About five years ago, our own Linn Spencer was on hand when barrels of American whiskey from most of the major distilleries were ceremoniously delivered to Mount Vernon, the Virginia home of our first president.
Two years later, some of that whiskey was placed in special bottles and auctioned off to support Mount Vernon educational activities.
But not all of it.
The remaining whiskey continued to age in an "undisclosed location" on the Mount Vernon grounds. Some of it was getting up toward 17 years in wood. Something needed to be done with it.
Last week at Mount Vernon I watched three veteran distillers create a "vatting" of American whiskeys from the barrels donated five years ago by members of the Distilled Spirits Council, which sponsored the event in conjuction with the reconstruction of George Washington's 18th century distillery.
Joe Dangler from Virgina Gentleman figured out the formula, Dave Pickerell (Maker's) and Ron Call (Cruzan Rum) tasted it and pronounced it good, so that's what we used. The components were Maker's, VOB, JD, Woodford, Rebel Yell, Harper, Dickel, Beam, Platte Valley (McCormick), Turkey and Virginia Gent. We rebarreled it to mingle for about a month, then it will be bottled and sold, probably auctioned, with the proceeds to benefit Mount Vernon educational activities.
Mount Vernon, for anyone who doesn't know, was the home of George Washington, our first president. Recent scholarship is revealing him to be quite an entrepreneur. His distillery--which made fruit brandy, rye whiskey and other spirits--had five stills and was one of the largest of its day. The Mount Vernon estate is privately owned, not government owned.
Just so nobody wonders what a rum guy was doing there, Ron Call is a Kentucky boy with twelve years at Jim Beam, working for Booker Noe, before he went to Cruzan.