Renee Howe

In addition, as part of this bucolic getaway, you and your friends enjoy a privileged VIP bourbon tasting led by Bourbon Steward Adam Walpole as well as two crafted and curated dinners, one being in the Greenhouse, by Barn8 Executive Chef Alison Settle. Estimate: $750 Hand selected by Eternal Optimist Hospitality & Willett Master Distiller Drew Kulsveen, these are some of the earliest barrels to be filled with Willett’s own product: Willett Family Estate Bottled Single Barrel Bourbon – 7 Year, Barrel 44 Willett Family Estate Bottled Single Barrel Rye Whiskey – 6 Year, Barrel 233

Okay, so you know that thing where someone tells you that a particular whiskey will be the best whiskey you’ve ever had, and you get to try it, and then it turns out to be the best whiskey you’ve ever had? But listen, it took 50 years for this whiskey to make it’s way to me, the least I could do was to follow the one and only instruction this bourbon came with. This dram was pure candy on the nose and all my candy dreams on the palate. What I can say is, if you taste a whiskey and it transports you back to a time and place and makes you forget that you love Michter’s toasted barrel bourbon above all else…well dammit, that’s when you know you’ve had the best whiskey

Try saying that 3 times after a few drams of Henry McKenna single barrel BIB. Well, Bottled-in-Bond is a set of legal regulations contained in the United States government’s Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits, that was originally laid out in The Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897. Having BIB or Bonded on your labeled has garnered the attraction of some consumers as being an endorsement of quality, and during those tragic times when tobacco spit could be used as a colour enhancer…this was a very good thing. Henry Mckenna is a product of the Heaven Hill distillery in Bardstown KY (sidenote: saying KY in front of Barbara my fellow co-host on the Bourbon Bettys, will make her giggle like a school girl in health class).

To be fair I’ve had very few Islay whiskies, but the ones I’ve had…have done a great job in converting me. Whiskies made on the southeastern part of the Island have strong smokey characteristics derived from peat. From what I’m gathering, Ardbeg releases an annual whisky for  Ardbeg day on June 2nd. This year Grooves is to transport us back to the summer of love during the 60’s, saying they are rolling back the years to an Islay time gone by – back to village of Peat & Love.