A wise man once told me for every situation there is a Seinfeld quote, an 80’s rock lyric and a Bible verse. Challenge accepted.
If you love bourbon (and you likely do or else you wouldn’t be reading this) you may have a favorite way to drink it. You may like it neat. You may like it on the rocks. You may like it in a cocktail. You may even like it mixed with Coke…not that there’s anything wrong with that.
All of those are great ways to enjoy bourbon. OK. Almost all of those are great ways to enjoy bourbon. Personally, my favorite way to drink bourbon is with friends. George Thorogood may sing “when I drink alone, I prefer to be by myself”, but even he had the Delaware Destroyers. Plus, it is a terrible song anyway.
I’d bet a Michter’s 20 to your Kentucky Gentleman that most every bourbon story you have is one you’ve enjoyed with friends. Maybe it’s the time you celebrated a son’s wedding with friends by opening that elusive bottle of Pappy. Or it could be the time you shared an Elijah Craig 18 with the guys on your birthday. Or the time you had a pour of a newly acquired George T. Stagg with a friend simply because you hadn’t seen each other for a long time. I am blessed to have done all of these (and more). These were truly great times with great bourbon.
Not every story, mind you, may be with friends. I’ve got a Booker’s story between me and a bartender named Randy with cameo appearances by former NFL quarterback Marc Bulger and pro golfer J.B. Holmes. We’ll leave the details of that tale for another day, however.
However, the point of life isn’t the stories or (gasp!) even the bourbon. The point is the relationships. What I’ll explore in this blog is that relationship side of bourbon. In future posts I’ll share the formation of my own bourbon group, The Bourbon Fellowship. I’ll give you some ideas you can use to start your own group, including some of the themes we’ve had for our meetings. There’ll be some of the traditional bourbon blog fare: reviews, tasting notes, commentary on bourbon news, etc. The main focus, however, will be the goings-on of The Bourbon Fellowship and how bourbon is the “connector”. It is the excuse to gather with friends as a respite from the stresses of life and share a few good pours and a few good times. Because it is true: “a friend loves at all times and a brother is born for a time of adversity” (Proverbs 17:17). The best friends I have in this world – the guys I share my life with – are the same guys I get to share my bourbon with.
The Bourbon Fellowship / Bourbon Turntable 