Tax Stamp Bourbons Tonight at Seven Grand

Late notice, I know, but tonight Seven Grand Whiskey Society in San Diego is hosting a guided tasting of tax stamp bourbons, each bottled more than three decades ago, from the private collection of Chris Uhde. The tasting will be at Seven Grand cocktail bar in North Park. If you're nearby and have an affection for whiskey, you should get in on the action. As remaining stocks of these bourbons are depleted, opportunities like this don't come around much any more. Seven Grand manager Brett Winfield writes that a mere 12 spots remain open for tonight's event.

Winfield explains:

I really couldn't be more excited that I get to offer this tasting to you guys in the Seven Grand Whiskey Society. Chris Uhde of JVS Imports has started a Southern California Whiskey Club focusing on rare and vintage whiskey which I am a part of and can attest to the bad assness of his tastings and whiskey collection. Chris recently contacted me and graciously offered up some of the Whiskey in his private collection for us to taste through. These are not your average whiskeys, each one of these Bourbons, with the exception of a few modern labels for comparison purposes, is a Tax Stamp Bourbon. Tax stamps were employed by the federal government as a way of proving that the taxes had been paid on a whiskey from the 1960's to the early 1980's. So the answer is yes, we will have the pleasure of tasting Bourbons from 1970 to the early 80's. "Holly sh*t" you say, that was my reaction as well. These are bottles that, unless you are very very very lucky you will never get a chance to taste or see again. I have tasted through them and they are truly special Bourbons.

The lineup for tonight's Tax Stamp Bourbon Tasting is:

1. Ancient 6 yr 1977
2. Yellowstone 1976
3. Early Times Current release
4. Early Times 1980s
5. Old Crow 1970s
6. Old Crow Current release
7. Old Grand Dad 1977
8. Old Grand Dad Current Release
9. Old Taylor 1977
10. Old Taylor 1980s

Winfield continues (and in all caps lets you know just how serious he is):

DUE TO THE RARITY OF THESE WHISKEYS THIS WILL BE A PAY TO ATTEND EVENT. THE COST WILL BE $50 PER PERSON, YOU MAY SIGN UP A GUEST BUT THEY MUST PAY THE $50 FEE AS WELL. IT IS OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE THAT IF YOU SIGN UP FOR THIS EVENT YOU MUST ATTEND, NO CANLELLATIONS!!! IF YOU FAIL TO COME CHRIS WILL LOSE HIS OWN MONEY AS THIS IS NOT A SPONSORED EVENT.

Details:
Monday, March 25th 2013, 8pm
Seven Grand
3054 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92104

Registration for the event is here.

Goes well with:

• For more information on the Whiskey Society, check out the Seven Grand site.
• Find The Southern California Whiskey Club on Facebook and Twitter.

30 Years Under the Influence, a Panel Discussion at St. George Spirits

In an era when new American spirits are hitting the shelves so fast that it's hard to keep straight what's on offer from whom, it's discordant to realize that within living memory fewer than a hundred distilleries operated legally in the United States. Though "new" no longer seems fitting for a company that was founded years before Ronald Reagan exhorted Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, one of the nation's oldest new distilleries is St. George Spirits. Next month, distillers Lance Winters and Dave Smith will join St. George's founder Jörg Rupf for a panel discussion, 30 Years Under the Influence: St. George’s Tale of Liquid Courage, at the Alameda, California distillery under the auspices of the Commonwealth Club of California.

From the Commonwealth Club, here's the low-down on the event on Friday, November 30th:

30 Years Under the Influence: St. George’s Tale of Liquid Courage

Jörg Rupf, Founder, St. George Spirits
Lance Winters, Master Distiller, St. George Spirits
Dave Smith, Distiller, St. George Spirits
Bob Klein, Proprietor, Oliveto Restaurant - Moderator

When Jörg Rupf founded St. George Spirits in 1982, he was a lone wolf making elegant eaux de vie in a wine cooler world. In those days absinthe was illegal, craft-produced American gins were unheard of, and there was no such thing as an American single malt whiskey. In the decades since, hundreds of new craft spirits producers have followed suit, proof positive that the spirits movement has officially gone the way of micro brewing and coffee roasting - into the realm of the artisanal. Intrigued by the unknown and with a madcap approach to creation, the St. George team has inspired a modern spirits renaissance. Come drink in some history with the godfather of the artisanal distillation movement, Jorg Rupf, resident evil genius Lance Winters, mad alchemist Dave Smith, and other artisans changing the spirits conversation.

Tickets include: A grand tour of the St. George distillery; three specialty, decade-inspired cocktails; hors d’oeuvres; and the panel discussion and after party.

Location: St. George Spirits, 261 Monarch St., Alameda
Time: 7 p.m. check-in; 7:30 p.m. tour; 8:30 p.m. program; 9:30 p.m. after party
Cost: $75 standard, $60 members

Goes well with:

• Get tickets to the event here.
• The Commonwealth Club of California, the oldest public affairs forum in the United States, organizes over 400 events in the San Francisco Bay Area every year. The nonpartisan, nonprofit group was founded in 1903 and has sponsored speaking events across a range of political and cultural and cultural topics and affiliations. Past speakers include Teddy Roosevelt, Arnold "Get to da choppah" Schwarzenegger, Bill Gates, Ronald Regan, Nancy Pelosi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Jeff Levy (of Bread & Gin) joined distiller Lance Winters this past Spring for a pear-and-Bonal cocktail called A Fistful of Pears with pear brandy and pear liqueur. Here's the video and recipe. 

Bourbon Women to Gather at Maker's Mark

I once teased Hollis Bulleit, asking her what sort of woman drinks bourbon. “Sassy broads,” she informed me, “drink bourbon.”

I've found that generally to be true. I do like the company of sassy broads, especially with Hollis in tow. Vodka drinkers fade into the background, but  a woman who orders bourbon right out of the gate has my immediate attention.

Clusters of such bourbon-drinking women sometimes gather to guzzle, sip, or otherwise imbibe that "true and uncontaminated fruitage of the perfect corn" as Irvin S. Cobb put it. What's not to like?

Victoria MacRae-Samuels

Next Thursday, July 12th, Bourbon Women will convene at Maker's Mark distillery for a behind the scenes look at the distillery (which is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a National Historic Landmark) led by Victoria MacRae-Samuels — "the only female Vice President of Operations in the bourbon industry."

That last bit seems more of a strange marketing angle (I wonder if the ranks of America's nearly 400 craft distilleries were polled for the stat), but if I qualified for membership and were in Kentucky, I know where I'd be next Thursday.

Details for the four-hour tour are on Bourbon Women's site.

Goes well with:

• A look at Gerald Carson's 1963 classic, The Social History of Bourbon.
• Senator Tydings and the Kentucky Breakfast, in which Maryland senator Millard Tydings holds forth on how to make a proper Kentucky breakfast, bourbon included.

Gather ‘Round, Ye Distillers

Two distillers’ events are coming up and I’m superbummed that I can’t make either of them. The first is nearly on us.

Up the coast in Portland, Oregon, the 2009 Great American Distillers Festival is gearing up. For a measly $16, attendees get two days of festivities and a fistful of tickets for samples. I always enjoy rubbing elbows with my friends who forge whiskey, brandy, and other less recognizable spirits, but throw in a cocktail mixing contest hosted by the Oregon Bartenders’ Guild and I shake my head in wonder for not packing a bag. A total of $1750 will be dispersed as prizes, so you know the bartenders will be flexing their shaker guns.

October 24-25th. Full details at The Great American Distillers’ Festival website.

The second shindig is the American Distilling Institute’s hands-on whiskey distilling workshop at Stillwater Spirits in Petaluma, CA December 7-11th. The price tag is little heftier ($3500), but Bill Owens promises tours of Anchor Distilling, St. George Spirits, and various “whiskey bars.”

Whiskey bars?

The five-day class includes:

• Five night stay at the Metro Hotel (one block from Stillwater) and all meals (we have a good cook for the week)
• Tuition, room & board
• Tours of St. George Spirits Distillery, Anchor Distilling Co. and the finest San Francisco Whiskey bars
• Distiller Jordan Via (Stillwater Spirits) on brewing, distilling and maturation
• Brewer Bill Owens (ADI) on mashing and fermentation to create wash
• Moylan's Brewery & Restaurant creation of wash in action
• Legal session on how to obtain a DSP
• Learn how to operate a Moonshine-style pot still and a five-plate Christian Carl Still
• Whiskey, bourbon & moonshine tasting daily
• Proofing session and hands-on bottling experience

Full details at the ADI website.

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Meet the Maker Ticket Lottery

[Edit: winners have been announced and the lottery is closed. Thanks to all who entered!] I’m giving away admission tickets and one of them may just have your name on it.

This Sunday, the American Distilling Institute is holding Meet the Maker at St. George Spirits/Hangar One in Alameda, CA, just outside San Francisco. While the theme of this year’s ADI conference is brandy, Sunday is not just about fruit spirits—the men and women who actually make brandy will be on hand to pour samples of other wares such as whiskey, gin, absinthe, and more. They’ll be happy to walk you through their products and answer your questions.

I’ll be there. Will you? Well, just maybe you will. See, I’ve got five tickets to the event and that’s four more than I need. So I’m holding a lottery to give away the spares. Here’s the deal: Email me by 5pm (San Francisco time) this Friday, April 3rd to put your name into a lottery for one of the spares. I’ll conduct a random lottery to determine the winners and post the results here on the Whiskey Forge later that day. Come Sunday, I’ll leave the tickets (each a $40 value) for you in an envelope with your name at the admissions desk.

Details

• Who: You
• What: Meet the Maker
• Where: St. George Spirits, 2601 Monarch St, Alameda, CA 94501
• When: Sunday, April 5th, 2-5pm
• Cost: $40 (unless you score one of the Whiskey Forge free passes)

How to Enter the Lottery

• Email me: [moonshinearchives (at) gmail (dot) com] by 5pm PST this Friday, April 3rd. No entries will be accepted after this.
  
• Include (1) your name, (2) preferred email address, (3) city and state and (4) telephone number
• Please, if you can't make it, pass on this lottery so that folks actually in and around San Francisco can attend and the tickets don't go to waste.
• Winners will be notified by email and posted here.
  

If you don’t want to take chances and be certain to get admission, you can purchase tickets here or buy them at the door the day of the event.

See you there!