your first time

[MurphyDawg]

My wife has started to get interested in this forum that i spend a good amount of time reading now. She is more interested in the people than actual whiskey (i havent converted her from Vodka yet) and asked me to ask you to recount either your first memory drinking bourbon or the experience that began your appreciation of said liquor. The More i learn about bourbon it seems to me that it is more about the people than the drink, that it is very tied in ti the people who make it and the experience of the people who drink it, so i think it would bevery interesting to know how y'all "stumbled across" the fine nectar. i will even post my first experience when i am a tad more coherent!

[boone]

Hey MurphyDawg----Ya never sign your real name------It's not required-----but we do-------

I was 13 years old---at the ball park with some friends-----they stole a bottle from thier dad-------took one big ole swaller-----and damn near puked!!!!!!!!!!

Bettye Jo
Line Mechanic
Heaven Hill Distilleries

[jbutler]

This one already has been / is being covered, and in much larger volume than could be produced on this form. Have a look at:

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.straightbourbon.com/cgi-bin/survey.cgi>http://www.straightbourbon.com/cgi-bin/survey.cgi</A>

I'm not certain how many entries are in the survey database, but I'd guess somewhere > 1000 at this point.

Cheers,

Jim Butler
Straightbourbon.com

[MurphyDawg]

The name is Tom, but i do have a dog named Murphy . . . . . . and since he photographys better than I this is the real murphdog!!

[rwilps]

Dear Tom,

I can't tell from the picture, but Murph looks suspiciously like a Rhodesian Ridgeback. We had one once - they're the best dogs in the world! I don't think we'll ever get another dog - if we make it to heaven we want Simba waiting for us.

Ralph

[MurphyDawg]

i was looking at the bourbon survey today and it is really interesting to see peoples experiences it was a great idea. i was just wondering if it was searchable. i would like to see the first experiences of some of the core members of the forum (Linn, Chuck, Jim etc) but dont know if this is possible. you all seem to have such fervor for the topic that It would be intriguing to know how you all were introduced to it. any help??



Tom C

[MurphyDawg]

i am not sure what kind of dog he is either, we got him from the pound as a puppy for $12, including dog tags (best money i ever spent), he is my best bud, playmate & a bourbin nosing officionado as well (see other post). both my mutts are the perfect dogs for me

[jbutler]

Tom,
The database itself is certainly searchable, but not via any mechanism I currently have in place. I'm glad you brought that up though. It seems this was on the "to do" list once upon a time. It's back on it now.

I'm not really certain where my interest in bourbon came from; I've liked it my entire adult life, though I only became aware of the world outside Jim Beam white label about 10 years ago.
Me and my brother Dave (the actual owner of this website) were staying in a hotel in downtown LA during a convention. We were drinking JB and watching a table full of japanese businessmen drinking what was obviously high-end scotch. We asked the bartender if there werent any high-end bourbons. He whipped out the Blanton's, and I guess y'all know the rest of the story.

Cheers,

Jim Butler
Straightbourbon.com

[cowdery]

I'm not sure if I ever completed the survey, but since you asked:

Coming of age in Ohio, I mostly drank Stroths and other beers, with occasional detours to things like Boones Farm Apple Wine. Vodka and Squirt, Seven and Seven were my mixed drinks of choice.

One time at a party with an open bar, a friend advised that drinking straight whiskey, without a mixer, avoided hangovers. I became a scotch drinker.

I remained one until I moved to Kentucky. Now in my late 20s, I was working in the liquor industry (first at the ad agency for Heaven Hill, then at the promotion agency for Brown-Forman) and, obviously, living in the middle of it. My employers and their clients "encouraged" me to switch to bourbon, which I did, and never went back. Ironically, my parents had always drunk bourbon.

In the early 1990s, as Kentucky was preparing to celebrate the bicentennial of its statehood, I wrote a proposal to Kentucky Educational Television for a grant to produce a documentary about the bourbon industry. The result was "Made and Bottled in Kentucky." That began my real obsession with the subject.

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://cowdery.home.netcom.com>--Chuck Cowdery</A>

[**DONOTDELETE**]

OK Murph -> Here goes. I drank some beer first. I was maybe 13 or 14. I didn't think much of it. Got a hold of some gin and got sicker than any dog has a right to be. Along came a bottle of Bourbon Supream. Well that did it. As cheap a bottom shelf bourbon as that may be I'll gladly drink that over the very best; most expensive scotch any day of the week.It's a love-hate relationship. I love bourbon, and I hate scotch.

No I never touch gin.

Linn Spencer

Have Shotglass. Will Travel.