Book Review: Founding Spirits—George Washington and the Beginnings of the American Whiskey Industry

In February, my wife and I made a trip to Virginia to meet some friends, spend some time sightseeing with my uncle and generally check out if I liked the state. One of the sights we saw was George Washington’s home at Mt. Vernon. If you are into early US history, you should check it out. I was there at open and stayed long enough to have a late lunch. In fact for spirits fans if you go in the summer, you can visit the recreation of George Washington’s distillery. If you go in winter, like I did, you can pick up the book about it. Like I did.

Founding Spirits: George Washington and the Beginnings of the American Whiskey Industry

Author: Dennis J. Pogue

Purchase info: $24.95 at the gift shop of George Washington’s Mt. Vernon

This book is a nice overview of the history of the American whiskey industry as seen through the lens of George Washington. As the subtitle states, the book starts with George Washington, giving an overview of his life before, during and after his Presidency. 

In the first part of the book, the author examines Washington’s relationship with “spiritous liquors.” He shows us how Washington, as was the custom at the time, bought votes by supplying alcohol to the voters. How he diligently practiced the customs of hospitality and made sure his guests had something to drink even leaving instructions on what to serve while he was away being President. The book even details Washington’s complicated views on alcohol by telling us how Washington believed in both the “healthsome” benefits of alcohol and recognized the dangers of continual overindulgence. And, of course, the book discusses both the fact that Washington led troops against whiskey distillers who didn’t want to pay their taxes and then opened up one of the largest whiskey distilleries in the early days of the country. Rightly showing that there was no hypocrisy there.

The second part of the book details the business of running Mt. Vernon. Which, to me was made much more interesting by having just visited before reading the book. This portion describes the many ventures that Washington tried to make his lovely plantation profitable, fishing, planting, dairy cattle, milling and, yes, the production of whiskey, rum and brandy. It also talks about Washington’s views on the evils of slavery. It’s a sad thing to say, that in this case, the economics of running a profitable business overcame the fact that he seemed to hate even the idea of slavery. He did eventually free his slaves, but in his will and only after his wife had also died. There is also a brief chapter describing the distillery itself. This includes both historical records and archeological information that the author uncovered while digging at the distillery site.

The third part of the book is the topic of the second part of the subtitle. It is an overview of the history of the whiskey industry from the death of Washington, through Temperance, Prohibition and Repeal, then up to the modern day. It’s mostly things you may have read before if you’ve read books on the subject, but there are a few tidbits in there as well. 

like.gif

The book finishes with the story of how the modern rebuilding of the distillery at Mt. Vernon, and it’s whiskey, came to be. Overall, I found the book to be well written and very interesting. It had just the right amount of detail for me. Digging deep for the parts that needed it and speeding past those that didn’t. I liked it a lot and recommend it to fans of American history and the history of American spirits.

Blog about a blogger who's blogging whiskey: Josh Wright

“You went on the wrong weekend, my man!” 

This was the beginning of my first in-person meeting with Josh Wright of SipologyBlog.com. I was extremely excited for my first visit to the Kentucky Bourbon Festival and had tweeted out my order for my first drink of the week. After a little coversation we ironed out that it was ok that I was there the weekend before BourbonFest because I was there the whole week. Also, as it turned out, that I would probably be happening across his path since he was coming for the following weeekend. This was exciting for me. I’d been following Josh on twitter for a while and reading his blog for a while longer. 

You see, shortly after I took my love of bourbon online, I started looking for other blogs on the topic to read. I wanted reviews, tasting notes, and insight into what was going on in the world of whiskey. I started by looking at who other whiskey fans were reading. One blog that seemed to be on everyone’s list was SipologyBlog. I read it and liked it. The thing I liked best about the reviews was the fact that he tended to focus on american whiskey, beer and wine, things that I was also interested in. Things that I could get. And afford.  

As I followed him on twitter, I found out that he was more than just a palate and nose. He was a smart guy with interests remarkably similar to mine. When I first had the idea for a series of posts highlighting those people I enjoy reading and interacting with online, he was the first guy I thought of. So without further ado: Josh Wright.

Hey Josh, thanks for agreeing to be the guinea pig for this series. First things first: who are you, anyway?

You're welcome. It's an honor!

That's kind of a philosophical question.  I'm Josh Wright, born, raised and educated in Central Indiana, most of that time on the north side of Indianapolis. I mean the actual north side of Indianapolis, not a suburb. I graduated from Broad Ripple High School in 1994 and Anderson University in 1998. Both sides of my family have deep Indiana roots. I've lived in the Detroit Metro area since 2001. That was also the year I married my lovely wife Liz.

My current occupation is stay-at-home dad to my 3 year old daughter. I also blog about booze, of course and I enjoy screwing around on the internet in general. I consider myself a Christian and a democratic socialist, although I may not be a great example of either. I'm a craft beer lover, cocktail lover, wine lover and whiskey lover. I'm a writer although I've never been paid for it. I'm a rheumatoid arthritis sufferer. I have ancestors who came over on the Mayflower, some who were early settlers at Jamestown and one who was Daniel Boone's uncle. That's all of the answers I can think of right now.

The first time I thought "this is a guy I need to pay attention to" it was for a joke that combined a professional football player and an ancient Christian heresy. So it seems you and I have a lot in common: from a love of history and, at least a passing interest in, professional football to a love of bourbon. If we have this much in common, what else are you into outside of bourbon? I feel like I should be checking into things you like.

That's very kind. I love history, especially the history of Christianity and the history of pre-modern Europe. I love those two topics so much I have master's degrees in them. I got my Master of Theological Studies degree in 2001 (it was a big year for me) and an MA in History in 2013, concentrating in Medieval and Early Modern (Reformation through French Revolution) Europe. I wrote my final essay on Julian of Norwich. I still do a lot of reading in those areas and hopefully I will get back to writing in those areas too. I'm currently reading a book called The Orrible Synne by E.J. Burford. It's a history of prostitution in London from the Roman period to the time of Oliver Cromwell. It's a bit dated but a fun little book.

I enjoy the usual team sports, especially NFL football, MLB and B1G basketball. Despite living in Michigan for almost 13 years, I still don't understand or enjoy hockey. I blame my formative years in basketball-obsessed Indiana.

Music is my other big love. I sing in my church choir. I love classical music, early music, blues, reggae, rock 'n' roll of any era, hip hop, R & B, Irish folk, classic country and jazz. That's not to say I like everything in those categories, but I like some artists and songs from all those genres. I've been on a classic hip hop kick lately. I've long been a rabid Gang Starr fan and I also love Public Enemy, De La Soul, Rakim, A Tribe Called Quest, The Roots and MC Lyte to name just a few. I'm also a big fan of the Afghan Whigs, Wussy, and PJ Harvey.

My other interests are homey type stuff. I love cooking and I do it almost every night. I especially love BBQ, southern style cooking and traditional Mexican cooking. I'm kind of a locovore too. I buy fruits and vegetables in season at our local farmer's market as much as possible. I love gardening especially native wildflowers, herbs, tomatoes and chilies.  We also have red currant bushes and strawberry plants in the backyard.

I love art and archaeology and comedy and TV and old movies too but this response is way too long already..

I know you are a bourbon fan, you're active on forums, blog about it, etc. How'd you get into it?

I've always had a curious mind and when I first started drinking alcoholic beverages after I graduated college I was interested in knowing where my booze came from and exploring the topic in general. My parents are teetotalers so I knew next to nothing about it. I started by reading labels and trying some of the popular brands. The internet was a much smaller place back then and there wasn't a whole lot of information on American whiskey around. One of the first things I noticed was that I liked Jim Beam better than Jack Daniels. From then on bourbon was my first choice.

I stuck with Jim Beam for a long while until I picked up a book entitled The Book of Classic American Whiskeys by Mark H. Waymack and James E. Harris (1995). It is part tasting guide and part travel guide. Not all the distilleries were open for tours back then and it was written at a time when Seagram's still existed and the only Four Roses product available in the US was the yellow label and it was only sold in Kentucky. There's a great story about Al Young of Four Roses taking them off into the snake-filled Kentucky woods to the site of the original Old Joe Distillery. It really captured my imagination. 

I used the book as a jumping off point to explore the bourbon landscape literally and figuratively. My wife and I planned our first Kentucky vacation in June of 2007. We managed to visit all the distilleries that were open for visits on that first trip, and also worked in visits to other tourist attractions in Kentucky. We went again the next year and I think we've been once every year since then. I also started doing tastings for our friends around that time. I don't do those very much anymore but I enjoy them a lot.

Right before our first trip to Kentucky, I joined StraightBourbon.com. It's been a lot of fun connecting with other bourbon enthusiasts and I've made a lot of friends there. For my money, it's still the best place on the internet for information and informed discussion about American Whiskey. It's a very well-run forum.

You write about whiskey and other spirits, wine and beer at SipologyBlog.com. What's the history of SipologyBlog?

Sipology Blog started back in the spring of 2010. I came up with the name on my own. Sip-ology, meaning the ology of things people sip. I later discovered that a now defunct coffee house in California also used the name, so I have emphasized that it is Sipology Blog on social media. From what I've read the coffee shop self-destructed in a rather ugly fashion so I doubt they'll send lawyers after me for the name any time soon.

I got the idea for the blog shortly before my daughter was born. I had been writing a long, rambling series of wine posts on my old Live Journal blog and I had also been posting tasting notes on  StraightBourbon.com for a while. I had grown sick of LJ and people seemed to enjoy my tasting notes so I decided to start up a simpler, more focused blog in which I would review whatever I was drinking. That happened to be mostly Michigan beer, wine and bourbon.

There were a lot fewer booze blogs back then. I had read Sku's, Chuck Cowdery's, and a few others and while I liked them, I didn't feel like I needed to do what they were doing. I tried to do news early on, but it was too time consuming and too easy to screw up. I do commentary now and again, but the part of blogging that appeals most to me as a reader and a writer is tasting notes, so I've stuck with that for the most part.

A secondary purpose to Sipology Blog was the to keep up my writing chops. I had to take some time off from grad school when my daughter was born and I've never been very good at keeping a journal so I though a simple blog would be an easy way to keep writing so I could jump right back into academic work when I needed to.

Judging alcoholic beverages for what they are one of the things that I try to do with my reviews and that's why I always factor in price. A $20 bottle of bourbon should not be evaluated the same way as a $60 bottle. Some people claim that they don't factor in price when they write up tasting notes but I don't think that's possible. Tasting is like history in that respect. Total objectivity is not possible, so the best way to overcome bias is to acknowledge that it exists and move on from there. Not acknowledging that bias means that the taster (or historian) is a hostage to it. 

As a guy who follows this stuff, what's your take on the state of the bourbon industry right now? What would you like to see happen?

The overarching problem right now for all the big distillers is keeping up with demand. The distillers that have been hardest hit have been smaller macros: Buffalo Trace, Barton, Wild Turkey and Maker's Mark. What we've seen from them is price hikes, proof reductions (or attempted proof reductions anyway), the dropping of age statements and rolling shortages. Four Roses and Dickel may also be facing problems sometime soon, but all their regular products are NAS so that gives them more flexibility. I don't see an end to any of this anytime soon. The only hope of relief is if demand starts leveling off but to my knowledge there's no sign of that happening.

In spite of this, there are lots of reasons to be optimistic. Wild Turkey has a new, bigger distillery with new warehouses and on-site bottling now. Buffalo Trace is adding warehouse space and I don't think the quality of their products has discernibly diminished in the past few years (others may not share that opinion, though).  A new line of 1792 bourbons from Barton, including a wheater and a high rye, will probably be hitting shelves in the next year. Wild Turkey and Jim Beam have been releasing a lot of new, experimental-type products. Those haven't always been successful but it's still a good sign. Heaven Hill has also been maintaining age statements for most of their products and even adding one to Bernheim Wheat Whiskey.

The micro-distilling scene is also a mixed bag, but the wheat is starting to be separated from the chaff. The stocks of the micros are getting older and getting more consistent. Some of them even taste good now. The prices are still ridiculous for most. $50 or $60 for an 86 proof NAS rye? No thanks, brother.

Hypothetical question: A new bourbon magazine comes calling and offers you a column. Would you be interested and what beat would you choose to cover?

I would love to do something like that. I'd love writing tasting notes, of course but I think I'd also enjoy writing about bourbon fandom or historical topics relating to bourbon. I think there's a lot of material that still could be covered better in both those areas.

Plug time: where can people find you online and is there anything else you'd like to plug?

My blog is SipologyBlog.com My blog also has a Twitter account, @sipologyblog (home to all sorts of stuff not just booze stuff), and a Facebook page. My Spotify playlists are also open to the public, so anyone with similarly weird tastes in music can follow me there. My defunct blog on Christian Mysticism is anagnosis.wordpress.com My LJ journal is still out there but it sucks so I'm not telling you what it's called.

Everything on my blogroll is good, and probably better than my blog. If you like knitting and Detroit, visit my dear friend Amy's blog, bonneamieknits.wordpress.com. If you like cheese, Lutheran pastors or both, check out my college friend Katherine's cheese blog called Cheese Learnin': cheeselearnin.blogspot.com If you like theology, philosophy and heavy metal, check out my brother-in-law Lee's blog thinkingreed.wordpress.com. I would also plug your blog, but whoever is reading this is already reading it anyway.

If you like excellent, contemporary art by a living artist who is an amazing person, visit cherylpaswater.com and buy as much art from Cheryl as your budget will allow. If you like web comics, go to thebrothersgrant.com and read the brilliant and funny comic by my brilliant and funny friends Chris and Ginger. Everyone should also subscribe to the Bourbon Country Reader and buy Chuck Cowdery's book, Bourbon, Straight.  

I've never been interviewed like this before. I feel quite honored! Thanks!

Josh, thanks again for agreeing to this. Hopefully it was as much fun for you as it was for me.

A One-Month Manhattan

My father tried to get me something I really like for Christmas this year. He went out and bought me a big bottle of his favorite brandy. He was off a bit, but as we are both from Wisconsin, a bottle of Korbel brandy is not a bad guess if you can’t remember exactly which brown spirit is in someone’s glass and I appreciated the gesture. But no matter how much I appreciated the gesture, the sad fact of the matter was that I had 1.75 liters of a spirit that I didn’t really care for on hand and no idea what to do with it.

Fast forward to about a month or so ago. I had an idea: I wanted a Manhattan. This is not an unusual idea for me. If I’m not drinking my whiskey neat, this is the other way I drink it most often. The unusual part was that I wanted to try it with home made ingredients. I wanted to try making my own vermouth and my own bitters to see if it was worth the effort. I’ve been itching to try making my own bitters for a few years now and the vermouth? Well, the recipes I saw online called for brandy. So if this worked out, I’d have a use for that big bottle as well.

I found a recipe for a DIY vermouth on Serious Eats. It sounded easy enough to do, and it was. The only change I made was to add a bit of lemon zest to the mix because I thought it would pair nicely with the wine I was using and it did. The one thing that wine didn’t do though? Pair nicely with bourbon. Even with a high heat, low sweet bourbon, it made a Manhattan that was flabby and not tasty enough to be worth the effort. Unlike almost every other fortified wine I’ve tried though, I’d drink this one on it’s own. So there’s that. But as a use to get rid of that giant bottle? I’d be better off waiting for dad to visit.

I had a thought as I was making the vermouth. Sherry (one of the ingredients of the vermouth recipe I tried) is also a fortified wine. What if I put all the herbs, fruit peels and bittering agents into some sherry and let it sit in the fridge for a month or so? The answer, you get a very bitter, spicy sherry with hints of orange. But what if you then used a warm infusing technique to infuse more orange peel into more sherry and add that to the mix along with a little brandy? Well you get something very close to store bought. If you have a bunch of sherry on hand and don’t know what else to do with it, try this. The issue: it is so much like the store bought, that it seems a waste of sherry. You could make some fantastic sherry potatoes or even a sherry cake with that stuff. I mean Noilly Prat vermouth is only like six bucks here in Minnesota.

A little over a year ago, I bought a book on bitters by Brad Thomas Parsons, titled appropriately enough: Bitters. It’s a fantastic book, but I held off on making any of them because I wasn’t sure what I’d use them for. I have a bunch of bitters in my cabinet and I basically use the Angostura and the Angostura Orange. But this was a great excuse...err…opportunity to finally try one. Because I enjoy my manhattans with orange bitters, I chose to make the orange. The only change I made was in my choice of base spirit. The recipe called for high proof vodka. I knew this was going in manhattans, so I went with Old Granddad 114. Good call, it makes a fantastic bitters. The manhattan made with the Brad Thomas Parsons recipe was consistently chosen over the manhattan made using the Angostura Orange in a head to head match-up we had here at the house. And it didn’t matter what vermouth we used. It’s a little spicier and added a bit more definition to the drink. This recipe is a win. 

So two of these worked out, one didn’t. One was worth the time and effort, two were not. What’s the take away? Have fun trying things. If I’d have tweaked an ingredient here or there in the vermouths, they may have been fantastic. If I’d have used a different sherry or a wine that paired with bourbon better, it could have made all the difference. We don’t experiment because what’s out there is bad, we experiment because it is fun and the fun is it’s own reward. And heck, sometimes, like in the case of the orange bitters, you get the fun of making and something that is better than what you already had. There’s the dream. 

It may have taken almost a month to make these manhattans, but I now have a pint of orange bitters to use in manhattans for the next year, a spiced and fortified wine to drink over the next month or so and a way to use up excess sherry. That’s not so bad.

Bottom Shelf Bourbon Brackets: Prologue

I’ve been feeling the need for competition lately. No, I don’t want to actually compete. I want to watch competitions. Preferably in a comfy chair. With a drink close to hand. And one would think that this is the perfect time of year for that. What with two big, national college basketball tournaments and a national college ice hockey tournament happening or about to happen right about now.

But there is a problem. I’m bored by basketball. And hockey. When I watch either of those, I need a drink just so I can be interested in something. So what is a guy who is suffering from some serious cabin fever to do when bored by the offerings, yet still in need of competitive entertainment? Easy. Hold your own competition. 

But, it can’t be just any competition. It has to be a competition that means something. It has to be a winner takes all, earn a spot on the fancy bourbon shelf sort of competition. It’s got to be a bottom-shelf bourbon bracket with the winner earning…well...my eternal good wishes and a spot on the shelf? 

I think that’s prize enough. 

I don't want you to think this is some spur-of-the-moment thing though. I gave this some thought. I knew if I was going to have a legitimate competition, I had to have a few rules. 

  1. I wanted to find something new. So except for one selection which just happened to be already in my closet, these are all new to me. 

  2. I wanted them to be cheap. So I put the cut-off at $20 per liter or $15 per 750 mL. 

  3. I wanted them to be Straight Bourbon. Because…yeah, why wouldn’t I?

  4. I wanted them to be available in Minnesota, but I ran across two on my recent trip to Virginia which I decided to throw in as wild cards. As far as I know, neither are available in Minnesota. 

Once I knew I had the rules for selection in place, I also knew I was going to need some way of seeding these. It is a bracket after all. I came up with a few considerations to follow here as well. These are in order of importance. 

  1. Stated (or assumed) age. Straight bourbon has to be at least two years old. But unless it is under four years old you don’t have to put an age on it. So if someone does it’s either a good thing or a bad thing. I like to reward good things.

  2. Proof. Higher proof often equals better flavor. Not always, but it can be a good rule of thumb.

  3. No corporate cousins. I figured I could introduce a little more difference into each pairing if they didn’t come off the same still, or at the very least wasn’t sold by the same company.

So that’s it. The bracket is below. Division 1 chose first. Division 2 chose second. Because, math. Stay tuned.

And Now a Bit of Fun: The Four Roses Tournament of Single Barrels

In November, I took a vacation to North Carolina. I always try to drive when I go on vacation. It allows me to bring home more souvenirs that way. This trip was no exception. You see, I’d placed an order for every recipe of the Four Roses Single Barrels at the Party Source to be picked up on my way home. But there was a problem. There was one I couldn’t get. They were out of the OBSK. I looked online and called three different liquor stores that I knew I would be passing by. None of them had that one. So I decided to visit the Four Roses Cox’s Creek gift shop. 

I must have been an especially nice boy last year, because Santa smiled on me that day. They were just putting out all ten recipes the morning I got there. I took the tour, got my OBSK and headed over to the Four Roses distillery. Yep. I went backward. Aging and bottling first, then distillation.

I’ve made clear in the past that I am a fan of Four Roses. The last time I was in Lexington, I stopped off at a bar that had a private selection of OESF behind the bar. I liked it. A lot. When I saw there was a gift shop release of it sitting in the gift shop, well, let’s say I liked it enough that I wasn’t leaving without another. Then I bought one for my step-father as well. 

But was it my favorite? I was curious. Curious enough that my wife and I decided to hold a round-robin style tournament, over the course of a few days, to see which recipe of Four Roses we liked best. It’s simple. Put each of them head-to-head, add up the number of wins each recipe gets and see who has the most. 

Was it scientific? Nope. It was fun though. Here’s how it went.

If you add up the total wins for the both of us, the Tournament Champion is: OBSK. Hands down. It should, it was the gift shop selection and I’d have expected that going in. But total wins doesn’t tell the entire story, so here is how it broke down.

ME:

OBSK: 7 wins

OBSF, OESK: 6 wins

OESQ, OESO, OESV: 5 wins

OBSQ: 4 wins

OBSV: 3 wins

OESF, OBSO: 2 wins

Wife:

OBSV: 8 wins

OESK, OESF, OESV, OBSK: 6 wins

OBSQ, OESO: 4 wins

OBSO: 3 wins

OBSF: 2 wins

OESQ: 0 wins

So what does this mean? Well, it seems we both like the B (35% rye) mashbill slightly better than the E (20% rye). I seem to prefer the K yeast by a healthy margin since it was 2 of the top three. My wife was a fan of the V and K yeast being four of the top five between them. Beyond that, things seem to fall apart. My wife’s least favorite showed up in my top half and my least favorite showed up in her top half. What does that mean? Not much, we basically agreed on the K yeast. If we had to choose just one, it might need to be that. 

If you need to choose though, you need to ask yourself what flavor profile are you looking for. Do you want fairly typical bourbon flavors? Well, that’s what I found in my bottle of the OBSV. It should be the easiest to find as it’s their regular release. But if you want to step outside the easy to find, are you interested in spicy bourbons? Try one of the K yeasts. Both of my bottles were sweet and spicy. Or the O yeasts which I found to be peppery and warm. Would you like fruity or floral bourbons? Maybe V, F or Q. I found floral or fruity flavors in most of these. Of course, these are single barrels so the flavors and aromas I picked up in mine might not translate to the ones you find in yours. But, then that’s part of the fun.

What I’d really like to see, someday, is for them to put out a set of all ten in miniature bottles. Maybe just at the gift shop or something. Then we can all take part in the fun. Ah…dreams…maybe if we all ask really nicely…

Interview: David Cole of David Cole Creative, Bourbon Packaging Designer

Woodinville Whiskey Straight Bourbon Whiskey. Photo courtesy David Cole, www.davidcolecreative.com.

About two weeks ago I got a notice from a reader regarding an upcoming bourbon event. It turns out that he is also the designer of the label and packaging of this upcoming release. As I am also a designer who loves whiskey, I felt that there were some fun questions here to be answered. What follows is our conversation. 

So tell me a little about yourself, are you a bourbon drinker? What's your go-to pour?

Go-to pour? Quick answer, without over-thinking it would be Knob Creek, 9-year bourbon. That's my "every-day" favorite. But there sure are a lot of other options if you're in one mood or another. I got into whiskey via Old Overholt Rye! From there I acquired a taste for Maker's Mark Bourbon and Bulleit and it's been a bonanza of new experiences since then. I greatly enjoy Woodinville Whiskey's Microbarrel Bourbon and Rye. The bourbon is surprisingly mature for it's young age. I'm also enjoying the proliferation of Scotch-style, American single-malt whiskeys that are showing up. I guess it's hard to pick a favorite right now, when every week brings a new product to try - especially here in the Northwest. I can't even keep up with all the new releases. Eastland is doing some interesting things. So is Clear Creek. And I still have plenty of classics to get to know as well. I guess I can't afford to latch on to anything at the moment. There's so much yet to learn.

Like me, you are a designer. Unlike me, you design for bourbon bottles. How'd you get started with that specialty?

I started out in package design over 12 years ago right out of art school. My wife-to-be and I were both designers at a small agency in a small town for about two years. Then we moved to Seattle and got caught up in the "big city" design agency rat race for as long as we could stand it. That was profoundly educational but the work wasn't particularly rewarding for me. So in 2012 I decided to go it alone. I left the agency I was working for and went solo. My wife (www.nikkicolecreative.com) had already blazed that path, 4 years prior. I guess I was slow to figure it out. Anyway, my passion for packaging had been unsatisfied for some eight years or so. So I just decided that's what I was going to do. I guess I can't say that my passion for whiskey had been unsatisfied, but the two had yet to converge and that's what I was really wanting to make happen. So I posted some related work on my website and within months I was getting unsolicited calls and emails from local wineries and distillers. It's been snowballing since then and it's only just beginning! Just yesterday I got an email from a distiller in Ukraine. We're already talking details and it looks like it's going to be a fun project: A whole product line of hand-made fruit brandies. I can't wait to get started on designs.

What are some of the unique challenges in designing whisky bottles and packaging?

Compared to a great many other food and drink products, packaging for the spirits category is equally challenging, or maybe slightly less so. A great many food and drink products have to contend with refrigeration, moisture and other mechanical considerations related to packing, shipping and storage. Wine and spirits are thankfully free from these particular hurdles. It's just nuts and bolts stuff, but it has a pretty major impact on the materials and print processes that will be appropriate for the finished package. With spirits in particular, the door remains open to many processes that help achieve a premium look and feel in the package. Also, makers of whiskey and spirits are charging a lot more for their products than makers of jellies, chocolates, coffee and many of the other food producers I work with. Expectations are higher when it comes to selection of high quality materials such as natural cork, glass and premium label papers, etc. I prefer to design for premium, hand-made and/or natural products, so it's a perfect fit.

I know that the labels need to be submitted for approval, does this affect all portions of the design? or just the label portion itself?

The TTB is only concerned with certain pieces of information. In most cases that information appears on the primary label (or screen printed equivalent of a label), so I believe that's where their interest ends. I suppose they also regulate some other, non-label factors such as net contents. Only certain sizes are legal to sell in the United states: 200ml, 375ml and 500ml, if I remember correctly.

You have a bourbon that is launching soon that you designed. Tell us about that project, how did it come about

Woodinville Whiskey Company is a dream client for me. They contacted me out of the blue just over a year ago. They were exactly the client I was hoping for: A Northwest distiller with a lot of hand-crafted appeal and pride in their products. From day one, we got along famously. We're on the same page every time we meet to discuss projects, in terms of the vision for what we want to accomplish and what will be right for their brand. It's a great relationship. After I'd worked on some other projects for them, they asked me to help with this straight bourbon. I was excited to help. A young distilleries first straight whiskey is a big deal. It's a rite of passage and I'm honored to be a part of it.

Anything else you'd like to share? Where can we see more of your work?

I have a lot of irons in the fire right now! I'm currently doing work on other exciting (and top-secret) projects for Woodinville Whiskey Co. Some of that will be public in the coming weeks and some of it will be another year or so - some really cool stuff. I'm also branding and designing bottles/labels for a new, startup distiller in Eastern Washington. They will have product on the shelves this spring and I'm very excited about the direction it's heading. Unfortunately, it's also not public yet, but I'll let you know. In addition to that, I'm currently in discussions with two vodka makers and three wineries! 

I'll be appearing at an American Distilling Institute event in a few weeks, Hosted by Heritage Distilling, in Gig Harbor Washington. I was graciously invited to share some packaging design knowledge with the distillers who will be in attendance, so I'm hoping a new relationship or two comes out of that. And in related news, I have a great long-term relationship with Seattle's Canon: Whiskey & Bitters Emporium. I've done some labels for them (bitters and aged cocktails), menu designs, and a 100-page cocktail book (now in its second edition), among some other odds and ends. Oh, and I recently had an Italian glass maker pickup one of my original 750ml bottle designs as a stock offering in their catalogue for next year! I even got to name it! I get to see the prototype next week. Very excited. There's a lot going on! I just wish more of it was public, but you can be sure I'll be updating my website (http://www.davidcolecreative.com) and tweeting (@Davidscole) about new developments as soon as they are ready to share.

I'm having a lot of fun, doing what I love and I feel very fortunate to work with the amazing clients I have - and I'm excited about who I might meet next. It's always an adventure.

David, thanks for sharing all this with us. I find this sort of behind-the-scenes fascinating and I hope everyone else does too!

Book Review: Whiskey Women—The Untold Story of How Women Saved Bourbon, Scotch, and Irish Whiskey by Fred Minnick

Men have a tendency to take women for granted. Even those of us who would do anything for our wives sometimes forget just how much they do for us. It’s a sad truth to have to admit. Especially for someone who was raised by a single mother and saw firsthand how much she had to do to just get us basic necessities.

I read a lot of histories. It’s my other passion beside whiskey. Rarely are women mentioned in them. When they are, they are not normally portrayed as good people. It seems that a lot of historical writers seemed to think that if a woman was worth noting it was for how unlike a woman she was. 

And that’s what makes Whiskey Women—The Untold Story of How Women Saved Bourbon, Scotch, and Irish Whiskey by Fred Minnick so refreshing. Not only does it bring together my love of whiskey with my love of history, but it treats women as the human beings they are. People who work hard, have aspirations and do good things that are profitable and sometimes charitable. It also doesn’t hurt that Fred is possibly one of the best authors I’ve read. Seriously, if you see his name on a piece, just read it. It’ll be worth your time.

Doubly so in the case of this book. Minnick’s book ranges from the dawn of history up through the present day. He presents the stories of woman from such wide ranging locations as Egypt, the British Isles and North America. Whether it is the stories of woman who made and sold whiskey, those who tried to get rid of it or those who succeeded in making sure it never truly went away Minnick presents each story with respect. There is none of the “and can you believe all this was done by a woman?” that you find in other history books I’ve read.

This is a great book. Whether you are into whiskey, history or both this deserves a place on your book shelf. Love it. Go buy it today.

Traveling to Canada

It's National Bourbon Heritage Month in the United States and I'm about to go traveling. Can you guess where?  

That's right! Canada.

Wait...what? ...checks script... Yep, it says Canada all right.  

"But Eric," I hear you saying to me, "why Canada? Why not someplace like Kentucky? I mean, BourbonFest is next week?"

And you're right, BourbonFest is next week. And BourbonFest is great. If you haven't gone, I highly suggest you go. In fact, if you can't go this year, I will meet you there in 2014 as I am going for certain.

But this year I'm visiting Toronto. A city I have never been to in a country I have never been to. And I'm going solely for one reason: whisky (no e in Canada). You might remember that last May, I participated in the #DavinTT Twitter Tasting. It was my first positive exposure to Canadian Whisky and when my wife offered me the chance to tag along as she took her mother to Niagara Falls, I jumped at the chance to see what other delights those pesky Canadians were keeping to themselves. (I picture a whisky paradise where streams and rivers running golden with perfectly aged, and oh so tasty, whisky.) I have plans to drink whisky, shop for whisky, meet with some whisky enthusiasts, and be driven around by my mother-in-law.

So while all the cool kids are having fun next week in Bardstown with their Bourbon and their Fest, I'll be home, watching the blogs and the twitter, not even wishing I was there with them. Because I'll be in my office, swirling a glass of tasty Canadian Whisky, briefly plotting to take over the world (like all good citizens of the United States) before succumbing to the tasty delights of Canada and no longer caring about such things as plots or worlds.