There isn’t much about 2020 that isn’t downright terrible. But I’m thrilled to finally be able to report some good news: liquor companies are releasing a wide variety of special whiskies this fall, including bourbons, ryes and single malts. Pick up these limited-editions bottlings before they disappear. Beam Suntory for one has just released a number of noteworthy special editions. Laphroaig has already started selling its annual Cairdeas bottling ($100) and this time it’s been aged in port and wine casks. The regularly scheduled releases of Booker’s Bourbon were interrupted after the release of #2020-02, the “Boston Batch,” in April ($90). […]
Bourbon whiskey
10 posts
Innovation has been a hallmark of Jefferson’s Bourbon from its very beginning. When Trey Zoeller and his father founded the brand 23 years ago, they were focused on understanding how far they could push the boundaries of bourbon. Zoeller first experimented with blending finished bourbons he bought from other distillers. “Nobody was blending bourbon at the time,” he says. “That was kind of the first realm of taking it outside of the traditional ways of maturing and bottling bourbon.” It wasn’t until a decade or so later, while sharing a drink with a friend aboard an Ocearch shark tagging research vessel, […]
Since people first started making bourbon, arguably the easiest part of the whole production process has been selecting the type of barrel used for aging the whiskey. As decreed by the United States Congress in 1954, bourbon must be aged in a new, charred American oak container. Most distillers opt for the standard 53-gallon American white oak barrel, add their spirit to it and, after a few years, bottle the whiskey. However, as Jefferson’s Bourbon founder Trey Zoeller discovered not long after launching the brand with his father in 1997, sticking only to this traditional aging method doesn’t allow for much […]
When Trey Zoeller founded Jefferson’s Bourbon with his father in 1997, he knew it was time to try something new. There were only eight bourbon distilleries operating in Kentucky at the time—10 total in the U.S.—and the industry was looking for a way to pull itself out of a nearly 30-year decline. To Zoeller, the way forward wasn’t found in the spirit’s history but in its future. “I like to say that we push the boundaries of what bourbon is without bastardizing it,” says Zoeller, whose 8th generation grandmother was a moonshiner. “When you find something that’s really remarkable and different, […]
American whiskey makers must have been feeling good in 1970. After suffering through Prohibition and a shutdown for World War II, they were finally back on track, boasting record sales that year. Little did they know the next 30 years would be one hell of ride…straight down. The year 2000 offered a glimmer of hope that whiskey wasn’t completely doomed; a new generation of drinkers who wanted more than just vodka was on the rise. Sales slowly began to grow, but were still overshadowed by sweet cordials and liqueurs. So it was a bit baffling when, 13 years ago, Congress unanimously […]
If there was ever a time to have a glass of bourbon, now is it. Back in 2007, Congress passed a resolution declaring September National Bourbon Heritage Month. On this episode of the award-winning podcast Life Behind Bars, co-hosts David Wondrich and Noah Rothbaum are joined by Trey Zoeller, founder of Jefferson’s Bourbon, to talk about why the month-long holiday was created and how to properly celebrate it. So fix yourself a glass of bourbon and listen to this episode of Life Behind Bars. Cheers! Life Behind Bars features Half Full’s editor Noah Rothbaum and its Senior Drinks Columnist David Wondrich […]
Of the many things we’ve (temporarily) lost thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, late nights at the local bar are one of the most dearly missed—unless, of course, you’re a knucklehead in Florida, Texas, Arizona, Georgia or California who continues to visit watering holes without wearing a mask or practicing social distancing, personal and public safety be damned. For those responsible Americans pining for the beloved and time-honored ritual of staying out until the wee hours of the morning downing beers or cocktails, Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets has arrived to provide a vicarious approximation of that experience—and, in the process, to pay […]
Thirty years ago, the landscape of American whiskey was, by today’s high standards, practically unrecognizable. For better or worse, vodka dominated the spirits industry and Long Island Iced Tea and the Cosmopolitan were the drinks of the day. “In the late ’80s, bourbon wasn’t very cool,” admits Tim Heuisler, American whiskey ambassador for Beam Suntory. Distillers were facing a very grim future with a number of brands on the verge of going out of business. But, thankfully, in rural Kentucky, out of the ashes, the rebirth of American whiskey began to take shape. It was Jim Beam’s sixth-generation distiller Booker Noe […]
When Nicole Austin began tasting whiskies to create this year’s George Dickel Bottled-in-Bond release, she found the process a bit more daunting than usual. Her team pulled samples from every barrel in the warehouse with enough age, and after months of tasting, she landed on a group of whiskies that were all distilled in the fall of 2008. But the challenge was not the sheer variety of whiskies she had to taste through or that she needed to find multiple exceptional barrels from a single distillation season for it to qualify for the federal designation of bottled-in-bond. What made the process […]
One of life’s greatest pleasures is sitting at a bar and enjoying a well-made drink while chatting with the bartender. But with the recent outbreak of Covid-19 and the resulting stay-at-home orders, bars have had to close across the country laying off hundreds of thousands of employees. Diageo North America and Bulleit Bourbon are trying to help bartenders with their #TipsFromHome initiative. They will donate $1 to the United States Bartenders’ Guild (USBG) Emergency Assistance Program, up to $1 million, for each image of a drink people post to Instagram, Twitter or Facebook featuring the hashtags #TipsFromHome and #DiageoDonation and tagging […]