G.Washington made Whiskey

[WEG3]

Found this and thought it kind of intresting CNN :G. Washington's Whiskey

Bill G.

[OneCubeOnly]

The Washington Post has an article today about the replica still and the run they did with it...there are a few familiar bourbon names in there!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55867-2003Oct20.html

[bourbonmed]

OneCube,

Thanks for the link to the Washington Post story. What a riot to see Dave Pickerell, Lincoln Henderson and Jimmy Russell in period costumes. It will be interesting to see how much this historic 140 pr whiskey will fetch in auction.

Omar

[pepcycle]

Hopefully our own Bourbonv will bring back some photos and give us the inside scoop.

[chaz]

believe I was told that one of his stills is in the Bourbon Museum in Bardstown

[cowdery]

The still at the Getz is "believed" by some to be from Mt. Vernon, but its origins can't be verified. To me, it seems a little too small and crude to have been part of Washington's state-of-the-art commercial distilling operation.

[pepcycle]

I was at The Getz several months ago and I watched a man meticuluously measure the dimensions of that still and record. I questioned him and he said he was from the Smithsonian and that he was working on a project but did not elaborate.

[bourbonv]

This is a very interesting experiment. The still is very small but it made some interesting whiskey. We were able to taste white dog at the single distilling and double distilled stage. They also had bottles of last year's special barrel proof products available to taste.

Mike Veach

[tdelling]

>The Washington Post has an article today about the replica still and the run...

There's a new article today at cnn.com, with more detail. Apparently

the yeast that they were shipping from Woodford Reserve to do the fermentation

died in transit...

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TRAVEL/10/22/washingtons.whiskey.ap/index.html

Tim Dellinger

[bourbonv]

This was a very good week. I left Sunday and spent the night in Virginia with Linn and Vickie before heading on to Maryland where I stayed with Chris and cathy Sigmon. On Teusday morning Chris and I drove down to Mt. Vernon after picking up Howard Stoops in Baltimore. The distillery is 3 miles up the road from the main house and when we got there the press conference was just starting. It was well worth the trip to see the distillers in period garb. They had a wood fire heating the pot still. They over charged the still the first time and there was the remains of the overflow on the ground around the still. Other than that, everything was working well. They were just finishing the first distillation of a mash and we were allowed to sample that low wine. It was interesting but low proof. While they gave us lunch and a Reidel Whiskey Glass with the Mt. Vernon logo on it, we were invited to sample some of the bottles from last year. These bottles were from the auction items to be sold again that night and included barrel proof I W Harper, George Dickel, Maker's Mark, Woodford Reserve, Jack Daniel's Single Barrel, Bacardi Rum and others. After a while they had some second distillation ready and we tasted that. Very strong in the grain flavors and I rather liked it, but others did not. They are aging it in two small cask of about 10 gallons each and after it ages a few years they will bottle it and sell it in auction.

The rest of the week I spent looking in some of the local historical societies for distillers. Found a few things but nothing exciting. I did go to a liquor store with Chris that has an unusual history. Due to legal problems, they were closed down in 1994 and did not re-open until about a year ago. They had a lot of old stock products. I bought some Wild Turkey 8yo 101, George Dickel with Bill Bruno's signature instead of Jennings D. Backus, Old Fitzgerald BinB with a very faded tax stamp (probably 1982), some J W Dant BinB made at Bernheim and bottled at Ancient Age before they went independent (1983), an I W Harper gift bottle from the late 1980's, some Medley Ezra brooks green label, some early 80's Old Granddad, a Wild Turkey 12yo and some others.

It was a good trip and I thank my hosts for making it better.

Mike Veach

[OneCubeOnly]

Today's Washington Post has an interesting article about the rye batch they distilled last year at Mt. Vernon (you may have to register to read).

[cowdery]

I know some of our members, including Howie Stoops, are attending this year's Mt. Vernon event. Perhaps they'll report in.

[stoopsie]

This year’s event was move indoors at the last minute because the remnants of hurricane Jeanne was passing though the area. The current archeological dig was covered with a tarp so there was nothing to see there. There was a press only event that we could not attend since the room was too small. After that, it was moved to a larger facility that was attended by the same press corps. Some of the master distillers were there. Last year, they fired up the still to make whiskey using a recipe that was representative of the George Washington’s time. This recipe was uncovered at the Filson Historical Society by our own Mike Veatch. (The “t†is silent and he even spells it without one) At this site, lectures were given on how the distillery site will be restored to its previous look and how it will be a working distillery that will produce whiskey etc. that may or may not be for sale to the public. This will depend on the Virginia legislature. We were then treated to a sample of the whiskey that was made last year. It was not harsh and it had surprisingly a lot of color for a one year old rye whiskey. We then left before they served lunch from the Greenbriar. Below is a picture of the barrel that was signed by all the master distillers who distilled the whiskey last year.

Howie

[dgonano]

Howie,

Great picture. Wish I could have been there with you, Anonymous, Mike, and Do-Not-Delete.

[bourbonv]

Howie,

So when are you going to post the results from the tastings? I am not sure how acurate they will be with influences from Jeane and citrinella candles.

Mike Veach