Bourbon Legends Evening of Tasting

Bourbon Legends Boxcar!  That's my passport for a local evening of learning about and tasting Bourbons.  Kentucky is Bourbon country, but a temporary Bourbon Trail was set up in downtown Columbus about a month ago.  While the event was free, you did need to register ahead of time and wait for your confirmation of what time to attend.  

A quick walk through a Boxcar gives you some general information regarding how Bourbon is made, as well as history of it during the dark times (prohibition).

Bourbons represented here were:
Maker's Mark
Knob Creek
Jim Beam
and my personal favorite, Basil Hayden's.

Prior to the event I had not tasted Knob Creek or Jim Beam's Bourbon.  Jim Beam was a surprise to me, not because I hadn't heard of it, but because it's quite smooth and tasted better than I anticipated.  I had had it in mixed drinks, but don't believe I had tried it straight.  Since they started aging their bourbon in 1795, it has grown to become the number one bourbon in the world.  7 generations of the family has continued making the bourbon.  It was shut down for 13 years due to Prohibition.  **The photo was a real Edith Ann, the chair really was that big and we had to climb into it!**

Neither hubby or I enjoyed Knob Creek, we thought it seemed quite harsh.  When Prohibition ended in 1933, may distillers tried to cut corners to get their production going as quickly as possible.  One way to do that was to not age the barrels, Knob Creek took the long proven way and has a very full bodied flavor as a result.

Makers Mark is made with soft winter wheat instead of the usual Rye which makes it a very smooth, and to my palette far sweeter bourbon.  The red dipped bottle is their signature.  

Basil Hayden's is a high-rye mash which combines the sweetness of the corn with the spicy undertones of rye.  It's a bit more pricey than the others mentioned above, but when I'm just sipping........I want Basil Hayden's.  When I'm having a Manhattan..I can enjoy less costly Bourbon's.

They had these 2 staged areas where you could get your photo taken (also free, after scanning the front inside of your passport which had our number.  Later with that number we could obtain our photo's on line referencing our number.  Quite an efficient system.

As this is a very cleaver way to market, check to see if your area has one scheduled.  Nice intro to doing the Bourbon Trail.......which is on our list of things to do in the future.

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