Monday, September 17, 2007

Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center, Bardstown, KY.

On Saturday the 15th, on the way back from touring the Maker's Mark Distillery, we stopped at the Heaven Hill "Bourbon Heritage Center". This beautiful new visitor's center outlines the process of making bourbon, and highlights the famous names in the spirit's past (notably Elijah Craig and Evan Williams, whose names the distillery use for bottling). They show an interesting video before we were lead through a tasting. Special mention has to be made to the fact they let us taste their premium bottlings, specifically the 1997 Vintage of the Evan Williams Single Barrel, and Elijah Craig 18 year. There were also aging warehouses on site and their bottling line, which they give tours of, though we did not go. There is no distillery tour on site, because it burned in 1996. Heaven Hill now distills at the Bernheim Plant in Louisville. Overall it was a very nice experience. There is a quick overview of Heaven Hill below.
Heaven Hill was founded shortly after the repeal of Prohibition in 1935 by five brothers of the Shapira family, whose descendants control the company to this day. The original name of the company was "Old Heavenhill Springs" distillery. The company was founded as a bourbon distillery, and for most of its existence has concentrated on its flagship bourbon labels, Evan Williams and Elijah Craig. However, in the past two decades the company has expanded its portfolio significantly, acquiring brands or obtaining import rights for gins, malt whiskey, vodkas, and other drinks.

On November 7, 1996, Heaven Hill's production plant was almost completely destroyed by fire; the company's warehouses were destroyed, and over 90,000 gallons of alcohol lost. The company survived the next several years through the provision of production capacity by its fellow local bourbon labels, Brown-Forman and Jim Beam, until its purchase and adaptation of the new Heaven Hill Bernheim distillery in Louisville. While fermenting, mashing, and distilling occurs at the new distillery, aging, bottling, and shipping still occur in Bardstown.

Heaven Hill's location in the historical home of bourbon-making, coupled with its status as the only such company still under local ownership, has led it to take a role in curating and advertising bourbon tradition. In 2004, the Bourbon Heritage Center was opened on distillery grounds, featuring historical exhibits and guided tours of the plant. The company also helps host the annual Kentucky Bourbon Festival, and many of the company's own labels are named after famous local distillers.


TomC

Visiting Maker's Mark in Loretto, KY.

On Saturday the 15th we went to check out the Maker's Mark Distillery. It is a registered National Landmark and they clearly spent a good amount of time lovingly restoring the site. The tour was thorough, though a bit quick because they had to account for the increased crowds due to the Bourbon festival. That said they were very accommodating by allowing people to wander the grounds as much as they wanted. It really was a very good tour, its too bad I do not like their bourbon very much. There is a bit a quick overview of Maker's Mark after the pictures we took on the tour.

(Visitor's Center.)(Where they boil the grains to make Mash.)(The yeast hard at work in cypress fermenters.)(Small section of the column still.)(Aging gracefully on the hill.)(The tasting room.)

Maker's Mark is a hand crafted small batch type of bourbon whisky distilled in Loretto, Kentucky.

When the famous T.W. Samuels family of distilling sold their distillery and their trademarks in the 1950s, those members of the family who wished to continue in the business began to search for a small distillery to purchase and continue the trade on a smaller scale, emphasizing high-quality production over high-volume production. They soon found an older distillery in Loretto, Kentucky that had not been operational for several years but was just the right size for the proposed operation. The Samuels decided to come up with a new recipe for their bourbon in order to make it smoother, but since the aging process for bourbon takes years, could not take the time involved actually to distill and age many batches of bourbon of varying ingredients.

A unique solution to this problem was decided upon. Loaves of bread containing the exact proportion of the grain contents of each proposed recipe were baked and the one judged to be the best-tasting was adopted. Interestingly, the one selected contained no rye whatsoever, which was replaced by more barley and wheat. Accordingly, on February 25, 1954, Bill Samuels Sr., a sixth generation Kentucky distiller, burned his family's 170-year-old bourbon recipe. The first bottle of Maker's Mark was sold in 1958 and featured the dipped red wax seal.

Unlike most bourbons, Maker's Mark is not aged for any specific period of years; rather it is bottled and marketed when expert tasters agree that it is ready. Also, the barrels are moved from the lower to the upper floors of the warehouse and back down during the aging process to benefit from the differences in temperature at the various levels. This practice was once common in the distilling industry, but has been largely abandoned due to the high labor expense.

Maker's Mark is sold in unusually-shaped squarish bottles which are sealed with red wax. In the United States, only one variety is marketed, bottled at 90 U.S. proof (45% alcohol by volume). There is a higher (101.5) proof brand, sealed with gold wax, previously marketed in the U.S. but now sent only to selected export markets. The seal on the bottle says "S IV". This mark indicates that the Samuels family (generation #4) is now in charge of the distilling process.

Maker's Mark enjoys something of a cult status in certain circles. For years it was marketed with the tag line, "It tastes expensive ... and is."

The Loretto, Kentucky distillery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 31, 1974, and designated a National Historic Landmark on December 16, 1980, listed as "Burks' Distillery". It was the first distillery in America to be so recognized, and the only one where landmark buildings are actively used for distilling. Maker's Mark distillery is on the American Whiskey Trail.

Today, Maker's Mark is owned by Lincolnshire, Illinois-based Fortune Brands, which acquired it from distillery giant UK-based Allied Domecq in 2005 (as well as Courvoisier cognac, Sauza tequila, Canadian Club whisky, Laphroaig single-malt Scotch and Clos du Bois wines) in a joint bid with French rival Pernod Ricard.

Interestingly, Maker's Mark is one of the only American made whiskies to be spelled in the traditional form, "whisky," as opposed to "whiskey." Technically, in United States law, the official American spelling is "whiskey," but an exception exists to allow it be spelled without an "e." Maker's Mark does this as an homage to the creators Scottish heritage.

TomC

Cave City/Park City, KY Tobacco Production

While not necessarily used in CIGAR production, I recieved and unexpected and yet very insightful look into American Tobacco growth and processing on my recent vacation trip.
Well as many of my loyal readers know I just returned from a trip to the Bourbon Festival in KY. At the beginning of the week Carrie and I decided to go to Mammoth Cave for two days in Cave City (Barren County) in the southwestern part of the state. On Thursday morning while Carrie was showering I was looking out my hotel's back window when something peaked my interest, so I grabbed the digital camera and walked over to check it out:
When I came home last night I did a little research, and it seems Cave City is in the "Black Patch" region of KY, one of the largest tobacco producing areas in the country, and for that matter, the world. Kentucky farmers grow three types of tobacco: burley, dark fire-cured, and dark air-cured. Burley tobacco (which is what I saw), comprising more than 90% of total production, is grown in 119 of Kentucky's 120 counties and is used primarily in cigarettes. Dark fire-cured and dark air-cured production is concentrated in 33 western Kentucky counties and is used primarily in smokeless tobacco products such as snuff, chewing and pipe tobacco. The value of tobacco production generally exceeds $1 million annually for more than 100 Kentucky counties. Kentucky is the nation's largest producer of burley tobacco and dark fire- and air-cured tobaccos. Only North Carolina surpasses Kentucky in tobacco production.

After figuring out what this barn was, I began noticing them everywhere we went those two days.

Then in Park City, and adjoining town, we found a half harvested field, just for good measure:In the U.S., burley tobacco plants are started from pelletized seeds placed in polystyrene trays floated on a bed of fertilized water in March or April. Transplanting begins in May and progresses through June with a small percentage set in July.

Plants are topped by removing the developing flower head at approximately 60 days from transplanting and treated to prevent the growth of side shoots called suckers. Topping allows energy that would have produced a bloom to promote leaf expansion.

At approximately four weeks after topping the tobacco is stalk cut using a knife that is shaped like a tomahawk. Each plant is speared, spiked or spudded (the terminology depending on the geographic location) onto a stick topped by a metal spear, spike or spud that fits over the stick. Each stick will contain five or six stalks. Sticks of green cut tobacco are most often allowed to field wilt for three or four days prior to hanging in a barn.

Tobacco is allowed to air cure for eight or more weeks turning from the normal pale green to yellow and then to brown. Burley that cures too quickly will retain some of the yellow pigments as well as chemicals that normally break down with a slower cure. The quality achieved by U.S. burley producers is primarily due to natural curing conditions.

Once fully cured burley is taken down, sticks are removed and leaves are stripped from the plant into grades by stalk position. Leaves are baled by grade and taken to an auction warehouse or to a receiving station run by a tobacco manufacturer or leaf dealer.

We saw the "spearing" and "field wilting" as described above, as well, but were shooed off the field by some rather adamant young men in a large beat up pickup truck before being able to get photos. The photo below accurately depicts the field curing as we saw.

I thought this was an incredible piece of fortunate luck as a cigar enthusiast to catch this stuff in action. It may be tobacco being raised for use in cigarettes, but as someone who most likely will never make it to a cigar plantation, to see some of the processes in action was quite a surprise find!

TomC