Naughton’s Nonsense

Bourbon is an American form of whiskey made from (pursuant to U.S. trade law) at least 51% corn, or maize — typically about 70% — with the remainder being wheat and/or rye, and malted barley. It is distilled to no more than 160 (U.S.) proof, and aged in new charred oak barrels for at least two years — or perhaps longer. The two years maturation process is not a legal requirement for a whiskey to be called “bourbon,” but it is a legal requirement for “straight bourbon.” However, in practice, many bourbon whiskeys are aged for no less than four years.

Bourbon must be put into the barrels at no more than 125 U.S. proof. Generally, it is then adjusted to 80–100 proof and bottled. Some (mostly non-U.S.) jurisdictions do not allow alcoholic beverages with over 40% alcohol content to be sold. However, the recent trend among distillers has been to return to higher proofs, and even “cask strength” bottlings.

Source: Wikipedia

Over the last several months some friends of mine and I have been hitting the Bourbon Trail. We are planning on putting together our own little one day bourbon tour. So far we have been to Woodford Reserve, Four Roses, and Wild Turkey. Woodford Reserve, and Four Roses have definitely made the one day tour list. Wild Turkey although a in a beautiful setting just did not make the cut.

Woodford Reserve has an entrance fee of $5, but is well worth it. The fee gets you a tour of the facility along with a video, some wonderful tasting tea, a handful of bourbon balls, and last but not least a tasting that includes a card of tasting tips. The entire experience takes about two to three hours. There is also a bourbon history exhibit in the visitor’s center. The setting is idealic and the guides are very knowledgeable and friendly. Woodford is a must for any bourbon tour.

Four Roses is a free tour and a surprisingly wonderful tour. The distillery is built in the Spanish Mission style. There is a video presentation, the tour (which includes various tastings of the distillate), and then finally a tasting of the product line. Four Roses has more of a industrial corporate feel to it than Woodford, yet the visit is well worth it.

The beautiful surroundings of Wild Turkey make it well worth a visit. However, it probably will not make our one day tour list. Turkey definetly has a large industrial production feel to it. The tour is free and includes a video, unfortunately there is no tasting. I would definetly take someone to Turkey, but only if we were pressed for time or they we huge fans of the brand. There was nothing special or particularly informative about the tour or video. For the size of operation it was a little bit disappointing.

I will continue to update you on my tours as they happen. For now though I would like to say how surprising it has been to me to see the vast differences in approach, not only to making the bourbon, but also to corporate mentality and the face the distillery puts on for the public. I look forward tomore visits and finally putting together the one day tour.

Today the Aviation Museum of Kentucky (http://www.aviationky.org/) received an F-14 Tomcat Naval fighter jet, and I was there to see all the excitement.

If you would like to see the rest of the images in full glory please go here:

F-14 Slideshow

This has to be one of the funniest things I have seen in a while.

The Outhouses of America Tour

I recently received another annoying urban legend email, however, this one actually had a good point. What it suggested is that everyone add a contact in their cell phone labeled ICE ( In Case of Emergency). This way if you are in an accident and the paramedics need to get a hold of someone fast all they have to do is look for your ICE contact. I would also suggest if you use someone like your spouse that you also add additional ICE contacts in case the spouse is also in the accident. I am also including the relationship and the person’s name. So the format is ICE 1-Relationship-Name, ICE 2-Relationship-Name, and so on. I am including my spouse, my parents, and my priest. I encourage everyone to put at least one if not multiple ICE contacts in their phone.

Welcome to the blogsphere! Carrie Winter is a catechumen (very soon to be faithful) at our church. She is also quite the poet and here poetry can be read here at Practicing Sanity. Welcome Carrie!

I resolve to blog more this year…….Buwahahahahaha! Yeah right.

Ok surfing the net I came across this article. There are two new reality series coming out this fall. One on ABC called “Wife Swap”, and the other on Fox called “Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy”. Although the networks are claiming the shows are not as racy as the title implies, this still sounds like a very, very, bad idea. Of course this is all coming from someone who never really understood the whole reality tv thing. I mean come on, as I heard one comedian say:

“Reality is actually a bunch of fat, lazy americans sitting on their couch with a beer watching these stupid shows, now lets see a reality show about that and see how the ratings do.”

I think this is yet another nice indicator of the moral decay of our society. With this trajectory, we are only one step away from being as racy as the title sounds.

Happy 4th of July! This is a special weekend in the history of this country, it is the time we come together to celebrate our independence and show patriotism. However it always puts a sore spot on me when I see people celebrating and being patriotic while ignorantly desecrating the flag. So please as you celebrate this weekend if you plan to do so with a flag take a look at this website: http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagetiq.html. Thanks and have a great 4th! Oh yeah and Happy 8th anniversary to my beautiful bride!