Wednesday, December 31, 2008

MMVIII to MMIX

Well time to say to goodbye to 2008 and welcome 2009.

Top 5 good things about 2008:

1. 5 years of marriage to Shannon. Its gone by so fast, yet it seems like forever (in a good way)
2. The friendships I've developed over the past year: David, Tiny, the Fosters, Bowens & Gillettes
3. Grandma moving down to CA - its been great being able to see her regularly
4. Being "this close" to having school finished - FINALLY!
5. Buying an iPhone - find a place to grab a drink in SF has never been easier.

Top 10 plans for 2009:

1. Continue developing my relationship with Christ
2. Continue to learn to be a better husband (if that's possible - haha)
3. Get better at dealing with Money - I hate budgets and tracking my spending and all that garbage, but its something that must be done.
4. I want to start a business of some sort - I've talked about it for a long time, now its time to make it happen
5. Enjoy life more. Take day trips. Go to the city on weeknights.
6. Gain more knowledge of Whiskey, particularly Bourbon.
7. Start a weekly poker night and dive deeper into the fundamentals of poker. I can already play decently, but I haven't taken the time to learn pot odds, and all that crap.
8. Learn Photoshop for the Mac.
9. Get more tattoos.
10. And Finally - FINISH SCHOOL!!!!


And as a bonus - My top 5 highlights/lowlights of the music world in 2008:

1. M.I.A & Katy Perry - These ladies got everyone and their grandmothers singing along to songs about murder & stealing and being bi-curious
2. Lil Wayne - He proved that even a retarded person can have the best selling album of the year.
3. Kanye West & 50 Cent - Together they showed how ridicously egotistical rappers are, and that no one really gives a damn about them anymore
4. AC/DC - They further proved that they have done nothing but write weak copies of old songs for thelast 20 years, and yet people still buy it
5. Travis Barker & DJ AM - Together they proved that rockstars ,while not invincible, are immortal.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Taking Back The Crown

Santa Poker, the annual charity poker tournament that SCM puts on, was last night. After winning the tourney two years ago, and going bust first last year, I was ready to retake the crown. There was, of course, formiable opponents: The Gantt duo, The Schwaab duo, a number of people that had definitely improved over the past year, and I can't forget Shannon, who always places deep in the standings with these things... There was also rebuys this year. The initial $20 buy-in went to charity, and the buy-ins made up the prize pool. So people could play super agressive and still be able to buy back in if things didn't go their way.

Well, I made it to the final table with a cast of regulars: Shannon, Lori, Karen, Ron along with a few more. Play at the final table went on for well over an hour, slowly whittling off players, unti it was down to the final 2. Myself and Karen. I had a good chip lead, but after a hand that went her way, I was still up but not by the margin I wanted. We decided to call it a night, and split the prize money with my taking just a bit more. So next year I will be defending the title once again - hopefully things don't go as badly as they did last year!

Getting to the real focus of the night, with the tournament, and the Silent Auction that was part of the festivities for the first time, we were able to raise over $2000 for needy families in the area. It was a very sucessful night!

Today Shannon and I are just taking it easy, watching movies, cleaning the house and wrapping Christmas presents.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

V

Yesterday was Shannon and my fifth anniversary. Woo! On to year number 6. We took the day off work, did some Christmas shopping and then in the evening headed out to SF to see Phantom of the Opera. Despite the leg room being rather limited, it was really fun, however the understudy of the guy that plays the Phantom was the Phantom that day, and his performance was a little underwhelming. We had a blast though, then headed back to Pleasanton and grabbed a late night meal at Denny's, one of the places that Shannon and I got to know each other after Fuel so many years ago. Good times.

Today is the Charity Poker Tournament & Silent Auction... I've donated about $800 of liquor among other things to the auction, so hopefully we are able to drum up some good money for needy families.

On a sadder note, my grandma is back in the hospital - it looks like the cancer has returned... so anyone that reads this - please keep her in your prayers!

Friday, November 7, 2008

Jack's Mannequin & The City

Oh what fun last Sunday was...

Charlie had won tickets to go see a studio performance by Jack's Mannequin at the Live 105 studio, and then tickets to see them play Slim's later that night. He got two tickets, and I was lucky enough to be invited. Woo!

We headed out to the city to catch the studio performance - got their way too early so we had to stand around for about 45 minutes, but it was all good.

Once inside the studio - we realized how intimate (not like that sicko) the mini-concert was going to be. It was just us, 6 other contest winners, about 5 Live 105 people and the band. Pretty damn cool....

Here are a few pictures from it and a video of them covering MGMT's "Kids" (notice my head in the right corner)





After they played about 6 songs we headed off on a bar hopping adventure. First we hit the Rouge Brew Pub, and drank some good Oregon beer and ate some decent appetizers. Then it was off to Vesuvio, which was made popular by Jack Kerouac. Charlie drank a couple gin & tonics while I had a vodka tonic. Very cool two story bar. Lots of crazy decorations and patrons. Gotta check it out...




Then it was off to City Beer - a cool little place that not only sells beer on tap, but has a very extensive bottled collection that are available to take home. Good beer, good bread and good cheese.

We then headed down a couple blocks to Slim's to get into the show - thanks to Charlie's sly talking we were able to cut into line. Got in, got drinks, and then... headed back outside. The first couple bands were terrible so we hung out outside with a guy Charlie went to high school with (but they didn't really remember erach other) and his girlfriend. We went across the street to Butter - a bar/club that is purposefully white trash. With drinks like the After School Special (vodka & grape soda) and Latchkey Tea (a Long Island with strawberry soda instead of cola) the place was amazing. I guess they usually play house music, but horrible rock from the 80's was on the turn tables, so it was fantastic.

Finally we headed back over to Slim's to catch Jack's Mannequin. They put on a great show - the sound was the best we had heard at Slim's. It was a great day with my brother... awwwwww!

Sunday, November 2, 2008

The word "count" is now a dirty word....

Charles showed this to me.... so hilarious

Enjoy....


Saturday, November 1, 2008

Politics... I hate 'em

Well another election day is rapidly approaching, and I've had it up to here with the amount of retarded slap fights that seem to be going on with all of the candidates and propositions. Though a few interesting things have popped up lately...

Steve Young, who at the height of his fame was the Mormon Golden boy, has given around $50,000 to the campaign to defeat Prop 8. The funny thing about this is that the Mormon church is one of the top supporters of getting Prop 8 to pass. Mormons have donated close to $9 million dollars, and the churches leaders have sent letters to its members urging them to vote YES on prop 8. Any fall out for Steve Young's "disobedience" has yet to be seen. Though he did gain respect from me. No church should tell you how to vote - it should be a decision between you and God and that's it. I for one will join Steve in voting No on Prop 8, because I don't believe the government should have any control over marriage, gay or straight. In my mind marriage is a spiritual act, and lets face it - the government is NOT who I want dictating my spiritual practices.

In other proposition news:

Prop 1 - Voting YES - I'm down for a high speed rail.
Prop 2 - Voting NO - Chickens can live in cages for all I care.
Prop 3 - Voting YES - Kids need Hospitals too...
Prop 4 - Voting YES - Call me old fashioned, but Parents should know what is going on in their kid's life
Prop 5 - Nevermind - That's all I can write about politics for now...

Just go out and vote.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

I'll drink whiskey instead of water cause I can't stand to be sober in this place

Well I had a fairly eventful week last week. After working Monday and Tuesday a few friends and I headed up to Tahoe for a few days of fishing (caught three little guys and released them), relaxing (beer & dominos) and gambling (lost $240 - ouch!). We went on a little hike to see the salmon, and try to catch a glimspe of a bear eating the salmon. Of course 5 minutes after we leave the bear shows up - some friends were still there, so I got some pictures...


I came home Thursday night and woke up Friday morning with a terrible cold. However, I had tickets for WhiskeyFest that night, and I was not going to miss it. A bunch of us headed out to SF, ate at the 21st Amendment Brewery (great food) and then headed over to the Marriott. It was great - I got to catch up with Tom Bulleit (Bulleit Bourbon), Jess Graber (Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey), got to meet Jimmy Russell (Wild Turkey) and John Hansell (Malt Advocate Magazine). It was my dad and my brother's first time at one of these events, so it was really fun to have them there. But alas, large amounts of whiskey and head colds do not mix... I will leave it at that.

So my Saturday, Sunday, Monday and half a day Tuesday were spent on the couch with a terrible cold.

Looking forward to being well again (I think tomorrow is the day).

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Busy Busy Busy

Well, its Saturday. I like the weekends. It means no work... oh wait, there's cleaning, laundry, and the ever ominous homework to get done...

Life is busy, but with fun things, so its all good... Here is a breakdown:
  • 10/8 - 10/9: Go to Tahoe with some friends
  • 10/10: Go to WhiskeyFest
  • 10/12: Rival Schools & Middle Class Rut concert
  • 10/21: Charles' Birthday
  • 10/25: Wine Party @ the Cond
  • 10/28: Jenny Lewis concert
  • 10/31: Halloween
  • 11/3: Highway Patrol concert (Josh Pinkston's band - you should really go - contact me if interested)
  • 11/7: Rise Against & Alkaline Trio concert
  • 11/13: Ben Folds Concert
  • 11/15: Safeway Foundation Gala
  • 11/27: Thanksgiving
  • 12/12: Seeing Wicked in SF
  • 12/25: Christmas
  • 1/1: New Years
  • 11/7: Rise Against Concert
Damn! That's a lot of things....

The Counting Crows concert was great (no Anna Begins though... sniff) and surprisingly Maroon 5 was actually decent...

More later.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Casting shadows on the winter sky as you stood there counting crows

Headed out to Shoreline to see Counting Crows tonight - this will be my third or fourth time seeing them, but it will be Shannon's first - so we are excited... Less exciting is Maroon 5 opening for them, not that their albums suck, but after seeing them perform live on TV... not looking forward to it so much. Another band, Augustana is opening up - checking them out on iTunes right now... not bad but not exactly my cup of tea. But Adam Duritz and Co. will make up for anything lacking the opening bands bring. Here's hoping they are still playing Anna Begins.

Oh by the way Vegas was a blast - I came back with more gambling money than I started with. Woot.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Sad Songs

Shannon and I went to see Damien Jurado this past Wednesday. Incredible show, nothing like a bunch of depressing songs to lift your spirits.

With sad songs on the mind, here are 5 that I really dig right now:

Damien Jurado - Medication - A song about a guy who can't be with his married lover, so he spends time with his suicidal brother and prays that God will take his brother's life to ease the pain. First time i heard this was Wednesday night.. brutal.

Pedro the Lion - Second Best - A wife convincing herself its ok to be second best and trying to rekindle the romance with her husband at a hotel. This song floored me when I first heard it.

Brand New - Jesus Christ - Deals with being alone, trust issues and a loss of faith. A great sad song on an album of sad songs.

Neil Diamond - I Am I Said - A man trying to prove his existence despite being alone and far away from home.

Ben Folds Five - Evaporated - Probably one of the saddest songs I know, and without a doubt one of my favorites. Not sure what its about, but considering his song Brick is about an abortion he and an ex had, its quite possible its about the same experience. Heart breaking.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Viva Las Vegas

Well in about an hour we are headed to the airport to being our Vegas Vacation. Here's hoping I can at least break even! In addition to the poker we will be playing for hours on end, Ron and I are also planning on playing a round of golf in near 100 degree weather (yikes!) and hitting up The Gun Store, were we will shoot various machine guns and feel like bad asses.




Go see Tropic Thunder for these two reasons:
  • Robert Downey Jr. who excels at playing an Australian playing a black guy
  • Tom Cruise, who I despise as a person, putting on one of the best performances of his career

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Vegas

Well we leave for Vegas in 18 days and are pretty excited to go. Shannon hasn't been there since she was a kid, and last time I was there I was a 20 year old constantly looking over my shoulder as I played blackjack. It will be nice to go back and be able to sit in the casino, legally, and relax with cocktails.

Ron and I decided to head over to the Livermore Casino on Friday to prep ourselves for Vegas. However, the only thing we prepared for was how to lose money (and, hopefully, that does not happen in Vegas). We sat at a 3 -20 spread limit game, where the blinds are $1 & $3 and the max bet and/or raise is $20. We got murdered. I got no cards (best hand I was dealt all night was pocket 4's) and Ron got a ton of good hands dealt to him, only to get beat by a player that should never have been in the hand. People were taking down $150+ pots with King high or a set of sixes they hit on the river. I left a broken man, but knowing if I had a big enough stack, in enough time the table would be mine for the taking. Just gross.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Random Things That Are Going On

A lot of stuff is going in right now... here are some bullet points
  • My Grandma is moving down in about a week and a half - and is going to live with my parents in Manteca
  • We are finally getting the Altima fixed
  • We are trying to buy a house (going through the loan approval process right now)
  • School, as always, is keeping me busy
  • Shannon wants to be a baker
  • I want to open a Whisk(e)y restaurant
  • Pliny the Elder is for sale
  • We are going to Vegas in just over a month

Sunday, July 6, 2008

When You Are Engulfed In Flames

Shannon and I had a four day weekend to celebrate the nation's 232nd birthday.

On Thursday I got up bright and early to head down to the DMV and renew my drivers license that expired a few weeks back. I then came home and picked up Shannon and headed to Hacienda where we planned to spend hours upon hours at the theater, taking in 4 movies. Well we got through Wall-E (super good) and Iron Man (also really good) before Shannon had had enough of the big screen. Instead of buying tickets to our next planned move, The Hulk, we headed over to Barnes & Noble to pick up some books and budgeting and starting a bar/restaurant (that's a whole other blog post, but yes, I have a few bars I would like to open). We then headed home and relaxed for a few hours before heading off to dinner with Charlie and my pops. The Elephant Bar in Dublin is now open, and we had to wait about a half hour before getting a seat. But thats ok, the food was good and the E-Teas were quite refreshing. After dinner we all went back to the apartment to watch Dan in Real Life (not really what I expected, but good).

Friday morning was spent cleaning the house and shopping. My dad was coming back out to BBQ and celebrate the 4th. We got the place all cleaned up and headed to the store to buy the food: a combination of steak, chicken and hot smoked sausage worked out quite well. In addition to my dad, Charlie & Pletcher showed up, as well as Jake, Melissa and little Adelaide. We had a great time just sitting, eating good food, drinking good beer, and chatting. We also watched Drillbit Taylor (dumb). With BBQ & Beer left over, we decided to host a poker night the next day to help move through the food and drink, as well as to see some other friends.

We spent Saturday morning cleaning again and setting up the house for two tables of poker along with enough sitting room for those not playing. We had a pretty good turn out with 10 players: Charlie, Pletcher, Tyler, Jake, John May, Ron, Cate, Lori, Karen and myself. We also had a number of people rooting us on: Adelaide, Melissa, Allison, Sarah, Laura and Shannon. We had a blast - Ron ended up taking the tournament, with Charlie in second place and me taking third.

Sunday will be spent relaxing and reading the latest David Sedaris book, When You Are Engulfed In Flames. I'm a huge fan of Sedaris, and I can't wait to dig into this book. He mostly writes about growing and how insane his family is. I definitely recommend checking out his stuff.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Beer, Sausage & Hookahs


Last night Charlie, Shannon and I headed out to SF to meet up with Alyssa and hang out for the night. Turns out Jake Foster was there as well, which ruled, but alas, we did not get to see little Adelaide (hopefully tonight though!). We picked up Alyssa and her roommate and met Jake out at Toronado's, one of the best beer bars in the city.

I had always heard a lot about this place, but this was my first time there. Great selection, lots of local microbrews and stuff you don't see in pretty much any other bar.

Next door is Rosamunde Sausage Grill, which has an amazing array of sausages. I ended up eating duck sausage and lamb & beef sausage - so good. They let you order the sausage and then take it next door to the bar - fantastic!

After spending a few hours at the Toronado's Jake had to head off to pick up Melissa, Kari & the little one so shortly after we headed off as well and made our way down to Kan Zaman Cafe, a middle eastern bar/restaurant that lets you smoke Hookahs indoors. After about 20 minutes were were able to grab a spot at the bar and ordered some drinks and some apple tobacco for the Hookah. It was Shannon and my first experience with a Hookah, and we throughly enjoyed it. None of that nasty tar flavor, but arm rich appley goodness! I also had an Arabic Latte (I think that's what it was called), which Alyssa, suggested. It was great, nice middle eastern spices mixed with coffee & milk. Yummm...The night was a blast, and we will definitely be doing more of these... Shannon and I were talking about how we don't get out enough (walking around downtown Pleasanton just isn't cutting it anymore).

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Hatred or mistrust of humankind.

One of my favorite bands is back with their first album since 2003...
Shai Hulud - Misanthropy Pure

Here is the video for the title track:

Friday, May 30, 2008

When It's All Said and Done

Today was our last day of touring distilleries. We visited Wild Turkey and Four Roses. I'm worn out so there will be no pictures until later....

Wild Turkey was one that I was really looking forward to. We got to tour the distillery with Eddie Russell, who is Jimmy Russell's son. Jimmy is the Master Distillery and has been working at the distillery for 54 years. Eddie, who has only been there a short 27 years is probably next in line to take the job. He is currently the Assistant Distillery. Besides a few small differences, the tour was the same as all the others, not that it was a bad thing, but what I really enjoyed about this tour was Eddie's stories about the generation of master distillers that are either retired, passed away or on their way out: Elmer T. Lee (Buffalo Trace), Parker Beam (Heaven Hill), Booker Noe (Jim Beam) and Jimmy Russell (Wild Turkey). It was really great.

We then headed to a restaurant called Kavanaugh's School Diner. It was a former school, that was a house previously, that is now a diner. They serve everything buffet style - and it was fantastic.

After lunch we headed to the Four Roses Distillery. Four Roses was a brand that was HUGE around WWII, but shortly there after put all of its focus in exporting - and turned the whiskies that were in the U.S. into garbage - before long all U.S. product was gone. Then the Japanese brewery Kirin bought the distillery and has started turning it around. Products have been reintroduced into Kentucky and the surrounding states and are supposed to come to CA in July of this year, but who knows as the date has been pushed back several times already. The tour was ok - nothing really new except that they distill 2 different mash bills and have 5 yeasts - which make 10 different whiskies. These whiskies are then combined in various ways to create their releases. We were able to taste the 3 main products they make: Yellow Label (which is around 6 years old and contains 8 different whiskies - Small Batch which is around 7 years old and contains 4 different whiskies - and the Single Barrel which is around 8 years old and only has one whiskey.

After Four Roses we headed back to Louisville to have dinner at Bourbon's Bistro. Good Lord, after eating and drinking at this place I want to open a Whiskey Restaurant SO BADLY! They featured around 100 bourbons or so - which cost anywhere from $5 for a pour, up to $75. They also let you pick three whiskies to taste as a flight - smaller pour but at half the price listed. I did a flight of Buffalo Trace 9yr Single Barrel, Parker's Heritage and Wild Turkey American Spirit. Shannon had a whiskey sour with Maker's Mark. All four were fantastic. I had Ahi Tuna and Shannon had a pork chop stuffed with chorizo for dinner. Both dishes were amazing. We left so full we could barely walk and broken hearted that there is no place like this in CA (until I open my restaurant!)

We fly out at 10:30am tomorrow and are excited to get back - its been a fantastic trip, but I am ready for my big screen TV and my comfortable bed.

See ya soon!

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Spitting Out Bourbon and Other Strange Happenings


Following our own example, we started off the morning eating our usual breakfast (see post below) and hitting the road - we were on our way to Buffalo Trace. Flash back to a month ago...Being one of the two distilleries that I didn't have a supplier contact for - I was originally afraid that we would have a hard time getting in. Luckily my friends at Young's Market were able to pull a few strings and get us in. I was very appreciative as some of my favorite whiskies are created here: Buffalo Trace, George T. Stagg, Eagle Rare, WL Weller, Van Winkle, and the list goes on and on.



Alright, back in the present. I knew that we were going to have a chance to meet Mark Brown, the president and CEO of Buffalo Trace - so I was very excited to arrive. Who would have thought that our experience there is something I will never forget. As we walked in, I asked the lady in the gift shop for Margeret as she was our contact - turns out that she was her (bad english I know). She was amazingly nice - greeting us with a huge smile and bringing us into her ongoing conversation with a few other BT employees about an article in Delta airline's magazine which highlights Lexington and includes bits on the distillery. She then introduces Shannon and I to Carey, the gentleman that will be taking us on the tour - but first we had to go up and meet Mark.

We walk up to Mark's office - he and two other employees are in the middle of a meeting, but take a break just to sit and talk to us. We chat about business on the west coast, the economy, how Safeway is doing, etc. Then we turn to talking about Bourbon and what we like, what we find interesting, etc. He kept saying that it was such a pleasure having us at the distillery, which blew me away, because I was in awe of who I was sitting in front of.

Mark is one of the most forward thinking people in the whiskey industry in my opinion. He is constantly experimenting with different concepts and whiskey making ideas. To read more about his experiments check out the blog What Does John Know and also the most recent Malt Advocate magazine. BT has even bottled some of the experiments, most of which are whiskies that were aged (for at least some time) in used wine barrels. Much to my surprise, Mark presented me one of the Zinfindel finished bottles as a gift. Considering that some of these are going on eBay for upwards of $80 for a 375-ml - I was extremely grateful as they are next to impossible to find in any store.

We then headed down to meet Carey for the tour. We got the "hard hat" tour which took us through the entire process. We had this experience once before at Maker's Mark, but Buffalo Trace is HUGE so the parts involved in the process are even more incredible. Too much to go into detail but it was just amazing.


Following the tour, we were brought up into the experiment lab. Buffalo Trace has nearly 1500 barrels dedicated to their experiements - and are always trying to create something new. In addition to the barrels they also have a new micro-still that will be used in creating the whiskies. In the lab we were allowed to taste some of the experimental whises that they are considering releaseing in 2009 and 2010. We tasted 4 different batches, and at least two of those, no one, outside of BT employees, had ever tasted. Simply Incredible. Now they weren't all great, but they certainly weren't bad - but I was just in awe that we got to taste them. I don't really want to say what they were as I'm not sure if BT would want the info getting out, but they definitely have some wild ideas. By the way - the lab was "taste & spit" no getting drunk while at work! So they had several large spitoons spit the bourbon into - pretty cool.




After the tour and tasting we headed back down to the gift shop, bought some souviners and then headed back up to Mark's office. We sat there for another half hour to hour just going over the tour, asking questions, talking about everything from Kentucky to the upcoming WhiskeyFest. He signed a bottle of Eagle Rare for us and we went on our way, amazed by the experience we just had.



We then headed over to Woodford Reserve (after our good friend Garmin gave us bad directions). Compared to Buffalo Trace that has 11o buildings on the premise, this place was TINY! The majority of the "work" is done in two rooms. This is one of the few places that "creates" their seasons by heating and cooling the rack houses. Every other distillery lets nature take its course. We then headed back to the gift shop & visitor's center for a sample of the bourbon.




The drive to and from Woodford was amazing - the distillery is surrounded by horse farms - and is landscaped just beautifully. It was a wonderful drive.

We are back at the hotel now gearing up for our last day when we will visiting Wild Turkey and Four Roses. See ya tomorrow!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

A Little Slice of Heaven (Hill), (Coconut) Pie and Jim Beam

Today, we made our way down to Bardstown, KY after our typical breakfast of biscuts and gravy, eggs, sausage for me and biscuts and gravy and cereal for Shannon.

We had a 10 o'clock appointment at Heaven Hill to tour through their rack houses (the distilling is done in Louisville, and the bottling line is off limits to visitors) and do a tasting. They also have a nifty little history of bourbon display in one half of the giftshop/heritage center. The rackhouses were pretty cool, had some pretty old barrels - up to 27 years old....



We then headed into their tasting room and in addition to the usual tastings of Evan Williams Single Barrel and Elijah Craig 18 yr, we were able to taste Bernhiem Wheat Whiskey and Evan Williams Single Barrel 23 yr. The later is only available at the gift shop and in Japan - and sells for $350... it was FANTASTIC! - but no, I did not buy one. However I did get another bottle of one of my favorite whiskies - Parker Heritage Collection Cask Strength Bourbon. Not sure if I can drink it though - as it is signed by Parker Beam, the semi-retired Master Distiller. It will go next to my Evan Williams Single Barrel that is signed By Craig Beam, the full time Master Distiller.



We took off from Heaven Hill and headed into Bardstown to see what small town life is like... had lunch at a restaurant that was opened in the 30's. Back then, the family lived upstairs and ran the restaurant downstairs. The same family still owns it, but they live somewhere else (I think). We went to the Oscar Getz Whiskey Museum that has all sorts of cool stuff - whiskey bottles (some still full) from the late 1800s / early 1900s - prohibition and anti-prohibition propaganda - various marketing tools from a number of distillers.





Afterwards we went to a bar/tavern that has been opened since 1779. Some say the Old Talbot Tavern is haunted - and we - NO JOKE - saw a half full pint glass slide off of the table next to us, right after the lady sitting in the seat that the glass landed in got up to go "ghost hunting" - the husband looked at us and said "did you see that?!?!". So that was pretty crazy... history has it that everyone from Abraham Lincoln to Jesse James spent time in the tavern/hotel.

We then headed to the Jim Beam Outpost (the visitor center at the Beam Distillery). We got there 15 minutes before they closed - so we ran in, looked around, bought a Booker's T-shirt and headed back. But not before we snapped a few pictures with Booker Noe himself.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Maker's Mark with a Bulleit Chaser

Today was our first day of distillery touring - and that took us to Loretto, KY - home of Maker's Mark. We showed up right at 10am and were greeted by Leah, who would turn out to be our tour guide. Before starting the tour we went and spent about 20 minutes chatting with Kevin Smith, the new Master Distiller at Maker's Mark. He was an assistant master distiller up until a couple months ago when Dave Pickerell left the company. Was able to tell us a lot of the history of the Samuels family and show us letters to and from Abe Lincoln - one of them from 1859 had Lincoln writing about how he didn't think he was going to run for President - of course a year later he became president. There was also the "dark side" where the Samuels family was married into the James family... as in Jesse James. Very interesting stuff... We talked about business, Maker's Mark special releases (besides special bottles - its not happening) and just the love of bourbon.
The tour was next and took us through the fermenting rooms, the distilling room, the barreling room, one of the rack houses (where the bourbon is stored) and finally the bottling line.

We ended the tour in their tasting room - trying 2 year old Maker's Mark, Maker's Mark (the stuff found in stores, which is an average of about 6 years) and 9 year old Maker's Mark. Due to the high wheat content of Maker's mash bill the 9 year old really wasn't that good, as wheat is a very delicate grain that is too easily overpowered by the oak. We then dipped a few bottles ourselves, got a few souviners and we were on our way!



Next stop was the Pendennis Club to have drinks with Mr. Tom Bulleit, of Bulleit Bourbon fame. We got there a couple of minutes before he did so we had a few minutes to look around this fantastic building. We didn't take pictures but follow the link above to check it out - its amazing.
Tom arrived with his son, Tucker a few minutes later and we took a tour of the place, going upstairs to see the ballroom, downstairs to see the main dining room (coat & tie required) - Tom also gave us the history of the place as his family has been members off and on for generations. We went to the Grill (the less formal area) to have a few drinks and talk. Seriously, was one of the nicest guys I've ever met. Gave a good overview of the bourbon market and had nothing but nice things to say about his competitors. It's actually amazing, both Tom & Kevin Smith talked up their competition almost as much as they did their own brands... it is honestly one big family down here. Tom was saying that a few years back when Heaven Hill (I believe) had one of their rack houses burn down - within a few hours every distillery had called offering their services to ensure that a beat wouldn't be skipped. He also presented us with a few gifts: a Bulleit hat, some Bulleit glasses and a 1.75 of Bulleit bourbon that he was kind enough to sign. I am looking forward to October when he is coming out for WhiskeyFest - as, hopefully, we can hang out a little more.






After leaving Tom & Tucker - we drove over to the Maker's Mark Lounge - and had some appatizers and drinks. I had the Four Roses flight, as I have never tasted the brand before. There was their regular 80 proof Yellow Label, the Single Barrel and the Small batch. All were VERY good... We are back at the hotel now - relaxing and getting ready to watch a movie - so thats all for now.




Monday, May 26, 2008

Kevin & Shannon Go To White Castle

We headed out this morning around 10am to drive down to the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill. On the way we saw a sign for White Castle. Having never been, but always hearing about the chain in random forms of media, etc. we decided to stop. The burgers were 57 cents each and were worth about that much. the meat was so scarce it looked like they put a beef spread across the bun (at least I hope it was beef). Nonetheless, I enjoyed the experience and plan on going at least one more time.

Back to the Shaker Village... Shakers are (or were is more accurate) a bunch of religious folk who decided that God was calling them to build furniture and live a life of celibacy. While the furniture part is cool, they were kind of doomed with the whole no sex thing... not only can you not bring new Shaker's into this world, I'm guessing converts were pretty hard to come by. Beginning in the 1770's they came to American - in the mid 1800's the Shakers set up shop in Kentucky and by the early 1900's they were a goner. But now they have people that dress up in the Shaker clothing and do a little recreation. The place is now an inn and a restaurant, along with being a historical monument. Lots of cool buildings, fun animals and good food...




Oh yeah - Craziest thing.... we also ran into Ron while we were down there....

Reminds me of Mark Twain

So Saturday night after we got in we headed out to Ruby Tuesdays to eat dinner. I was excited because we always see the commercials at home but there isn't one close by (at least to my knowledge). The food was great, the beer was cold - all in all a really good meal. When then headed out to the local Liquor Barn, a liquor store chain that actually was owned by Safeway at one point, and was run by the guy that started BevMo. Tons of alcohol and bourbon paraphernalia, of course, since this is Bourbon Country. Got a few things there (well more than a few) and headed back to the hotel.

Sunday Morning we got up and headed to downtown Louisville - we walked around a while and had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was crazy - the only open restaurants we saw were Hard Rock and TGI Friday's. Everything else was either not open yet, or closed on Sundays. Very different from CA - it seems that southerners actually enjoy taking a day to rest - weird!

After lunch we headed over to the shore of the Ohio River and boarded the Belle of Louisville. The steamboat used to not only ferry people back and forth, but was also used to ship bourbon to states up river. The trip was quite uneventful, which was just fine as I like to do nothing while I am on vacation. They had a bar on board and I ordered a Maker's Mint Julep - yet it wasn't the actual cocktail... who knew that Maker's Mark had a Mint Julep Liqueur???

Shannon and I relaxed on the boat, watched crazy kids run around, and enjoyed looking at the houses, etc. on the shore. The river police were stopping just about every little boat out on the river (my guess looking for drunken boaters on the holiday weekend). - it was fun to watch and hoping that something crazy would go down...

Today we are headed out to a few antique malls and down to the Shaker Village. Tomorrow the distillery tours start. Yahoo!