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June 03, 2006
Kentucky Bourbon
I, Josh, just had a story come out in the San Francisco Chronicle on the character, and characters, of bourbon. My story in the San Francisco Chronicle, ran last Thursday.
Here's a little bit of the San Francisco angle I worked in to localize the story:
Kirk Walker from K&L Wine Merchants in San Francisco says that although the Bay Area is considered by liquor distributors a "white town," meaning that clear spirits like vodka and gin are most popular, there is still a dedicated whiskey following."San Francisco is definitely a whiskey town," says Walker. "Single malts (Scotch) are by far the most popular type here, with bourbons No. 2."
He says whiskey's local following is bolstered by the existence of Old Potrero, a locally distilled rye whiskey, and the fact that the Whiskies of the World Expo was founded in San Francisco.
Riannon Walsh, founder of the Whiskies of the World Expo, said that when she started the show in 1999, people in the spirits industry told her she picked the wrong city.
"They told me I was barking up the wrong tree, but the first year of ticket sales proved them wrong," Walsh says. "California is known as the king of the bourbon markets in the U.S. Maker's Mark has shown that most clearly, but others are starting to hop on now that they've seen what bourbon can do here. Since we started the expo, more and more bourbon makers are coming. We now have representation from just about every existing bourbon."
And, here's a great, relatively new San Francisco spot to taste bourbon to your heart's content: Nihon Whisky Lounge, where there are more bourbons than probably anywhere else in the city, and, a new place I've found that's much smaller but has a great collection of very good bourbon for its size (I'm guessing the owner's a bourbon fan, and one of the bartenders told me I was probably right) is Gallery Lounge, a neat little SoMa spot.
It took a long time to place this article, and although I wasn't allowed to dedicate it to a new friend I'd made on this trip to Kentucky, who died on the trip in a car accident, it means a lot for me that this story saw the light of day.
If I could have, I would have dedicated the article to Sarah Rosen. Here's an article about her death.
By the way, the article is best enjoyed with a glass of bourbon in hand.
Posted by insideoutmag at June 3, 2006 12:06 PM
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