Some mighty nice folks at the Makers Mark distillery. If you're ever in the area, drop by.
L
Posted on 06/09/2007 6:56:38 AM PDT by RKV
Later this year, an Evansville man hopes Kentucky's finest amber export will win gold for him at national film festivals. Tom Fischer says his documentary film on bourbon is nearly finished and he hopes to enter it in a number of film festivals this summer and fall around the country.
His travels for the film centered on the bourbon distilleries and festivals of central and western Kentucky. "We joked that we did this just to get free samples." Fischer says he originally went to Bardstown, Kentucky to do a podcast for his site, Tripodder.com, but soon found what he calls "American stories" about the people with a passion for making Kentucky's famous alcoholic beverage. "Bourbon is more than just a product. It's a spirit that brings people together."
Good bourbon can take a decade or more to make, but Fischer says it's only taken him about a year and a half of traveling around the country working on the film project. While most of the time was spent in Kentucky, the film locations included such places as Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Fischer says bourbon is making a comeback as a popular drink among younger adults. The annual festivals at the various distilleries feature a number of products you might not expect, such as bourbon syrup, which Fischer says is very popular in Japan.
What amazed the filmmaker most is the easy access that anyone has to the people he calls, "bourbon royalty". Fischer says at any of the festivals you can walk right up and talk with people like Wild Turkey master distiller Jimmy Russell. "It was amazing to me that we could drive two and a half hours and see what the rest of the world drinks every day." He says the documentary has taken on a life of its own. As the project has become more widely known, Fischer says he's had musicians contact him to write special songs for it. One of those is a tune called "Burn the Barrel" by Owensboro musician Rick Miller, in reference to the charred wooden barrels used by distillers to get better bourbon flavor.
The documentary includes Fischer as host and producer. He says Timothy Paul Taylor of Evansville is the principal videographer, with some help in Kentucky from videographer Chris Baggs of Louisville.
Here's the link to the preview http://www.stomfischer.com/tripodder/videoplayer.asp?movie=tribourbonvcast.wmv&item_id=82
Some mighty nice folks at the Makers Mark distillery. If you're ever in the area, drop by.
L
Sometimes in the morning you can smell the distilleries. Interesting. Lot better than the paper mills in Savannah when I was a kid.
Yeah, the tour at Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center is nice. The tasting is fun. We go everytime someone comes to visit. The whisky/bourbon heritage of this area is quite interesting.
Bourbon is whisky but whisky is not bourbon.
It dates all the way back to the Whiskey Rebellion IIRC. The distillers moved into that region to avoid paying the Federal excise taxes on distilled spirits.
Happy circumstance let those tax dodgers find some of the finest spring water on the planet. And we are all richer for that.
L
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Gee, where does that leave us single malt drinkers? (I will admit that bourbon does taste like scotch...after adding sugar to the scotch)
My personal guzzle is Wild Turkey 101, straight up. Sip that sucker gently or pay the price. Puts jut a bit of h2o into the mix, and cools slightly.
I used to drink Laphroaig. But since the Kennedy fortune was based on scotch whiskey (among other ventures) I swore off it.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/kennedys/filmmore/ps_background.html
I didn’t like bourbon for a long time. Then somebody handed me a Maker’s Mark, I like bourbon now.
Thank you so much for jogging some very pleasant memories of my grandfather. I haven't thought about that kindly old man in a while and your mention of WT brought back some thoughts of him on his front porch with 'two fingers and one cube' in his rocks glass.
L
I know it's not Bourbon, but at the time I didn't. Now I know better.
Some nights I like a good single malt Scotch and others it's a short splash of Bourbon paired with a nice cigar.
L
The best sipping bourbon whiskey, IMHO.
Rebel Yell is good...so is Wild Turkey.
and,...if you should have a decent cigar as well, well, THAT would be lovely.
I used to live a couple of miles down the KY River from the Wild Turkey distillery, sometimes I could smell the mash. I like bourbon except for the fact that it makes a person smell like bourbon. My favorite was Woodford Reserve, which was up the hill a ways from me. That was the quality to be sipped and savored. Cheap bourbon is good for barbecue sauce and ribs.
Just say when and where...I’ll bring the Arturo fuentes and the Talisker...
Woodford Reserve is great whiskey, and no doubt. It’s the “call” brand at Casa RKV. Normally though, its WT101. Mainly because of the near $15 a bottle price difference.
Last time I drank Jack in the Black like that, I was about Bluto’s age. That said, if I’d continued in that mode, I’d a died, just like he did. WT101 is widely available, just like Jack, and I like it better. To each his own.
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