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EXPLORING
KENTUCKY - August 2002 by Katherine Tandy Brown Celebrating a Smooth Kentucky Tradition
“Celebrating the passion, history and art of making great Kentucky bourbon,” the Kentucky Bourbon Festival is an occasion not to be missed by afficionados of its namesake, those caramel-colored spirits with roots deep in this land of limestone-fed streams, source of the original “branch water.” Legend has it that Baptist minister Elijah Craig, of Georgetown, created bourbon in 1789 when he inadvertently burned the inside of a barrel he was using to make mash, a mixture of corn, rye and barley malt, ingredients still used. In so doing, the reverend began a handcrafted tradition so totally Bluegrass that all eight of the world’s master distillers are in Kentucky. “For Kentuckians, bourbon is an indigenous product, like horses,” explains Mac Lacy, publisher of The Group Travel Leader Inc. and a member of the festival board. “It has the same kind of allure.” And strict rules as to how it’s made. Today, U.S. government standards mandate that bourbon must contain least 51 percent corn and be aged for at least two years in new, charred, white oak barrels, and can’t be stronger than 160 proof. It’s the charred wood barrels that are responsible for the rich, signature color and smoky taste so revered by bourbon lovers around the world. These days, worldwide distribution is so specialized that certain brands are made to be sold only overseas. The Kentucky product’s out-of-state success was evident in last year’s festival attendance totals – more than 25,000 visitors from 20-plus states and seven foreign countries, including an annual contingent of several hundred who come from Japan. This year a predicted 30,000 will pay homage to bourbon’s Central Kentucky birthplace, learn about its process, and meet fellow enthusiasts at a festival that began as a relatively small thank-you. In 1992, the city of Bardstown threw a bourbon tasting and dinner to honor the distillers that helped make it the “Bourbon Capital of the World.” Thirty years ago, the bourbon industry was the town’s primary employer. That first event – at which each distiller offered tastings on an eight-foot skirted display table, followed by a buffet dinner for 250 people – has evolved into a black tie, reservations-required affair with elaborate distillery booths, bourbon samplings, a sit-down gourmet meal and a dance for 1,200 revelers. The Great Kentucky Bourbon Tasting & Gala on Saturday night is now the Kentucky Bourbon Festival’s signature event. Evolution has taken place yearly and continues to date. In 1993, Barton Brands retiree Bill Friel proposed adding a barrel relay to the tasting to emulate the rolling of 500-pound oak barrels as a part of the warehouse process. And Four Roses began an event called “Let’s Talk Bourbon,” essentially to educate the media. Soon a small concert was added. “Now we have more than 30 events in five days,” says Gober. “It’s busy!” At the Bourbon-Q Cookoff, teams from across the country will compete for best chicken, ribs, shoulder, brisket and sauce, which must, of course, contain bourbon. And that libation must be a Buffalo Trace brand, as that distillery sponsors the cook off. Sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society, the contest has an expert 20-judge panel and visitors can sample the sauces. The cook-off was inspired by a well-known annual Jack Daniels barbecue competition at that whiskey distiller’s property in Tennessee. “We thought, ‘Whiskey? Hey, we can do that...and we can do it better!’” Gober laughs. Last year’s small cook-off was a trial. This one’s serious. “Actually, there’s such an interest in bourbon these days,” she adds, “with the small batch and single barrel as topics of conversation. It’s really become popular.” As has the combination of Bourbon, Cigars and Jazz, which is a Friday night event at My Old Kentucky Home, where Bourbon Street comes north for a night with a Cajun buffet, robust jazz, Mardi Gras masks and beads, Heaven Hill Bourbon (the event’s sponsor) and a choice selection of cigars from Oxmoor Smoke Shop in Louisville. Store owner J. Paul Tucker will explain how to cut ‘em and how to smoke ‘em. Show ‘em your stuff at Wednesday night’s Boots and Bourbon. Put on your cowboy boots and line dance to the music of a swingin’ local band, the Brown Brothers, as you work off a western-style barbecue buffet, complete with deep fried turkey. (Yep, Wild Turkey’s the sponsor.) If you don’t know your steps, dancers from Coyote’s in Louisville will show you how. Surprisingly, this libation-focused festival is a well-rounded family event, with a number of alcohol-free things to do. You can climb aboard an iron horse behind a steam locomotive at the Kentucky Railway Museum just outside Bardstown for the Bootleggers & Bushwhackers Train Robbery. Robbers on horseback and in old jalopies will stop the train and climb aboard for a hold-up. Any money given to these dastardly crooks will go to charities like Crusade for Children. Historical reenactors such as Carrie Nation and Elijah Craig will roam the festival grounds, while athletes can test their mettle in a 5K run/walk or a four-person best ball golf tournament. A Family Fun Area near City Hall will feature inflatables, a petting zoo, sand art, rock climbing walls and a hands-on area with educational displays about the bourbon industry. There are even contests for kids, a miniature barrel-rolling track and a little assembly line to fill small bottles with iced tea, label and cork them the fastest. Everyone gets to keep a bottle. You can ooh and ahh at a sunset hot-air Balloon Glow. Ogle the distillers’ booths. Stuff yourself with tasty victuals til you can barely walk. And hear music wherever you go: The Kentucky Headhunters will play outdoors with plenty of dancing room all weekend, and you can get down at a free country music concert featuring Neal McCoy and Jamie O’Neal under the Friday stars at Bluegrass Motor Speedway. Lest anyone should entertain the idea that the Kentucky Bourbon Festival is total decadence, Gober is quick to explain that it gives annual $1,000 college scholarships to a distillery employee’s child, whose selection is ultimately decided by Bardstown’s Public Foundation for Excellence. In addition, festival profits in 2001 benefitted more than 50 non-profits, schools and tourist attractions. In 2000 Governor Paul Patton named the festival the Official Bourbon Event of Kentucky, and stipulations of holding the title include promoting Kentucky and assisting as many non-profits as possible. Along those lines, all proceeds from the Master Distiller’s Auction – a fascinating affair with unusual items such as vintage and rare bottles of Kentucky bourbon, autographed by the master distillers – help maintain Spalding Hall, an 1826 building in Bardstown owned by the Catholic archdiocese. The Hall houses the Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History, a collection of old stills, photos, artifacts and displays of distilling from pre-Colonial days to the present. “We try to get lots of organizations involved,” Gober says. “We may hire them to run a booth or they may make money on one of their own.” The Boy Scouts are always paid for clean up. Selected by the American Bus Association as a Top 100 Event for North America, the Kentucky Bourbon Festival has aspects of many of the state celebrations, such as arts and crafts and food vendors, but what makes it special, says Gober, is its educational aspect. Come and learn how those massive oak barrels are made, drive the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and tour distilleries, take a historical horse-drawn trolley tour or evening ghost-filled walking tour of Bardstown, learn to cook with bourbon, hear traditional Civil War music, and discover the role bourbon has played in state politics in a lighthearted lecture by Berry Craig, associate professor of history at Paducah Junior College. “We’re bold enough to celebrate bourbon,” she laughs. “We get a little flack for doing it, but that’s understandable. There’s a lot more positive than negative.” For a schedule of events with dates,
descriptions and a map of locations, and a list of distilleries with
tours available, check out www.kybourbonfestival.com
Katherine Tandy
Brown is a staff writer for The Lane Report. |
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Copyright 1996-2002, by Kentucky Business Online. All rights reserved. Editorial content
is copyright 2002, Lane Communications Group The Lane Report is a trademark of Lane Communications Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
Come
September, the city of Bardstown will roll out the red carpet for an
event that, like the Derby, is pure Kentucky. And it would be hard to
imagine that great equine tradition without its signature mint julep,
sweet sugar water laced with smooth Kentucky bourbon.