, and
they were doing work at the main offices when we arrived for our tasting.
The tasting was held in those offices, where we could sit
and relax. The whiskies we sampled were the W. L. Weller, Buffalo Trace, Eagle
Rare and Sazerac Rye. We were, however, offered a taste of a new product, not
yet available to us in New Jersey
After the tasting, the Buffalo Trace team treated us to a
real Southern lunch right there in their offices. They didn’t have sweet tea,
but they did introduce us to something called the Kentucky Hot Brown. It’s very
often served as a sandwich, and there’s even a Wikipedia entry for it. This was
served more like a casserole in a chafing dish. It was a tasty lunch, and very
rich.
We hit the gift shop before leaving, where Dave picked up a
bottle of that Bourbon Cream, then we were on our way to Maker’s Mark, in
Loretto, KY.
I would have to say that Maker’s Mark felt like it was the
furthest in the woods of all the distilleries that we visited. It wasn’t remote
enough to come off as a moonshiner’s location, but you also don’t want to be on
those country roads late at night. Regardless, once you reach Maker’s Mark, you
get a comfortable, old-time feel from both the look of the buildings and the
slower pace of operations.
Our tour guide was Dave Pudlo, their Distillery Education
Director, and he was a true believer in Maker’s Mark. Unlike some others,
Maker’s Mark does not use a pressure cooker to cook their grains. From their
perspective, this slower cooking method makes for a better-tasting bourbon. And
they were confident enough to taste us on the Maker’s Mark against several of
their competitors. But since that was at the end of our tour, I’ll come back to
that in a bit.
As at Buffalo Trace, our first stop at Maker’s Mark was the
bottling line. We can confirm that those bottles are hand-dipped in wax for the
famous Maker’s Mark seal. The old-time feel continues with their label-making,
where Maker’s Mark uses a press that’s about 80 years old; that’s a replacement
unit, and was actually bought on ebay.
Dave presented the tasting like it was a combination science
and math class. We discussed how the different types of wood influence flavors,
the characteristics of the different grains used in the mash bill (by law,
Bourbon must be at least 51% corn), the impact of charring and toasting the
barrels, and how the bourbon ages within the warehouses. And Dave used a flip
chart to illustrate his points. Dave also showed us a cut-away of a barrel used
to age the Maker’s Mark 46. It gains its additional flavors from the use of
seared French oak staves inside the barrel. With all that education, we were
more than ready to taste the whiskies in front of us.
We were presented with eight different whiskies: Maker’s
Mark Under Aged, Maker’s Mark Fully Matured, Maker’s Mark Over Aged and Maker’s
Mark 46, plus Bulleit Bourbon, Crown Royal, Jack Daniel’s, and Woodford
Reserve. It was great to have the opportunity to see, smell and taste these
competing products on a side-by-side basis. Generally speaking, the sweet corn
notes hit the front part of your tongue, and the rye gets to the back. And
since Maker’s Mark provided us water and crackers, we were able to cleanse our
palates and fully appreciate the differences in the whiskies.
Although our heads were stuffed with information, we were
still alert enough to handle our personal bottle dipping exercise. The gift
shop is the end of the tour at Maker’s Mark, just like it is at so many places.
But Maker’s Mark keeps a tub of hot wax ready for anyone who picks up a bottle,
as we did. We all got to hand-dip our own 375ml bottles of Maker’s
Mark. I don’t really want to open mine, so I have it on display with my
industry collection.
Our work day was now complete, and we headed back to Louisville
New to our shelves in Lawrenceville and Woodbridge is Julia James Pinot Noir!
This June 18th marks what would have been Robert Mondavi’s 100th birthday; he passed away in 2008 at the age of 94. It’s been almost six years and we are still commemorating the man who is best known as the Father of American Wine. His life story reads better than an epic novel rife with risk-taking, vision and of course family drama. Born in Virginia, Minnesota to Italian immigrant parents, Cesare and Rosa, wine was always part of life for Mondavi. The family moved to California where Robert later attended high school in Lodi and eventually Stanford University. In 1943, his parents, after much urging from Robert, purchased Charles Krug Winery in Napa and Robert joined the enterprise along with his brother Peter. The drama began in 1965 when Mondavi was ‘fired’ from the winery over major disagreements about winemaking direction and vision. Shortly after his dismissal, Robert purchased his own winery in Oakville with the specific goal of making world-class wines that could compete with anything in Europe.
While this weekend may be a bust as Tropical Storm Andrea hits us with heavy rains, the summer weather is fast-approaching! Grills are being scraped for 2102 -- it's barbeque season! What's for dinner?