Good Things... Woodford Reserve

Well... school started this week so it looks like summer is on the way out.  You wouldn't know it by the weather, because, DAMN, it is still hot and humid.  Nonetheless, I spent a little time each morning this week at the bus stop making sure my little folks at least made it that far.  To cap the week off we had a little cook-out at our house last night... you know, a couple of good friends and great food... kind of a last hoorah of summer.  Of course, we also watched Phelps win (barely this time) another gold medal... seven down... one to go!

As I was into my third vodka tonic, I realized that many of the rules that just make good fashion sense also apply to liquor as well.  Yes, soon enough we would be putting the vodka away for the season and dusting off the bourbon for another fall football season.  I'm sure there are some folks out there that just continue with the same libations all year long but for me bourbon is much more enjoyable in the cool fall air rather than the high humidity of summer. 

I spent a couple of years in Lexington, Ky and it was here that I refined my bourbon tastes.  Up unto this point in my life, my bourbon experience was limited to Jim Beam bought at Kiamie's and the only thing I really knew was that there was something magical that happened when you mixed a bourbon and coke in Vaught Heminway... perhaps it was the fact that the concoction was stirred with flag stick.   While the bluegrass isn't known as a football powerhouse, they do produce some dang good racehorses and bourbon.  Like I said, it was here that I had my bourbon horizon's expanded.  But it wasn't until a couple years later that I wandered upon, what I consider, one of the best bourbons you can find on the shelf at just about any local liquor store.  Woodford Reserve and water has taken the place of the Beam and coke.... heck it has even replaced Maker's Mark. 

My buddy had a convertible and one of our favorite pastimes was "country roadin".  We used to just drop the top and drive through the storied bluegrass horse farms late at night.  During my last visit to Lexington we drove out to the Woodford Distillery.  Words cannot accurately describe how cool it really is... just one of those unique places that does one thing really well.