Whiskey Lore®: The Interviews

When someone says France, you may think wine, Cognac, Armagnac, and Champagne - but do you think single malt whisky?

You should! France not only has distilling skills, but they also have the natural resources, including producing 30% of the world's barley, and the French have been great lovers of whisky and one of Scotch whisky's largest markets for years.

Find out about the history and development of the French whisky industry and listen in as I taste single malts and blends from Armorik and Bastille including a peated single malt with similar characteristics to Islay whiskies.

With the Derby and Summer right around the corner, it is time to start thinking about Kentucky travel plans and for lovers of bourbon history, it is time to dig into a best of list of historic bourbon destinations.

To do this, I have invited my friend and fellow history fan Jerry Daniels of Stone Fences Tours onto the show to compare our top 10 lists of the best historic destinations in the Bluegrass State. We'll even toss in a few extras - perfect for your travel planning.

Walk into your favorite liquor store and look for a bottle of Westland American Single Malt. Where do you start? It's not in bourbon. It's not with the single malt scotches (or is it)?

As this category grows and whiskey diversifies from region to region and country to country, it's time to have a serious talk about reorganizing store shelves.

Chris Riesbeck and I will talk about that, he'll fill us in on Westland's history developing the ASM category, what it takes to be a brand ambassador, and I'll put him on the spot with a blind tasting!

If you've not heard her name before, you're going to be shocked with all of the projects Lisa's been involved in - from George Washington's Distillery at Mount Vernon, to Preservation Distillery in Bardstown, to Huber's Starlight Distillery in Indiana, and the Beam Brother's Limestone Branch - and she also works as a consultant.

We'll talk about the whiskey and the name Widow Jane, I'll get to sample the 10 year, we'll hear how Lisa moved from blending wine to blending whiskey, and learn a little more about one of her distilling heroes - a woman who ran the last bourbon distillery outside of the United States.

Time for a change of pace episode. Yes, we normally hear from distillers, historians, and ambassadors, but with traveling starting to open up again, I thought this would be an opportune mind to get your mind on distillery travel.

In a few weeks I'll have Jerry Daniel's of Stone Fences Tours on to help whiskey history lovers find the coolest places to visit in Kentucky, but this week - in honor of St. Patrick's Day, I want to put you behind the wheel so you can get comfortable with the idea of driving from distillery to distillery in Ireland and also Scotland (left hand driving that is).

It's time for a fascinating conversation with a man who is resurrecting a legendary whiskey man from Cincinnati Ohio. My guest is co-founder and CEO of Brain Brew Custom Whiskey - Doug Hall. His whiskey is called Dexter's Bourbon - a historic brand you likely never heard of. We'll hear about whiskey from the early 1800s and about the man himself Edmund Dexter.

I'll also get a chance to taste the whiskey and dig into a conversation about crafting your own cocktails and your own whiskey next time you visit Louisville.

It's time for part two of my fascinating conversation with Alan Bishop, master distiller at Spirits of French Lick. We're going to dive more into some of the spirits he's produced, talk about capturing historic yeasts, discover what split brandy is, find some historic distilling sites in Indiana, and get a little more history around some of the names honored by Alan though the whiskies of Spirits of French Lick.

125 years ago this week, a battle would be fought between wet and dry candidates over a bill that could improve the quality of whiskey. What really happened though was so much bigger and expanded government's role in consumer affairs.

When I say Southern Indiana, you might not initially think distilling legacy, but if you think about it, the region is just as close to the Ohio River as Kentucky is. So when I invited Alan Bishop, a distiller, but also a documenter of whiskey history, a whole new amazing history opened up to me.

Check out the stories of preacher-distillers, Prohibition antics, and legacies of great distillers that are finally seeing the light.

Let's go back 154 years to the origins of this week's Federal holiday and find out when the name changed from Washington's Birthday to President's Day.

We'll also take a look at several presidents and discover their association with whiskey - from owning distilleries to taking a shot in the morning with breakfast.

Cheers!