Kentucky: Day 5 - Four Roses

Yesterday was a barn burner from beginning to end, as we packed in three appointments across three cities, moving south to Loretto and back through Coxs Creek, before finishing in Louisville on a nonstop single barrel collision course. The best compliment I can receive during these tastings is: “Wow, that was so much easier than usual.” I pride myself on being considerate, polite, engaged, and business-focused when selecting barrels. There’s no bravado. No prodding for older samples, or extra allocations. There’s no sloppy behavior (you’d be surprised how many retailers get shitfaced and make a scene during these trips). We get our work done and we let these fine people get on with their day. It’s the reason we keep getting invited back to do this again and again. It’s the reason we’re going to get two Four Roses barrels this year, while everyone else gets one.

Waiting for us in the selection room was my old friend Mandy, who started at Four Roses the same year I made my first trip out to select barrels roughly ten years ago. We had a great time catching up and we started the ten barrel sampling blind, tasting through each whiskey before looking at the specs.

We had already selected our first single barrel through a sample pack mailed out to us earlier in the year, but for our second barrel we picked an 11 year 6 month old OBSF from everyone’s favorite fourth tier. Look for this fantastic cask as the months roll on. It had a beautiful balance of vanilla and spice with a richness that stood out from the 8, 9, and 10 year old barrel samples also in play. It’s nice to see casks of this age back in the mix regularly.

Back in Louisville, we had a dinner appointment with Andy from Jim Beam to talk Knob Creek at the newly-established North of Bourbon, one of the hottest and most-talked-about restaurants in Louisville right now. Everywhere we went, people asked us where we had eaten, were eating, or planned on eating later in the week. North of Bourbon was on everybody’s list.

The booths at North of Bourbon are actually shaped like hollowed-out barrels, giving each table not only a thematic element, but also an intimacy that allows for great conversation. Vic said: “This is definitely where you bring a date in Louisville.”

I was blown away by the intricate flavors of the New Orleans-inspired cuisine, from the boiled peanuts we had as an appetizer, to the julienned squash Caesar salad, to the pan-fried trout topped with caviar and served over a pork broth with vegetables. Owner Greg Jennings sat with us for a good half hour, talking food, Bourbon, business, and life, tasting through some of the whiskies on the table and doling out pours of new arrivals. We finished with a glass of Beam’s new Hardin’s Creek releases, both the 15 year and the 2 year side by side, then called it a night. I can’t wait to come back here.

-David Driscoll

Kentucky: Day 5 - Maker's Mark

Since we’ve been talking about the evolution of Kentucky’s Bourbon tourism over the last few years, and the adjustments from distilleries like Heaven Hill and Angel’s Envy to give the die-hard consumers what they want, let’s talk about the evolution of Maker’s Mark distillery. The Loretto facility started by Bill Samuels in the 1950s (when he purchased the Burks’ distillery for $35,000) has gone from a quaint and simplistic singularity to a full out Napa-esque nature campus, complete with million dollar art installations, animal pastures, multiple vegetable gardens, mushroom farm, bee keeping, grain fields, two lakes, an apple grove, a blackberry patch, and a fantastic restaurant called Star Hill Provisions. In fact, we should probably stop calling it Maker’s Mark distillery at this point. When you visit the estate in Loretto, you’re now visiting Star Hill Farm.

It’s an incredible juxtaposition to see a giant gang of bikers—wearing Harley T-Shirts and leather, and who are clearly Maker’s Mark superfans—meander their way from a raucous Bourbon tasting into a quiet, farm-to-table restaurant with an emphasis on sustainable and local ingredients, but that’s the direction Kentucky’s Bourbon distilleries are headed. Not that I have any issue with the gentrification of Bourbon, mind you. I’m quite comfortable sitting back and watching capitalism take its course at this point, especially given that thousands of collectors have taken that capitalism into their own hands. It’s certainly much more enjoyable to have a delicious three course lunch from Star Hill Provisions before creating my Maker’s Private Selection than hang out in a stale board room and taste barrel samples. Couple it with the fact that the weather during every single visit I’ve ever made to Maker’s Mark has been nothing short of spectacular, and I will tell you flat out: there’s no distillery I look forward to visiting more than this one. It’s like a Bourbon Disneyland and I soak up every bit of that energy.

What other distillery can serve you a starter of fresh gazpacho sourced entirely from the gardens just next door to the restaurant?

Which other Kentucky producer keeps a herd of Wagyu cattle on hand for the explicit purpose of serving the most flavorful steaks to its guests? No one. You’ll never eat as well at any other stop on the Bourbon Trail as you will when you visit Maker’s Mark.

You’ll also find no better accommodations for a barrel selection than the clubhouse for trade and VIP guests situated next to Heritage Lake with a spectacular view of the water and a retracting door that opens onto a private deck. Ryan Paris drove us up to the lodge in an electric golf cart of sorts, meandering through the warehouses along the way, stopping to pop open a few 7+ year old single barrels in the process. We needed a control whiskey to compare against our Private Select creations.

I won’t bore you with the details of our tasting and blending session, but let’s just say that we ended up calling this barrel “American Dessert” because our goal was to design a whiskey that tasted like fruit cobbler and vanilla ice cream. We certainly did it. Look for that little number later in the year. In the meantime, get ready for a new five star bed and breakfast, along with a rooftop bar and cocktail lounge at Loretto’s Star Hill Farm. The evolution of Maker’s Mark from charming country distillery into upscale Bourbon resort and tourist destination is just getting started.

-David Driscoll

Kentucky: Day 4 - Heaven Hill in Bardstown

There’s not much to tell you about Heaven Hill that Bourbon drinkers don’t already know, but for those who have never been to Kentucky: Heaven Hill’s distillery is not at their Bardstown facility because it burnt down in 1996 and the company made a deal with UD to buy the Bernheim distillery in Louisville. Nevertheless, their warehouses are still in Bardstown, as is their visitor’s center, and they’ll be opening a new distillery on site in 2024 called the Heaven Hill Springs Distillery, bringing production back to their base. We’ve been traveling with some of the Heaven Hill team this week, including my good friend Conor O’Driscoll, so for this experience we were a larger group.

Like a number of distilleries now (particularly in Scotland), Heaven Hill has incorporated a fill-your-own bottle program as part of a massive overhaul to its visitor’s center program. For all the geeks out there that have been begging for things like cask strength Bernheim wheat whiskey and limited edition 14 year old casks like the Heaven Hill Select Stock, they’ve listened. They’re available as part of certain paid tours, but you’ll have to scan your ID when you buy one so they can make sure you’re not milking the system. There’s a strict one bottle limit per person and they keep a record of who bought what. Sound familiar?

Believe me when I say that Kentucky is well aware of the sea change in consumer tastes and desires over the last decade and they’re making serious adjustments based on what the newer generations want.

That being said, let me warn you about what you wish for. Even the core distilleries in Kentucky, those with an old-fashioned dedication to inexpensive wholesale costs, are slowly starting to abandon their historically-low MSRPs. They’re through giving that money away to secondary market flippers when they could be making it themselves. Case in point? The fact that Heaven Hill has decided to put its rarest and most coveted bottles in its brand new tasting bar, rather than for sale in the gift shop. Why make a few hundred bucks on a bottle of Heaven Hill 17 year when you could make a few thousand offering it for $120 an ounce? The former situation benefits collectors who may never open the bottle, while the latter puts liquid to lips. It’s a win-win for Heaven Hill.

Why are distilleries like Heaven Hill making these changes? “Because of bottle flippers,” said our Heaven Hill guide; “No other reason.” It’s also why the 14 year old Select Barrel will run you $200 while the 12 year old Elijah Barrel costs $60. Now that distilleries are getting a taste of what it’s like to be a retailer, they’re making similar adjustments to their strategy.

Heaven Hill is also listening to what specialty retailers want from its barrel program in the form of a cask strength option and more control over the details. We were not only able to choose the age of our barrel, but also the warehouse location and the actual warehouse! How cool is that?! We’re also going to be the very first American retail to debut a new Heaven Hill single barrel option, but more on that later. I was really impressed with the warehouse team at Heaven Hill and the level of preparation that went into our experience, not to mention the data and specs on each available cask. They were prepared for any possible question we threw at them, and they were excited to share as much information as possible.

Heaven Hill has also invested a serious amount of coin into their new tasting warehouse and it was well worth it. Getting to choose our barrel in this environment was one of the coolest things we did on this trip, which highlighted the improvements they’ve made to their visitor center, not to mention their schwag in the gift shop (Mellow Corn vintage T-shirts!!). We had the SoCal team from Southern Wine & Spirits (Heaven Hill’s CA distributor) join us for the barrel selection process so they could speak to its awesomeness when they return to the market later this week.

A big thank you to Heaven Hill for their access, transparency, and generosity. I’m so excited about what we’ll be offering Mission customers moving forward.

-David Driscoll

Kentucky: Day 3 - Angel's Envy

Like I said before, downtown Louisville has been evolving rapidly over the last few years. When I was here back in 2017, I was only able to visit Angel’s Envy distillery because my friend Conor O’Driscoll, their distiller at the time, was able to sneak me in the side door for a quick ten minute viewing (no photos allowed). Today, however, it’s a bustling tourist attraction with a healthy gift shop and tours galore, open to everyone who wants to visit. Not only that, it’s only a few blocks west of the AC Marriott, so you can easily walk if you’re staying in Nulu.

What’s even more exciting is this: Mission is the very first retailer in America to be invited to select a barrel onsite at the distillery. We did the first ever tour and barrel tasting with Deja, Angel, and Melissa from the Bacardi team, and—more importantly—we were told that all of the barrels from the sampling were overwhelmingly likely to be whiskey from Angel’s Envy distillery itself, not the purchased juice the brand survived on for its initial years. We were able to taste a five year old Angel’s Envy Bourbon with no port maturation as a control for our barrel tasting, so can you guess what we did?

Vic and I searched around for the Port cask with the least amount of influence, rather than the richest, most dessert-y expression. Knowing that we were going to get a barrel from the new distillate, we wanted to give our customers the chance to taste the whiskey itself in as pure of a state as possible. There was an incredible specimen that lived up to the hedonistic and supple delight that is Angel’s Envy at full proof, brimming with candied fruit and dark chocolate flavors. However, we chose the one that tasted the most like Bourbon and the least like Port.

And let me tell you: the new Angel’s Envy-distilled Bourbon is GOOD. We’re excited to be the first store in America to bring you back a barrel directly from the distillery.

And later that night at dinner, I got to hang out with my old friend (and distant family member) Conor O’Driscoll, who likely distilled that Angel’s Envy barrel before becoming the master distiller at Heaven Hill. We had dinner together at Jason Brauner’s Bourbons Bistro, then made our way down Frankfort Street into the lightning storm and the sunset.

-David Driscoll

Kentucky: Day 3 - New Riff

For some drinkers, the difference between Kentucky Bourbon and Indiana Bourbon is massive. One is the classic name they know, reminiscent of all the romance they read about in the Bourbon marketing materials. The other reminds them of Hoosiers basketball and Larry Bird, not so much whiskey.

Here’s what’s funny to me: MGP distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana is the producer of countless contract brands over the last decade-plus. Yet, despite the seismic difference in the way people think about Kentucky and Indiana, MGP sits along the literal state line of not just Kentucky and Indiana, but also Ohio. It’s basically a Cincinnati suburb that happens to be in Indiana. It’s just fifteen miles west of the Cincinnati airport (which is actually in Kentucky). From where I sit, it’s almost more Cincinnati than it is Kentucky or Indiana!

New Riff, perhaps my personal favorite distillery in Kentucky right now, gets all the love from the traditional Bourbon crowd because it’s a classic bottled-in-bond Bourbon, made in Kentucky, that sells delicious Kentucky Bourbon for a great price. Yet, for all intents and purposes, it’s an urban distillery that sits on the direct border of downtown Cinncinati, Ohio; a literal five minute drive from the Reds baseball stadium along the river.

You might think of rolling green hills, lush forests, and the bucolic serenity of rural Kentucky when you think of Bourbon, but the God’s honest truth is that most of the Bourbon you like to drink is made in urban Louisville, jutted up against the edge of the northern border with Indiana. Brown-Forman and Heaven Hill’s distilleries are about two miles south of the state line, while Angel’s Envy, Rabbit Hole, and Peerless are less than a half mile from Indiana territory. What all of these distilleries have in common is the Ohio River, which is what separates Indiana from Kentucky, and Kentucky from Ohio, yet unites these producers under one umbrella. Take away the government-issued distinctions, and we’re talking about meters of difference geographically.

But what about the limestone water that makes Kentucky Bourbon so distinctive, you ask? Depending on who you talk to, it would appear that some of the urban distilleries in Louisville proper rely on local municipal water for their production, rather than mineral-rich well water filtered through Kentucky’s natural limestone springs. New Riff, on the other hand (through sheer luck), happens to have highly-mineral, Kentucky limestone-filtered water from a well right under its parking lot, which runs off the final hillside you come over on the I-71, revealing the Cincinnati skyline as you descend down the freeway.

If you know the story of New Riff and its origins in retail, then you know that Ken Lewis built the Party Source just across the river from Cincinnati, on the Kentucky side of the border, because Ohio has state-controlled liquor. It’s located in Kentucky, but 90% of its clientele is coming from Cincinnati. While Ken no longer owns the Party Source, New Riff Distillery is located in its parking lot because Ken still owns that land. Fortuitously, that lot had access to the aforementioned limestone water source that goes into all of New Riff’s cooks and fermentations. Co-founder Jay Erisman believes it’s a big reason why New Riff’s whiskies taste so good in their youth.

So what were we doing in downtown Cincinnati today, then just across the river from Cincinnati at the New Riff barrel house? Selecting single barrels of New Riff Bourbon, of course! As we were driving up from Louisville this morning, Vic asked me what made New Riff my favorite distillery in Kentucky right now. “Because they make Kentucky whiskey on a traditional multi-story column still just like all the big boys—none of that pot-column hybrid stuff—and they age their whiskies in an old fashioned rickhouse, no different from the classic distillers we know and love,” I responded; “It’s exciting to have new blood in the game.”

For those who may be confused, in no way is New Riff a craft producer, or micro-distillery making some whiskey alternative. They’re simply a smaller version of everything we already enjoy. Their whiskey is honest and distinctive. Their vision is humble and community-driven. Their production is time-tested. As their company motto states, it’s simply a new riff on an old tradition.

Sitting down with Mollie, Jay, and Ken today—our industry partners of almost two years now at Mission—and selecting single barrels for the first time in person was a real treat and four hours wasn’t nearly enough time to soak it all in. Jay is a real historian of Cincinnati’s whiskey history and there’s a lot of info he shared with me that I want to feature on a future post. Needless to say, I had no idea of New Riff’s proximity to Cincinnati, a city I visited today for the first time. In the grand scheme of things, only a river separates MGP from Kentucky, Angel’s Envy from Indiana, and New Riff from Ohio. Maybe we shouldn’t get too bent of shape about the state’s distinction on our whiskey labels.

-David Driscoll

Kentucky: Day 2 - Jefferson's

Here’s what I can tell you about Jefferson’s that will intrigue you.

When you go to the Kentucky Artisan Distillers site, there’s a tour of the distillery and the bottling line where many brands (not just Jefferson’s) are dumped, vatted, and put into glass. The Pinhook Vertical Series 7 year old was being bottled as we walked through the facility and there was some Cream of Kentucky lined up as well. While the Jefferson’s distillery has a pot and column hybrid like some of the other small Kentucky producers, none of that juice has been bottled for public consumption under the Jefferson’s label. That detail will be relevant as we get to the barrel tasting.

Before tasting through the available single barrels, I asked Jefferson’s Chief Barrel Officer Dan Burke if we could walk through the warehouse where the barrels are matured to get a sense of their operation. We hiked through the lush green trees that separate the tasting room from the rickhouses and proceeded to tour the buildings. This is where things get interesting if you’re someone who likes to know where your whiskies come from.

I didn’t ask permission to share the information I gleaned from walking through the warehouse, so I won’t be posting any specifics here. What I will say is that a great number of the barrels from the Jefferson’s rickhouses have tags on them. Those tags also designate which brands own which barrels, so you can easily tell which barrels are owned by Jefferson’s specifically and which are being stored for other brands. Based on the tags I saw under the Jefferson’s lot, I couldn’t wait to head back into the tasting room for our single barrel sampling.

While the Jefferson’s Reserve is a marriage of four different Bourbons, the single barrel selections (bottled at 100 proof) are taken from a single distillery. According to Dan, one particular distillery makes up 65% of the Jefferson’s Reserve Blend with the other 3 comprising the remaining 35%. All of the single barrels Jefferson’s allocates to retailers come from that 65%. I can’t say for certain what that majority Bourbon is because it’s a proprietary secret. All I can do is deduce from what I saw in the rickhouse based on which distillery made up the lion’s share of casks.

Even if I’m wrong with that educated guess, the barrels I saw came from the best distilleries in Kentucky. The barrel we picked was more than six years of age and it wasn’t distilled in Indiana, so you can narrow it down from there.

-David Driscoll

Kentucky: Day 1 - Market Street

It’s been over five years since I’ve stayed at the AC Marriott in the East Market District of Louisville (also known as Nulu), and that was an in-and-out overnighter to pick out a few barrels and get back to California quickly—no real time to explore. I was emailing with a friend from Heaven Hill before arriving and he wrote to me:

“Louisville has changed a lot, and almost every night there are retailers, buyers, restaurant groups, whiskey societies—you name it—all selecting barrels on the Bourbon Trail.”

I could see it immediately from the Bourbon-focused boutique stores (not just the bottles, but clothing, books, lifestyle, etc) to the array of new bars and restaurants lining Market Street as you head east out to Butchertown. Nulu is bustling, even on a lazy summer Sunday evening, and it’s infused with an energy that far surpasses the early rumblings I saw almost a decade ago (when I probably should have bought a house in the neighborhood).

One of the new spots I was most excited to immediately try was Feast BBQ, a heralded location for everything non-vegan. It’s been open since the beginning of 2015, but I missed it on my last trip to Louisville and I made a beeline from the hotel to the front door as soon as we dropped our bags. Bourbon slushies with Jim Beam and ginger ale to start.

Since there were two of us, we broke it down into two plates and shared: brisket, pulled pork, collard greens, potato salad, mac and cheese, beans, cole slaw, white bread and pickles.

I honestly can’t tell you which side and which meat I enjoyed more. Obviously brisket is something we don’t see much of in Los Angeles (at least of this style and quality), so that was a treat, but I think the mac and cheese might have been the most impressive thing on the table—and I’m not even a mac and cheese person.

After dinner, we walked a block over to the Taj Bar and were instantly greeted by two labradoodles who were keen to lick our faces and jump up on our chests. After getting past the welcoming committee, we pulled up a stool at the bar and began chatting with the litany of dog enthusiasts lining the counter.

This is one half of the back bar at Taj, so there’s a great selection of Bourbon and rye waiting for you as you pick your poison. We opted for Old Forester 1920 and Heaven Hill Bonded as we chatted with everyone inside.

From there we wandered over to La Bodeguita de Mima, a 1950s Cuban-themed restaurant and rum bar that also sells cigars (and has a second Venezuelan spot in the back called Señora Arepa). It’s literally next door to the Marriott and that window to the right of the front is actually my room.

I’ve never seen anything this thematically wonderful in Louisville before and this is just one of the many rooms inside what is essentially an old house with stairs and various dining rooms of splendor. Imagine a bigger, brighter, more lively version of La Descarga in LA. We drank a glass of rum before bed, pondered the idea of a cigar, but decided to play it safe and get some rest for the days ahead.

-David Driscoll

Your Experience Vs. Mine

When I mentioned to a few friends that I was flying with Spirit Airlines directly from LAX to Louisville today, most of them grimaced and shuddered. 

“Have you ever flown on Spirit before?” one of them asked with a frown. “I’d take a connection with United over a direct flight with Spirit, even with the delay.”

I ignored it.

Then, after posting a quick photo of the terminal on social media this morning, and mentioning the rarity of a direct flight from California to Louisville, more people piled on. 

“If you actually get there,” one person commented on our Mission Facebook site; “It is Spirit Airlines, after all.”

“Hold on to your seat,” another friend messaged to me via Instagram.

“You guys are flying Spirit? Don’t you know?” sniped another.

Given the pandemic and the fact that just about every airline right now has its own horror stories, I was surprised that so many people had strong, vehement views about any particular company.

But do you know what happened? My flight took off on time. My seat was comfortable. The service was polite and professional. The ride was smooth. The cabin was quiet. The passengers were courteous. We landed earlier than expected. My luggage was in the baggage claim when I arrived. Zero complaints. Nothing but positive things to say.

Based on my single experience with Spirit Airlines, I would gladly fly with them again if today’s trip is representative of what I can expect moving forward. But, having only this one voyage to base my opinion on, clearly I’m not the best person to ask about the track record of the company. It worked out for me, but maybe not for others.

And that brings me to my point.

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard a whiskey drinker, either online or at an event, make a definitive statement of quality about a brand or a batch of bottles after a single sip (or one 50ml sent to him in the mail), I’d be rich by now. 

Simultaneously, even when someone does have multiple takes with a whiskey brand, and proceeds to poo poo that label as a result of their own personal experience, it doesn’t necessarily mean you and I are going to feel the same way or encounter those same negativities.

Yet, if I had a dime for every time someone told me they’d shied away from a particular bottle or brand due to negative reviews online or from a friend, I’d—again—be a very wealthy man. 

You can’t always rely on the experience of other people.

If I had relied solely on the advice of friends and strangers, and avoided the direct flight to Louisville in lieu of a “better” airline, I’d be sitting in Detroit or Chicago right now, praying that my connecting flight wasn’t delayed or canceled due to the sheer chaos that is air travel at the moment. My luggage could be lost during the transfer. I might be waiting even longer due to weather issues in other parts of the country. 

Instead, I’m at the Marriott in downtown Louisville getting ready to have my first cocktail of the evening and deciding what I want to eat for dinner. I’m elated! It’s a balmy 84 degrees and I have additional hours to spend exploring the delights along Market Street while the sun is still shining.

Again, that’s not to say that the experiences of my friends and colleagues with Spirit Airlines are exaggerated or untrue, it’s just that they didn’t mirror my personal experience. Just like it’s possible to have bad service at a restaurant, or a rude bartender at the cantina on any given evening. That doesn’t mean someone else will encounter the same hostility.

And I can say the exact same thing about hundreds of wines and whiskies I’ve tried over the course of my career. Back in the day, I used to take great pleasure in finding fantastic casks from the least popular distilleries just to prove this point. My old boss used to do the same with “bad” vintages of Bordeaux. One time we had lunch with Frederic Engerer from Château Latour and he only poured wines from the worst vintages (all of which were incredible, of course) to teach us the same lesson.

If you’re willing to go out on a limb, life will often surprise you. In the case of Spirit Airlines, I’m certainly glad I gave it a chance. My personal experience was superb and I would take the direct flight from LAX over and over again if it’s this smooth in the future.

We’ll see about the way back!

-David Driscoll