We spent most of last week in Lexington, Kentucky celebrating
Thanksgiving with Julia’s sister and family. The trip involved a lot of
driving, eating, watching movies, and socializing.
It’s always fun for our kids to get together. This was the first year
that someone was missing (our daughter Allie who is studying in China).
Next year, Zach will be the only one still in high school. Anna and
Justin head for college.
I
managed to get in a few miles of walking each day–often back and forth
to Hartland Park, which has an interesting set of blacktop switchbacks
enabling local subdivision residents to get in some pedestrian exercise.
On Friday, my brothers-in-law and i headed to West Sixth Brewing,
where we sampled excellent beer. I had an East Coast Juicy IPA and a
special IPA from Firkin Thursday.
After finishing our beers, we walked outside and around the back to
Bluegrass Distillers, established in 2015. We all signed up for the
tour and tasting.
Because this distillery has been around for only a short time, it
seems unfair to compare their young bourbon to aged bourbon from other
Kentucky distilleries that I have tried. Also, my tasting expertise is
focused more on beer than bourbon. With that caveat, I thought that the
rye was quite nice despite the lack of aging. I didn’t particularly
care for the bourbon. It seemed pretty harsh to me, but I’ll have to
come back in a few years for a fair test.
The distillery employed a technique that I hadn’t heard of before to
speed up the aging process. The bourbon was aged in smaller 25 gallon
barrels with a deep char.
After an afternoon of fun, I was ready to head home for a nap. The
trip home on Sunday was uneventful except for some stop and go traffic
due to crashes. Just south of Madison, we almost ended up in a crash
when someone lost a ladder and dropped it in the middle of the driving
lane next to us in heavy traffic, creating a scurry among the vehicles
trying to avoid it. Thankfully, we made it home safely.
Comments