Old Friends, New Distilleries, and Arts

I love to travel, and I seem to have been doing more traveling than cooking or writing over the past month. It all started with family vacation at the beginning of August, during which my sister and I took our nieces on an adventure. Even though the adventure did not go according to plans, the girls kept their sense of wonder throughout the entire afternoon. And they behaved well enough for us to get ice cream at the end of it all. The passion with which our nieces took to their short afternoon adventure inspired me to undertake some adventures of my own once I got back home.

The Bourbon Distillery

When I got back from the family vacation, one of my favorite Army chiefs agreed to meet me for lunch at a diner in the northwest corner of the state. Since I’d be traveling about an hour to meet him, I decided to turn it into an adventure and take a chance on catching a tour at a bourbon distillery in the area. Despite meeting for lunch at noon, I barely made my 3pm tour at the bourbon distillery in the hills of the northwestern corner of the state. We had talked for over two and half hours!!! And, best of all, we had tentative plans to see each other again in the fall with a bigger group.

Having been on such an extensive and informational tour at the distillery in Hye, Texas, I was able to understand almost of all of what our tour guide David was telling us about distilling bourbon, vodka, and gin. But David was one of the three brothers who founded the distillery, so he spoke with an infectious passion about starting the business and making spirits. Not only was David our tour guide, but he was also the bartender for the tastings at the end of the tour. We tasted four different bourbons - a three year, a ten year, a vanilla, a maple - as well as plain vodka, blueberry vodka, and gin. Because I was curious, I also got a bonus taste of their coffee bourbon. But in the end, I decided on a bottle of gin for my mother. I would definitely go back there with friends because David was just so much fun - and the products were very good.

The Gin Distillery

After my graduate program at the local university, I decided to maintain my creative thinking skills by participating in their noncredit creative writing workshops. Since I was working as a “noncreative” at the time and really had no aspirations of being published, it was a real stretch for me to show up at the first time. But the professor was so warm and endearing, that I (eventually) felt at ease and showed up both days. She really struck a chord with me, so I made an effort to participate in every writing workshop that she offered in my area. And then she wrote her first wildly popular book and I moved out of the area, so there were no more creative writing workshops for me.

I had known that she would be speaking on her new book at the Spencertown Academy Arts Center Festival of Books over Labor Day weekend. Since that was in a different state, I never gave attending much thought - until my successful outing with the chief got me thinking about how nice it would be to reconnect with her as well. So I checked into Google Maps, and learned that Spencertown was less than two hours away. Furthermore, the route could be tailored to include a distillery that won a national award for its gin. And like that, I had a plan.

Because I started at a Barnes and Noble off the beaten path - I was taking advantage of their fantastic Labor Day Sales, the route to the distillery wound through the hills of the northwestern corner. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking, and reminded me of when I would go on solo adventures across the state to find different hiking trails and road races. I haven’t done that in a while, but the drive was making me reconsider my choices.

When I arrived at the distillery, I was a little taken aback. Unlike most of the distilleries I had been to, the entrance to the distillery was through a large retail shop, featuring their products and other cocktail paraphernalia. In a stroke of luck, the individual who I asked about the tour turned out to be one of the distillers. John explained that it was open house weekend so there would be no tours, but I would be free to wander through the operations by myself. So I did. But then I came back to him with a few intelligent questions about how the gin is made. For whatever reason, he felt compelled to walk me back into the operations area and give me a personal tour. I asked all the questions that I could think of and learned much more about how good gin is made. He even walked me over to the separate tasting area in the operations space and had me taste three or four different gins so that I could fully understand the differences he was talking about. Naturally, one of the more obvious questions that I asked was “Which of the gins is your favorite?” The answer was simple: Batch 14 of the Ethereal Gin. Why? Because it worked well in a Negroni. You can bet I walked out with a bottle of that - as well as two bottles of super unique bitters for my collection. (There may be more to come on that in the future!)

The Verdict

Even though I didn’t learn too much more about distilling on my adventures, it was unquestionably worth it to get out of my comfort zone. Having the opportunity to reconnect with both my Army chief and my former writing professor in person was so precious to me. I definitely look forward to more adventures out of my comfort zone!