I love bourbon. I like to try different kinds of bourbon. I collect bourbon.
This is a fairly new obsession of mine. To be clear if my love of bourbon were a barrel of Makers Mark – I would still have about 3 years to go before I was ready to bottle.
But yes, I am a woman and I like this brown liquid that my mother thinks should be fueling her SUV. I am not a connoisseur or a snob. I am not going to sit here and talk about the notes of cinnamon or vanilla I taste. If I like it, I like it and if I don't. . . I don't.
The other day, my boyfriend’s sister asked us if we wanted to attend the 1st Annual WeHa Whiskey Festival (That’s West Hartford for all you non CT folks). We had actually heard about it a few weeks earlier and decided against going. They advertised it as "Over 150 different kinds of whiskey, scotch and bourbon." We assumed (incorrectly as I will get to shortly) that the bourbon choices would be lacking. But when we were asked again, we decided to pull the trigger and go – it was for charity if for nothing else. We were pleasantly surprised.
We walked into West Hartford Town Hall promptly at start time – 6pm. We got our tickets at will call, and were given several items – a swag bag, a glass, food tickets and a gold coin. They didn’t do a great job explaining for to do with the food tickets and the coin, but to be fair, we were one of the first people there. Turns out the tickets were for a Top Chef style competition with local restaurants and the gold coin was to vote for our favorite. We also bought some basket raffle tickets and after trying our first bourbon, we put our tickets in various buckets. The choices were pretty meager for the amount of tickets we bought but once again, it was for charity. More importantly, I had the Woodford Reserve, double oaked – really good. The extra oak aging made for a sweeter bourbon.
After we rid ourselves of the raffle tickets we moved on to the Buffalo Trace table. They had four choices – Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, Elmer T Lee and Blanton’s. Of the four, there was one we didn’t own and had never tried, the Blanton’s so we had that. I wouldn’t say there is much memorable about this bourbon. It was good and they said it was from a barrel selected by Maximum Beverage, the event sponsor, so that was pretty cool. Unfortunately, they didn't have an bottles from the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection hiding under the table.
I won’t give a play by play of everything I tried, because honestly it was A LOT OF BOURBON. Had I tried every one, I probably wouldn’t be alive and able to write this post. But some other highlights:
Breckinridge Bourbon: delicious. The guy said that they use water from melted snow in Colorado. I had been wanting to try this for quite a while but I was wary of the fact that the distillery was in Colorado and not Kentucky.
Jefferson’s Chef’s Collaboration: As it says on the bottle, "A Marriage of Bourbon and Rye." Umm I can’t even tell you how much I LOVED this whiskey. I must have a bottle. I can’t wait to have some on the rocks. Back story on this whiskey is that it is a limited addition spirit that was created by Jefferson’s Master Blender Trey Zoeller and Chef Edward Lee (TOP CHEF BABY!!!) Trust me, try it.
Angel’s Envy: Bourbon finished in port wine barrels. This was stuff was super drinkable and you could taste the sweetness from the port barrels. I don’t know if I am running out to buy it, but next time I am at Plan B in Glastonbury and they have it, I might order a glass.
Other than that I might have tried another 7 or 8 bourbons and/or ryes? I really can’t remember. It all got to be too much at one point and there were a few I had wanted to try but didn’t. Thanks to the fruit and cheese table and the passing of many many
hors d'oeuvres, I wasn’t as tipsy as I could have been.
Overall, we were impressed with the event. They had AT LEAST 50ish bourbons I think? - A very good chunk of which neither I nor the BF hadn’t tried.
In case anyone from the WeHa Whiskey Festival planning committee reads this, I will share a few things I think could be improved for next year. First – I know it is a whiskey festival and this is the focus. However, it would have been nice to have maybe one bar that had soda, beer, wine etc. We were trying the whiskey and then eating from the passed trays and had nothing to wash it down except water from water coolers in paper cups. Secondly, MORE TRASH CANS! At one point I was trying to balance my trash, food and glass at the same time. Which leads to – a few high top/bar tables so we don’t have to balance our food and glass.
Otherwise, great job by the organizers of this event. It is tough to plan something for the first time and even when you think you have everything in order, there is always going to be something you overlook. I l look forward to attending a bigger better 2nd Annual WeHa Whiskey Fest next year.
OH YEAH – of all the things to win in the raffle – did we win the Date Night or tickets to a Wolfpack game? Nope. The dog won a freakin doggie pampering package. Ugh.
