The Bourbon Episode: Buffalo Trails, Wild Whiskey, Moonshine Memories and Family Traditions

Aged to Perfection: The Bourbon Episode of Family Tree, Food & Stories!
Ever wondered how bourbon became such a staple in old-fashioned American family gatherings and even recipes? In this episode of Family Tree, Food & Stories , co-hosts Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely take you on a journey through the rich history and personal family stories of bourbon.
Here they'll take you on a journey of some very interesting "spirited" origins of iconic distilleries like Buffalo Trace, delve into the differences between bourbon and whiskey, and share some personal tales—like that time someone tried to smuggle homemade moonshine through airport security!
And of course, Nancy and Sylvia can't talk about bourbon without mentioning Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve . This ultra-rare bourbon, aged for up to 23 years, has become a collector's dream, with one bottle that's even been sold for $125,000 at auction. Its scarcity and unique flavor profile have secured its status as the ultimate example of good-old American bourbon craftsmanship.
There's a lot of mystique and mystery that comes in a glass of bourbon and stories from birth, weddings, death, and even beyond the grave!
So, pour yourself a glass and join Nancy and Sylvia as they tilt their glasses to the stories that make our family traditions - and bourbon - so special.
Key Takeaways:
- The early stories of how bourbon came to be.
- The "recipe."
- Buffalo really did roam Kentucky, and the importance of this to bourbon and whiskey.
- Stories about some of the most expensive bourbon on the market, and why it's so pricy.
- Personal inside stories about bourbon, whisky, and even moonshine
- How bourbon brings families together, and more.
🎧 Tune In and Share the Love and More in this Mother's Day episode :
Join us as we celebrate Mother's Day by honoring the traditions, recipes, and stories that connect us to our roots. Whether you're looking for ideas to start a new tradition or simply honoring mom with tried-and-true traditions, this episode is a tribute to mothers everywhere.
Remember, every mom, whether human or fur-baby caregiver, deserves a day filled with joy, good food, and endless stories.
Tune in now and make this Mother's Day unforgettable for you and your mom!
📣 What's Next?
Love food and a good story? Hit subscribe to Family Tree, Food & Stories for more unforgettable tales where laughter simmers, tradition stirs, and every meal comes with a side of real-life flavor.
👇 Share this episode with a friend who’s ever fought a box of noodles and lived to tell about it—and don’t forget to leave a review!
👇 Share Your Story With Nancy & Sylvia! : Leave us a voicemail or send us a DM on Facebook.
Additional Links ❤️
- Book: My Family Tree, Food & Stories Journal Awarded #1 New Release on Amazon
- Instagram 📸
- FaceBook 👍
A bout Your Award-Winning Hosts: Nancy May and Sylvia Lovely are the powerhouse team behind Family Tree, Food & Stories , a member of The Food Stories Media Network , which celebrates the rich traditions and connections everyone has around food, friends, and family meals. Nancy, an award-winning business leader, author, and podcaster, and Sylvia, a visionary author, lawyer, and former CEO, combine their expertise to bring captivating stories rooted in history, heritage, and food. Together, they weave stories that blend history, tradition, and the love of food, where generations connect and share intriguing mealtime stories and kitchen foibles.
#kentuckybourbon #bourbon #whiskeyhistory #whisky #moonshine #BourbonCulture #BourbonTrail #familystories #dad'sbourbon #maker'smark #pappyvanwinklefamilybourbon #whiskeyvsbourbon @familytreefoodstories #craftbourbon #distilleries #kentuckydistilleries #bourbontrail #buffalotrace #bourbonrecipe #craftdrinks #spirits #familystories #familyhistory
Hey Sylvia, we're up for a rather thirsty show today, aren't we?
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Do you have your bottle ready?
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We're going to talk about.
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I love it.
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Hey, I thought though that we would be skin to begin a discussion of bourbon and spirits
and we'll talk a little bit about what that is by exploring the idea because our listeners
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might be wondering family tree food and stories.
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What does bourbon have to do with that?
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Well, we'll find out later in the show that bourbon actually is now.
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put on all kinds of food.
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It's one of the essential ingredients in lot of foods, particularly in central Kentucky,
which is the land of bourbon.
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But what is food, Nancy?
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What do we mean when we talk about food?
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Well, you I guess it depends whether it's liquid or solid.
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And you mentioned spirits and I said, may the spirit move me this morning as we're this
show.
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But I think there's a big question.
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and you you talk about family tree food and stories.
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Well, there's a lot of spirits, we'll call them, you know, alcoholic spirits that's always
seems to get into a family story somewhere, right?
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You've got your grandma's rum cake story.
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There's always a rum cake story somewhere.
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There's something's loaded in the, around the Christmas time.
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You've got the, God, I'm drawing a blank on it, brain cramp.
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Maybe I need some more of those spirits to keep me going, right?
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But the fruitcake, right?
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The fruitcake is always soaked in something.
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I've got my grandma's rhubarb wine.
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We also had, growing up, my folks' peach brandy.
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Peach brandy, like where you bury the peaches.
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I guess the question is whether you remember to dig up the peaches.
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Mm-hmm.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, so, and actually in foods, this is kind of interesting too.
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We should just say before we get into actually the spirits part of it, but they're really
great in marinades, like in beef and they break down the proteins and make the meat
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tender.
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So that's really cool.
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Is it marinade or marinate?
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Marinade.
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I said marinate.
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that's true.
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herbs, or herbs?
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Darling.
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I was showing my Eastern Kentucky roots at marinade.
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she can do anything she wants.
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That's right.
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Anyway, know, and my rum cake idea that came out in our book where we talked about that
where we tricked my grandmother who was a teetotaler into eating rum cake.
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So it was the best thing she'd ever eaten and she had no idea it had rum in it.
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grandma.
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There you go, grandma.
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But why don't we just dive right into bourbon and spirits?
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We're not talking about, yeah?
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Yeah, yeah, just imagine those.
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Have you ever been in a distillery?
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Those huge vats that contain all of the ingredients that make up bourbon, can either be,
in Kentucky's has to be 51 % corn, which makes bourbon sweeter.
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than most spirits, but then you can experiment with the other part of the ingredients, and
that's 51 % in Kentucky.
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Yeah.
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So you say bourbon is 51 % corn.
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What else would you make bourbon with?
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Wheat or rye?
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Or is that, that's whiskey instead, right?
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no you the other half can be all kinds of other things that go into the mash and It can be
rye can boot weight.
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I was reading something about wheat That that's one of the things I mean you mentioned
buffalo trace that some of the really fine bourbons have wheat in them and beyond Yeah
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that I'm not a bourbon aficionado, but I'm learning from the Kentucky girl herself.
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So you could have to fill me in on this one.
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it's crazy.
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It known you know, Kentucky was kind of the place where it could be happening.
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And I'd say that for two reasons.
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One, corn, or as corn state, fertile land and limestone water, which is also by the way,
good for horses.
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So think about it makes good strength and good.
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Well, you know, that's kind of interesting, because I'm not known for my strong bones.
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but I drink the water here.
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But here's the other part of the story, moonshiners.
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Now, I'm going to say it because this is my heritage.
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I came from the Irish and the Irish came over here and the potato famine and frankly,
Nancy, I think there were probably some outlaws in the bunch, right?
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So they went from the coast and they kept going over the mountain range, over the mountain
range and they arrive in Kentucky.
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And what did they do?
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They set up illegal stills.
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all over the place.
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And even to this day, moonshiners, and it got kind of a mystique about it.
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It was the revenuers versus the IRS versus the moonshiners.
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And then there's all kinds of elaborate stories, including one that I just love to hear,
one of my upstanding political citizens that I worked for at one time, just a dear guy.
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And he was like, my vantage, but he would talk about as a child in Northern Kentucky,
which is known as a den of sin anyway.
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They would have the gambling machines and the stills and all that kind of stuff going on.
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And they would just make it almost portable and push it to the back room when the feds
came along to kind of cut.
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So yeah, cops.
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And he grew up with that.
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It's like, you know, sort of people who are kind of illegal by choice.
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And that's how.
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Do you have a moonshine story?
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I do have a moonshine story.
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honestly, didn't really, I was a, I wouldn't say a teetotaller as a kid, but I didn't
really drink.
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mean, kids in high school drank where I grew up.
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I think most, you you'll smoke a cigarette behind the barn.
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I have a beer behind the barn, whatever that is behind the barn.
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won't go there, but I was in the barn with the horses.
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That was me.
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I could care less about anything else.
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But when I went to college, of course, I was thrown in that den of thieves.
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Well, no, I have to admit my first experience was helping a senior, woman take her trunk,
her steamer trunk up four flights of stairs.
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And she said, you're going to help me?
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And I said, yeah, got nothing else to do.
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Why not?
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So she offered to buy me a beer that evening at the local, well, it's the pub in the
basement of the main hall of the school.
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And I thought, can I do this?
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So after like a couple of sips of beer, thought I was drunk.
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But later on, all right, I could, I could drink a little bit more of the beer.
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The guys would do moonshine chasers with that were lit.
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So they had the fire on the top and they like lit.
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I never did that.
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I never did that, but I was like, okay, you guys can do that.
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And garbage pail parties.
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You want a garbage pail party is.
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I've heard of that, but tell me more so I can avoid it.
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whatever kind of garbage they can possibly, know, a mad dog 2020, if anybody remembers
that.
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my God, don't even go there.
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So I'm going to sound like a total non-teatotaller to this show, but I'm beginning to
wonder.
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Yeah, my coffee is, my coffee is a virgin coffee right now.
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And you throw all sorts of garbage, literally garbage you can put in the garbage can and
Kool-Aid and you name it.
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And it always tasted like Kool-Aid.
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So guess what?
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Garbage can parties.
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A lot of stuff went in there.
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And you can drink too much because it's like Kool-Aid, right?
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Well, yeah, yeah, was the next morning that I learned what a hangover was in college too.
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So I don't do that anymore.
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No, no, no, Hey, my moonshine story is moonshine is made all over the world, by the way.
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People make illegal liquor.
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Now, it can be very dangerous if you don't know what you're doing.
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But in Romania, I went I did a trip, a mission, not a mission trip, but like a business
trip to Romania.
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And I took a group with me and they treated us like royalty.
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And they would put
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their moonshine in Coke bottles.
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They would empty the Coke bottles and they had their moonshine in plastic Coke bottles.
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And when we were leaving, they insisted that we take some of their moonshine with us in
the Coke bottles.
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And we're like, well, you know, I don't we don't know.
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Well, here's what happened.
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We packed it away, you know, tightly packed it away in our luggage.
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And it gets to Cincinnati's airport, which is a big airport and
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We get our luggage off the thing, the whatever they call it, and we get the luggage off
and here come the dogs.
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Here come some authorities with dogs and we're just, there's about five of us, kind of
people that don't want our names in the newspaper for, you know, transporting illegal,
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yeah, smuggling in alcohol.
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And we were holding our breath as a beagle walked up to our luggage and begin, you know,
doing the sniff and then walked away.
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Yahoo!
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Obviously a dog with a bad sniffer.
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That's as close to illegal as I've gotten.
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So there you go.
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I'm pretty boring.
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You know, it really didn't and I didn't think it was that good.
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It was just real strong.
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I'm not a big, my husband is a bourbon aficionado.
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I'm really not.
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Now it's sweeter than a lot of bourbons, you know, that have been a lot of whiskeys and
things like that.
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because bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskies are bourbon because bourbon, 95 % of it
made in Kentucky.
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And it has to have that ratio, a certain ratio of ingredients in order to be called
bourbon.
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Well, that's kind of interesting, but I always thought that in order to be called bourbon,
it had to be made in Kentucky, not anywhere else.
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Mm-hmm.
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Well, 95 % of it, I think, you know, I mean, who can like stop it is what I wonder.
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I don't know, does Kentucky, I don't know, you know, when you think about it, does
Kentucky have the right to stop it?
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Other than Kentucky bourbon and being 95 % has that mystique about it, has the story
behind it.
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As you were mentioning, the Buffalo Trace story, which is a phenomenal story and
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bit about Buffalo Trace because I just heard about this over the weekend when I was at
the, the 50 over 50 podcast awards, which way we're winners.
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Yay.
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I guess we'll have to have a bourbon, but, but I didn't know about it and was sitting in
the after party.
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They had the after party in this kind of interesting, great little place.
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And it's, had, was, well, they sold alcohol there.
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So.
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I'm looking at this bottle and thought that's kind of interesting.
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And I pick it up and said, it's from Kentucky.
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And there was a fellow there who said, yes, that's a very well-known particular brand of
bourbon.
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And he explained that it was, I guess there's a Buffalo trail that goes through, I don't
think of Buffalo's in Kentucky.
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yes, buffaloes.
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That's what the settlers first saw when they arrived, Daniel Boone, all the mystique
surrounding Daniel Boone.
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But what the buffalo trace was the Kentucky River runs through our state capital,
Frankfort, Kentucky, which is about 45 minutes from Lexington.
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And the trail is where the lowest point of the Kentucky River, which runs right through
Frankfort, it floods all the time.
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And the buffalo would go right through where the
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plant now is, the manufacturing facility, the storied buildings of Buffalo Trace.
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I can't wait to show it to you.
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mean, it's really quite a beautiful setting.
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And the history in the 1700s, and then it's changed hands several times.
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It was family oriented, as so many distilleries are.
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It's like a family thing to...
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guess it adds a new twist to the term, you've been buffaloed, right?
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Yeah.
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yeah.
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I mean, really, seriously.
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But out of that came probably the most famous bourbon of all the most expensive is
Pappy's.
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Pappy Van Winkle.
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well, just just to say it is and I don't want our listeners like to think all we're doing
is giving them a super history of bourbon.
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But let's give them a super history of bourbon.
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Pappy's.
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Pappy Van Winkle invented this bourbon.
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But what made it most famous?
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is it's old.
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And at one time, they would throw the bourbon away when it got to be a certain age.
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Then they found out people actually liked it and it became even smoother and in suing
years that it would be stored.
194
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now, now they there was this great video on the website that talks where they the
successors, the family, the Van Winkle's, but but think about the Van Winkle legend.
195
00:13:18,529 --> 00:13:20,415
I mean, for a person to be born,
196
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asleep.
197
00:13:21,056 --> 00:13:26,646
Winkle and Rip Van Winkle slept for 20 years after drinking a bottle of Hooch.
198
00:13:26,646 --> 00:13:28,830
I don't know what it was.
199
00:13:31,032 --> 00:13:33,333
Yeah, for 20 years, I don't know.
200
00:13:33,333 --> 00:13:37,566
But but it does have that sort of wonderful kind of feel to it.
201
00:13:37,566 --> 00:13:42,818
You know, if you can afford a $30,000 bottle of bourbon.
202
00:13:43,479 --> 00:13:48,501
Typically, typically, I mean, people line up in lotteries to get this stuff.
203
00:13:48,501 --> 00:13:51,721
I can think of other things to do with $30,000.
204
00:13:51,721 --> 00:13:55,381
I'm sorry, Pappies.
205
00:13:55,801 --> 00:13:56,621
Yeah.
206
00:13:56,920 --> 00:14:05,444
it, you know we went through prohibition and that was the 18th Amendment and it was passed
in 1919 and that was the big movement.
207
00:14:05,444 --> 00:14:12,346
There was a lot of stuff going on, the Temperance League, the Christian Ladies Society,
all of those things made that happen.
208
00:14:12,346 --> 00:14:21,600
But Buffalo Trace was able and allowed to manufacture medicinal bourbon.
209
00:14:22,837 --> 00:14:23,897
wait a second, wait a second.
210
00:14:23,897 --> 00:14:25,248
I'm going to stop you there.
211
00:14:25,248 --> 00:14:28,750
So COVID, not too long ago, right?
212
00:14:28,951 --> 00:14:33,934
And all the medicinal moonshine that was used to wash your hands and stuff.
213
00:14:33,934 --> 00:14:34,354
okay.
214
00:14:34,354 --> 00:14:37,677
So it was, it was really basically, it was alcohol.
215
00:14:37,677 --> 00:14:44,241
And yeah, it's, I wonder how many people drank that instead versus going to the store.
216
00:14:44,302 --> 00:14:47,102
Pretty clever, isn't it, to be able to manufacture.
217
00:14:47,102 --> 00:14:59,742
So they were one of the, I think there were four distilleries that were able to, like when
the amendment was repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933, they were one of the few that
218
00:14:59,742 --> 00:15:00,462
survived.
219
00:15:00,462 --> 00:15:03,202
I think there were four distilleries after all of that.
220
00:15:03,202 --> 00:15:05,632
So anyway, just a brief, brief history.
221
00:15:05,632 --> 00:15:18,026
well, let's take a little break on that history because we're going to come back with a
lot more because, after all, there is family history to Moonshine and Bourbon.
222
00:15:18,787 --> 00:15:19,298
Hang tight.
223
00:15:19,298 --> 00:15:20,519
We'll be right back.
224
00:15:35,615 --> 00:15:44,738
So Sylvia, we've been talking a little bit, a lot about bourbon and well, I don't know how
much you drink, but well, we won't go there.
225
00:15:44,738 --> 00:15:45,662
I'm a wino.
226
00:15:45,662 --> 00:15:48,372
I will establish right here and now I'm a wino.
227
00:15:48,372 --> 00:15:49,345
I love my wine.
228
00:15:49,345 --> 00:15:51,528
Yeah.
229
00:15:51,528 --> 00:15:59,995
the note of wine, you know they actually mix wine and bourbon and then you've got a lot of
wine now that's being aged in bourbon barrels.
230
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So I like that.
231
00:16:01,557 --> 00:16:03,058
It's really good.
232
00:16:03,839 --> 00:16:04,799
Yes.
233
00:16:05,220 --> 00:16:06,872
And the more you drink, the more stories you have.
234
00:16:06,872 --> 00:16:08,846
So hence family tree food and stories.
235
00:16:08,846 --> 00:16:12,169
does loosen up the stories when you think about it.
236
00:16:12,169 --> 00:16:22,978
You know, you think about spirits and technically and scientifically what spirits are is
the vapor that rises in the distilling process and the fermentation process.
237
00:16:22,978 --> 00:16:27,722
But what I love, the better definition that I love is spirits is that
238
00:16:27,842 --> 00:16:32,988
Drinking that bourbon or that whiskey kind of unleashes your spirit.
239
00:16:32,989 --> 00:16:34,449
Think about it.
240
00:16:35,231 --> 00:16:40,337
You you get a little, you know, stories flow, right?
241
00:16:40,337 --> 00:16:42,800
Just like good liquor.
242
00:16:43,485 --> 00:16:52,267
Right, instead of saying, the spirits or let the stars be with you, let the stars be
aligned, we'll just let the bourbon be with you, right?
243
00:16:52,267 --> 00:16:53,077
I love that.
244
00:16:53,077 --> 00:16:55,200
Spirits, and it's named that for a purpose.
245
00:16:55,200 --> 00:16:59,453
And I prefer the magical part as opposed to the spirits.
246
00:16:59,453 --> 00:17:06,033
Well, there's a lot of magic, but in bourbon is really got a very interesting follow
around the world too.
247
00:17:06,033 --> 00:17:15,413
Now in Japan, there's like crazy, like, well, sorry if anybody who's Japanese and listen
to this, but I think some of the traditions and things that they do over Japan are a
248
00:17:15,413 --> 00:17:20,373
little wackadoo, but maybe that's for more state.
249
00:17:20,373 --> 00:17:26,442
Well, it depends on whether we're more state or not Americans, but they are crazy over
bourbon, right?
250
00:17:26,442 --> 00:17:30,708
I mean, it's quite an import of Kentucky bourbon.
251
00:17:30,708 --> 00:17:32,430
I mean, it's just amazing.
252
00:17:32,430 --> 00:17:34,913
And the most popular one, what do you think, Nancy?
253
00:17:34,913 --> 00:17:39,163
What's the most popular bourbon sold nearly everywhere bourbon is sold?
254
00:17:39,163 --> 00:17:45,468
Well, I'm going to say maker's mark because it's it's so obvious that you've got that
plastic was not even plastic.
255
00:17:45,468 --> 00:17:49,170
It's wax on the top and every dip is a little different.
256
00:17:49,170 --> 00:17:56,215
And, know, I've got a story on that one that people may not know, but it is the wife of
the original founder.
257
00:17:56,215 --> 00:17:59,338
Well, well, let's see if she's actually called the founder or not.
258
00:17:59,338 --> 00:18:01,289
Is it what's her name again?
259
00:18:02,670 --> 00:18:03,591
Sam yells.
260
00:18:03,591 --> 00:18:06,648
Well, I think it was I don't remember her first name.
261
00:18:06,648 --> 00:18:08,363
named Samuels among them.
262
00:18:08,363 --> 00:18:09,666
So, Ms.
263
00:18:09,666 --> 00:18:10,768
Samuels.
264
00:18:11,832 --> 00:18:13,930
Yeah, southern lady.
265
00:18:13,930 --> 00:18:15,070
Right, right.
266
00:18:15,070 --> 00:18:19,174
But anyway, she was the one who came up with the wax on the top.
267
00:18:19,174 --> 00:18:23,637
And in 1958, it was a marketing ploy to make them stand out.
268
00:18:23,637 --> 00:18:28,761
So my husband actually calls because I started my career in advertising at J.
269
00:18:28,761 --> 00:18:30,062
Walter Thompson.
270
00:18:30,363 --> 00:18:33,385
And so he refers to me as marketing slime.
271
00:18:34,185 --> 00:18:35,986
So Ms.
272
00:18:35,986 --> 00:18:38,287
Samuels was marketing slime.
273
00:18:39,568 --> 00:18:41,328
Well, we'll call her a slimeette.
274
00:18:41,328 --> 00:18:43,349
We'll call her a slimeette, right?
275
00:18:45,350 --> 00:18:50,992
But yeah, was to make it stand out and make it look more upscale than it might have
actually been at the time.
276
00:18:51,493 --> 00:18:57,956
so I guess Maker's Mark is an illusion of expense.
277
00:18:57,956 --> 00:18:59,736
And so they just put a price tag on everything.
278
00:18:59,736 --> 00:19:01,457
It's rather interesting, I think.
279
00:19:01,487 --> 00:19:05,068
Bernie is, my husband is a bourbon snob.
280
00:19:05,189 --> 00:19:11,793
So he goes places and he loves to interrogate the barkeepers about what kind of bourbons
do you have?
281
00:19:11,793 --> 00:19:19,117
And of course outside of Kentucky, not that many, but it's quite a fascinating industry.
282
00:19:19,117 --> 00:19:24,079
One of the things when you said advertising, the bottles are beautiful.
283
00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:27,302
They may not have the red top, but they're gorgeous.
284
00:19:27,302 --> 00:19:28,032
I mean, that's
285
00:19:28,032 --> 00:19:30,833
A lot goes into designing those bottles.
286
00:19:30,877 --> 00:19:31,798
It's marketing.
287
00:19:31,798 --> 00:19:39,647
really is truly not well, the craft of the product, obviously, but there's a lot more
going into the craft of the product as well.
288
00:19:39,647 --> 00:19:41,178
So what else is going on?
289
00:19:41,178 --> 00:19:49,280
Because bourbon goes back a long, long time and you've got a few more factoids like Jack
Daniels.
290
00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:54,983
yeah, Jack Daniels, Nathan Green, a slave, taught Jack Daniels how to make whiskey.
291
00:19:55,523 --> 00:19:57,904
And therefore he became the master distiller.
292
00:19:57,904 --> 00:20:00,346
That's a big deal profession, by the way.
293
00:20:00,346 --> 00:20:01,113
Lots of
294
00:20:01,113 --> 00:20:02,278
bourbon and whiskey?
295
00:20:02,278 --> 00:20:04,686
Because there is a distinction, correct?
296
00:20:04,867 --> 00:20:07,499
There is all whiskey or spirits.
297
00:20:07,499 --> 00:20:11,292
Bourbon is whiskey, but not all bourbon whiskey is bourbon.
298
00:20:11,292 --> 00:20:20,818
Now, beyond, I don't know super technical stuff, but I do know that bourbon has to be 51 %
at least corn.
299
00:20:20,858 --> 00:20:23,740
And then the rest can be creative around.
300
00:20:23,921 --> 00:20:32,142
You know, one of the interesting things when I drive into Frankfurt at certain times of
the year, you can smell a smell that smells like
301
00:20:32,142 --> 00:20:35,282
green beans that have cooked for too long.
302
00:20:35,282 --> 00:20:36,182
Yeah.
303
00:20:36,182 --> 00:20:46,582
And it's the smell of the mash that is kind of consists as wheat, rye, lots of other kinds
of ingredients.
304
00:20:47,882 --> 00:20:50,262
It's pretty interesting.
305
00:20:51,462 --> 00:20:58,182
And then you have a few of the myths that's right in some of the traditions.
306
00:20:58,462 --> 00:21:00,460
And one of those is you
307
00:21:00,460 --> 00:21:07,494
bury a bottle of bourbon upside down at the side of a wedding, dig it up on the wedding
day and serve it to the guests.
308
00:21:07,514 --> 00:21:09,335
So there's a new tradition.
309
00:21:10,456 --> 00:21:12,317
You know, I don't know.
310
00:21:12,357 --> 00:21:14,418
We can we could speculate.
311
00:21:14,539 --> 00:21:16,440
Maybe so it pours out more quickly.
312
00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:17,090
I don't know.
313
00:21:17,090 --> 00:21:19,483
Because people want it right.
314
00:21:19,483 --> 00:21:22,145
That's a that's a strange one, right?
315
00:21:22,486 --> 00:21:23,426
Wow.
316
00:21:24,387 --> 00:21:28,651
They do a lot of other things, but everything was geared towards fertility in the day and
age.
317
00:21:28,651 --> 00:21:32,904
But speaking of smelling, so it's interesting that it smells like green beans.
318
00:21:32,904 --> 00:21:34,765
I think that would actually turn me off.
319
00:21:34,765 --> 00:21:36,437
Although I do like green beans.
320
00:21:36,437 --> 00:21:39,199
But I never thought about like smelling.
321
00:21:39,199 --> 00:21:42,071
I don't I don't I don't sniff green beans.
322
00:21:42,071 --> 00:21:44,472
is over.
323
00:21:44,472 --> 00:21:48,613
And then, because in Kentucky, we also have the Bourbon Trail.
324
00:21:48,713 --> 00:21:53,064
And you can go to several different trails, depending on the part of the state you're in.
325
00:21:53,064 --> 00:21:57,876
And you'll go and you'll visit these various locations.
326
00:21:57,876 --> 00:22:01,397
Woodford Reserve, for instance, is another popular one.
327
00:22:01,437 --> 00:22:05,344
And remember our guest, Weta Michael, the chef.
328
00:22:05,344 --> 00:22:07,305
She is actually their chef.
329
00:22:07,305 --> 00:22:10,988
She conducts of the Woodford Reserve.
330
00:22:10,988 --> 00:22:15,781
These are usually located in very beautiful places in Kentucky.
331
00:22:15,782 --> 00:22:21,806
Off the beaten path, two lane, barely two lane roads leading to them.
332
00:22:21,806 --> 00:22:27,190
And it's just, to come here and do the trails is pretty awesome.
333
00:22:27,190 --> 00:22:33,534
And then you get led to restaurants that serve bourbon type marinades and.
334
00:22:33,820 --> 00:22:35,803
I wouldn't be able to find the road out.
335
00:22:36,064 --> 00:22:39,656
I know, that's the thing, that's the thing.
336
00:22:40,517 --> 00:22:49,763
So that is going on and the drinks, people wonder what kind of drinks are made with
bourbon.
337
00:22:49,904 --> 00:22:51,115
How about the old fashioned?
338
00:22:51,115 --> 00:22:52,746
Okay.
339
00:22:52,746 --> 00:22:54,533
my dad used to be an old-fashioned drinker.
340
00:22:54,533 --> 00:22:55,075
Yep.
341
00:22:55,075 --> 00:22:56,219
Old-fashioned in Manhattan's.
342
00:22:56,219 --> 00:22:56,651
I don't know.
343
00:22:56,651 --> 00:22:58,297
Do they put bourbon in Manhattan's?
344
00:22:58,297 --> 00:22:58,988
I don't know.
345
00:22:58,988 --> 00:22:59,978
don't know.
346
00:23:00,279 --> 00:23:04,000
Mint juleps and then a growing trend.
347
00:23:04,100 --> 00:23:05,641
Yeah, mint juleps.
348
00:23:05,641 --> 00:23:09,143
A growing trend is to have bottles personalized and given as gifts.
349
00:23:09,143 --> 00:23:11,003
I've gotten several over the years.
350
00:23:11,003 --> 00:23:13,224
You know, you get your maker's mark with your name on it.
351
00:23:13,224 --> 00:23:14,275
It's really cool.
352
00:23:14,275 --> 00:23:15,885
It's another marketing thing.
353
00:23:16,066 --> 00:23:17,478
I know that's true.
354
00:23:17,478 --> 00:23:22,749
I was unearthing old things in my closet and one of my moves and found an old bottle.
355
00:23:22,749 --> 00:23:25,900
Now I think about that Pappy's though it might have been very
356
00:23:26,050 --> 00:23:26,460
good.
357
00:23:26,460 --> 00:23:31,173
It might have been very expensive if it sat in my closet for 30 years.
358
00:23:34,895 --> 00:23:39,413
Now, women are increasingly drinking bourbon, right?
359
00:23:39,413 --> 00:23:44,053
Well, I mean, we have, we have our entrees into lots of things.
360
00:23:44,053 --> 00:23:47,833
And let's face it, guys, we really do rule the world.
361
00:23:47,833 --> 00:23:53,593
And whether you realize it or not, we just let you think you have more control than you
do.
362
00:23:53,653 --> 00:24:06,393
But yeah, although I don't think of bourbon and women in general, I think of bourbon and
the, you know, sort of the staunchy Southern, Southern gentlemen, sort of from Kentucky,
363
00:24:06,393 --> 00:24:07,225
Virginia.
364
00:24:07,225 --> 00:24:09,427
Yeah, know, sitting around.
365
00:24:09,427 --> 00:24:10,833
Yeah.
366
00:24:10,833 --> 00:24:12,073
fascinating man in the world.
367
00:24:12,073 --> 00:24:18,973
I think we have to go the most fascinating and brilliant and intellectually stimulating
woman in the world.
368
00:24:18,973 --> 00:24:21,113
We have to do them one or two up, I think.
369
00:24:21,583 --> 00:24:26,048
but women are forming society, bourbon societies, very popular around here.
370
00:24:26,048 --> 00:24:39,402
There are about 100 distilleries in this state and there was a big growth industry and
they're usually very tiny but hoping to get very large and sell their bourbons.
371
00:24:39,402 --> 00:24:43,486
There's still a world of market out there for bourbon.
372
00:24:43,486 --> 00:24:52,014
there was a distillery or there is a distillery up in Litchfield, Connecticut, not too far
from where we moved and called Litchfield distilleries.
373
00:24:52,014 --> 00:25:01,923
And the interesting thing is that it took them a long time before they could actually sell
their first batch because I guess it has to sit there and mature for a while.
374
00:25:02,904 --> 00:25:07,765
And then getting the oak barrels, very difficult to do.
375
00:25:07,765 --> 00:25:08,229
Yeah.
376
00:25:08,229 --> 00:25:16,529
can only use them once and then they turn them into other things like you see in
restaurants those the lids up on the
377
00:25:16,529 --> 00:25:17,662
now maturing wine in them.
378
00:25:17,662 --> 00:25:22,126
So you've got the bourbon barrel, you know, yeah, matured wine.
379
00:25:22,126 --> 00:25:28,012
whole industry just around bourbon and the tradition of bourbon.
380
00:25:28,012 --> 00:25:32,658
You've got the, I think it's Mystique.
381
00:25:32,658 --> 00:25:37,743
I think it's probably Mystique and it makes it more, well, they turn them into other
things.
382
00:25:37,743 --> 00:25:39,325
They turn them into other things.
383
00:25:39,325 --> 00:25:40,529
They use the wood.
384
00:25:40,529 --> 00:25:41,140
England roots.
385
00:25:41,140 --> 00:25:44,393
Don't we know waste not want not, you know, don't use the barrel once.
386
00:25:44,393 --> 00:25:45,935
How long can you look?
387
00:25:45,935 --> 00:25:48,267
like how many times can you wear your socks?
388
00:25:49,889 --> 00:25:52,316
At least twice you turn them inside out.
389
00:25:52,316 --> 00:26:06,692
So anyway, there's a world of bourbon and whiskey and all of those things that go into a
trend and a growing industry and family oriented to family traditions, you know, started
390
00:26:06,692 --> 00:26:16,501
some of them started in the 1700s and some of them are later, but they're usually very,
very small and family oriented and
391
00:26:16,501 --> 00:26:27,564
So, you know, it's an interesting industry that hopefully we can get more into as we take
a look at our family traditions and get them because they're family kind of business.
392
00:26:28,019 --> 00:26:40,527
related stories, excuse me, come about through small production, whether it starts in the
kitchen or starts out behind the barn with a still, right?
393
00:26:41,667 --> 00:26:45,930
It's those home routes where everything kind of begins.
394
00:26:46,031 --> 00:26:48,893
And hence that's what we're all about.
395
00:26:48,893 --> 00:26:55,827
But I love the fact that there is a story with so much of about the things that we're
talking about here in these shows.
396
00:26:55,887 --> 00:27:02,100
And it's not so much that we're hawking this, but well, maybe a little bit.
397
00:27:03,601 --> 00:27:05,022
I think that's okay.
398
00:27:05,022 --> 00:27:09,284
But the stories make our life so much more rich in more ways than one.
399
00:27:09,284 --> 00:27:19,391
And just remembering where it is that thing that you were drinking perhaps came from makes
it just a little bit more special, right?
400
00:27:19,391 --> 00:27:26,717
let me tell you one more story about Kentucky, where all these industries are about
liquor, right?
401
00:27:26,717 --> 00:27:29,478
And creating whiskey and bourbon.
402
00:27:30,340 --> 00:27:35,344
Until very recently, more counties than not were dry.
403
00:27:35,344 --> 00:27:39,807
You couldn't get a drink in Kentucky, except in the big cities.
404
00:27:39,807 --> 00:27:43,230
That's changed a lot, and I worked a lot on that personally.
405
00:27:43,230 --> 00:27:48,418
In fact, I'd get invited in to promote liquor by the drink in small towns.
406
00:27:48,418 --> 00:27:51,579
because the churches would go after the politicians.
407
00:27:51,579 --> 00:27:55,401
So they would bring me in to be the advocate for it.
408
00:27:55,401 --> 00:27:57,842
Yeah, so anyway, all of that happened.
409
00:27:57,842 --> 00:28:06,906
But one of the funny things until recently, okay, Bourbon County, Bourbon County is
adjacent to Fayette County, which is where I am in Lexington.
410
00:28:06,906 --> 00:28:10,867
Beautiful little town, horsey town, Bourbon town.
411
00:28:10,867 --> 00:28:16,049
You couldn't get a drink in Bourbon County, but you could in Christian County.
412
00:28:16,370 --> 00:28:17,790
Don't you love that?
413
00:28:17,874 --> 00:28:18,663
Yeah.
414
00:28:18,663 --> 00:28:21,026
County versus Bourbon County.
415
00:28:21,026 --> 00:28:22,287
Anyway, that's all changed.
416
00:28:22,287 --> 00:28:24,710
You can now in Bourbon County, but it was.
417
00:28:24,710 --> 00:28:25,831
it's big business.
418
00:28:25,831 --> 00:28:31,636
And I think it makes sometimes sometimes it makes family parties a little bit more
palatable too.
419
00:28:31,636 --> 00:28:32,526
Right.
420
00:28:32,526 --> 00:28:38,782
yeah, maybe not as bad as Rip Van Winkle where you didn't have you don't have to go to
sleep for 20 years to get away from your family.
421
00:28:38,782 --> 00:28:39,662
no.
422
00:28:39,703 --> 00:28:48,811
Well, on that note, every story has, well, on that meal, well, wait a second, I'm gonna
say it's a blooper.
423
00:28:49,152 --> 00:28:54,016
On that note, every meal has a story and every story is a feast.
424
00:28:54,016 --> 00:29:02,976
And I think we need to come up with every drink and every glass has a story and every
story maybe has a spirit along the way or two.
425
00:29:02,976 --> 00:29:09,020
than food because they loosen you up and you start thinking about all those stories you
know about.
426
00:29:09,020 --> 00:29:12,272
And myths, you just kind of blow everything out of proportion.
427
00:29:12,272 --> 00:29:13,275
That's okay.
428
00:29:13,275 --> 00:29:18,134
Yeah, give yourself a little chin wag or two as they say in the UK.
429
00:29:18,918 --> 00:29:21,864
Take care, we'll see you soon and drink up.
430
00:29:21,864 --> 00:29:22,875
Bye bye.
431
00:29:25,389 --> 00:29:27,049
You what I want to do too?
432
00:29:27,049 --> 00:29:28,992
I want to do a little section at the end.
433
00:29:29,252 --> 00:29:43,324
Hey, if you like this show, we're going to ask you, hey, if you like this show, please
subscribe, share it with your friends and tell a story or two on why you actually like
434
00:29:43,324 --> 00:29:45,806
this show, because we'd like to hear from you too.
435
00:29:45,806 --> 00:29:47,408
And we'd love to hear your stories.
436
00:29:47,408 --> 00:29:52,752
So don't forget, listen to Family Tree Food and Stories and share it, like it and
subscribe.
437
00:29:52,752 --> 00:29:53,653
We'll see you soon.
438
00:29:53,653 --> 00:29:54,553
Bye bye.