JULY-AUGUST_2016-FinalLR

PROFILE

W e asked master bartender Chris Buffalo Trace I think the Buffalo Trace Distillery is the most innovative distillery in the United States, maybe in the world. They are redefining American whiskey. Buffalo Trace is their namesake bourbon. It’s just fantastic. Elmer T. Lee This one is named after Master Distiller Emeritus Elmer T. Lee. His name says it all. Blanton’s Single Barrel Blanton’s was the first to bottle single barrels. If I made five barrels of bourbon, and I put each one on a different floor in a warehouse, I’d have five different bourbons because there are five different climates in the warehouse. The floors, even exact spots on those floors, break down into microclimates. You’re getting bourbon from one barrel from one spot. This is truly a unique bourbon experience, plus it’s just plain fun. George T. Stagg There’s a reason you don’t age tequila for more than five years. Any longer and you taste the wood instead of the agave, and you want to taste the agave. The upper limit for bourbon is typically 10 years because of the climate conditions in Kentucky. Stagg is aged for no less than 15 years, but it has the incredible quality of having all that heat, while still being so drinkable. To have a product like Stagg where you taste the bourbon first is an incredible achievement. Extremely limited. Eagle Rare This one is aged for no less than ten years. The 17-year-old is my desert island bourbon. W.L. Weller McMillian for his thoughts on some of the Buffalo Trace brands. For more from McMillian, turn to page 28.

instilled in me by my parents as a young man … the idea that you can derive much happiness by helping others. I believe you must serve your community.” “What I appreciate about Bill is that he is always in it for others, never himself,” says Rouse. Rouse walks the philanthropic walk as well and is a big proponent of supporting local farmers, fishermen and manufacturers under the corporate mantra “locals supporting locals.” He also shares Goldring’s philosophy of “eat or be eaten.” “I compete with the largest grocers in the country,” says Rouse, “and Bill is the largest in his industry. Like Bill, I’m always trying to improve, always continuing to grow, working to keep up with the times and the trends. I believe we have gone from simply being a place to sell groceries to being a destination.” “I’ve always told my family if you wake up in the morning and think you have a J-O-B, then you are in the wrong business. If you don’t love what you do, you are in the wrong business.” Both gentlemen are in the right place at exactly the right time, and to be sure, wake up happy every day. And both have found the Holy Grail of friendship.

All of the wheated bourbons trace their DNA to Stitzel Weller distillery. Weller is bottled at 90 proof. It has an exceptionally smooth taste.

Herbsaint J. Marion Legendre learned about absinthe while stationed in France during WWI. Upon his return to New Orleans during Prohibition, Legendre, an apothecarist, began secretly making it in his Uptown home. When Prohibition ended, he also began legally selling it as Legendre Absinthe. When the government forced him in 1934 to remove the name absinthe from his product because of the ban on absinthe from 1912 (which was still in effect), Legendre renamed his product Herbsaint. In commemoration of the 75 th anniversary of Herbsaint production, the Sazerac Company launched Legendre Herbsaint Original in 2009.

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