Do you have a picture in your mind’s eye of what a typical bourbon enthusiast looks like?
Yes, this is a bourbon fan. Maybe even a typical one.
But so are these:
And these:
Last weekend was the sixth annual SIPosium conference held by the Bourbon Women, a lively group of (mostly) women who range from bourbon connoisseurs to casual fans to the bourbon curious.
Photo: Bourbon Women
We were thrilled to be able to provide a welcome gift to SIPosium attendees. We were also happy to attend some of the fascinating and fun events this group created.
Like the Black Bourbon Society’s Blind date.
Photo: Black Bourbon Society
Samara Rivers (pictured above) guided us through the sight, smell, and taste of the sips below. She explained how best to identify different flavor notes and helped everyone see there are no wrong answers.
We love taking trips to distilleries, going on tours of distilleries, and always enjoy walk-throughs of rickhouses, like our beauty of a rickhouse at Boone County Distillers here on The B-Line.
So it was fun to see the rickhouses at Lux Row Distillers and Bardstown Bourbon Company.
We also enjoyed spotting goodies from B-Line stops featured in the Silent Auction:
One of the most fascinating talks at this year’s SIPosium was the keynote given by Fawn Weaver. She told the story of Nearest Green, the slave who taught Jack Daniel (yes, that Jack Daniel) the art of distilling. Nearest Green was also the first African American Master Distiller. If you’re unfamiliar with this almost forgotten piece of history, watch The Story of Nearest Green. It’s a short documentary, about 10 minutes long, featuring Emmy-award winning actor Jeffrey Wright in this story of “honor, respect, and an unlikely friendship that could be the greatest American story you never heard.”
The final day of SIPosium we were happy to see our friends from Boone County Distilling, sponsors of a delicious Sunday morning breakfast!
Cheers, y’all!
