My Story
How I got into whiskey and why I’m passionate about it
Now, I was a good kid and waited until college to start drinking. And I’m not just saying that because my parents are probably definitely reading this. I really didn’t drink until I went to college parties. We all remember college parties. It doesn’t matter which school you attended, our beverage options ranged from terrible jungle juice in a plastic storage bin to flavored vodka out of your friend’s camelback. Drinking whatever was available was the most economical choice for a poor college student. But at some point I made the conscious choice to switch over to whiskey.
I don’t remember the exact day or even year for that matter when I began to turn down the free, lukewarm cans of natty light at parties. Instead I would bring my own whiskey with me. I hope right now you’re imagining me walking into a college party dressed like Joan from Mad Men with a bottle of $300 Scotch and a diamond cut rocks glass in hand. But that was not the case. I would fill up a plastic bottle with affordable bourbon and toss in a splash of ginger ale.
I probably got this from my dad. He loves to drink a whiskey-ginger, or a “highball” as he calls it, at the end of the day. I remember he always had a liter bottle of Canadian Club in the cabinet for his highballs. He claimed it was his favorite whisky, however that changed when I turned 21. I was home for Christmas, and I bought him a bottle of Canadian Club as his gift. Being a fan of bourbon, I picked myself up a bottle of Evan Williams. My dad wanted to try my bourbon and guess what. He loved it. It turns out that he only thought Canadian Club was his favorite because he hadn’t tried many other whiskeys. I was excited that I could help open him up to exploring other whiskeys. And we drank my entire bottle of bourbon before I headed back to college.
When I moved to NYC, my friends and I would go out to bars instead of parties. It’s hard to fit a party into a tiny studio apartment after all. And instead of ordering a whiskey-ginger, I would order a glass of bourbon. Neat of course. I was very quickly becoming a bourbon aficionado. I had a handful of bourbons at home (some of which I still have!) and would seek out new bourbons I’d never had before.
I had my go-to liquor store in my neighborhood, where the staff were knowledgeable and always made great recommendations. I was in there one evening and one of the staff found out I loved Elijah Craig 12 year (this was when it still had an age statement on it) and said “we keep some of the more exclusive bottles in the attic and we’ve got a bottle of Elijah Craig I think you might like.” He came back with a bottle of Barrel Proof, and I was sold. It was the most I had ever spent on a bottle of whiskey at the time ( $90). I was so excited the day that I brought home that bottle. I’ll never forget it even though one glass knocked me out cold.
My minuscule whiskey collection continued to grow as I went on to graduate school. I became more and more fascinated with whiskey making. It was just a hobby, but the science behind it was easy to follow along being a chemical engineer and I loved to nerd out about it. When I moved to LA, I finally joined a whiskey club, where I got to be surrounded by people who knew a thing or two about whiskey and opened my mind (and palate) up to more than just American Whiskeys.
At a whiskey club tasting, I first tried Lost Spirits Abomination Sayers of the Law. I thought it was so delicious, and I later found out that they used rapid maturation reactors to speed up the aging process of their spirits. My first thought was “I wonder if they’re hiring chemical engineers.” Not only is chemical engineering applicable to whiskey making but my specialty was in reactor engineering. The following day, I looked them up and they had a job posting for an engineering position that I felt was curated perfectly for me. I applied and started a week later.
Lost Spirits had the feel of a tech-startup company, and I learned a lot very quickly. It fueled my fascination for the chemistry that happens throughout the production process. I ran small batch experiments to create new spirits and understand the science behind the process as well as full production scale batches for our spirits. I was performing chemical analysis on and tasting any booze I could get my hands on to understand as much as possible. You can read as much as you want about making booze, but it’s not until you’re fully immersed and experiencing it firsthand do you start to truly understand it.
Lost Spirits opened my mind up to spirit worlds outside of whiskey. But whiskey is still my first love.
Whiskey can have a bad rap of being this exclusive boys club. It intimidates many people, anything can be intimidating if you don’t know much about it. But as someone who knows whiskey pretty damn well, I can tell you its purpose is not to intimidate. Quite the opposite in fact. It wants to be appreciated for all the art and science, hard work and dedication, trial, error and refinement that went into making it. Its purpose is to bring people together, be shared by friends and family.and make moments just a little more special. Its purpose is to help you slow down and be present in the moment.
One of my favorite stories that exemplifies this is told by Freddie Johnson, an employee at Buffalo Trace Distillery. His father and grandfather were also very important employees of Buffalo Trace. So much so that when Buffalo Trace produced their six millionth barrel of whiskey, Freddie’s dad was the one to roll out the barrel. Freddie was given a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 20 year from Julian Van Winkle Jr. to give to his dad as a gift. So that night, Freddie, his brother and their dad got together to celebrate. Freddie poured all three of them a glass of Pappy and as he went to put the stopper back in the bottle his dad stopped him. Freddie was going to save the rest of the bourbon, but his father said “never ever do that with friends and family. There will always be more old barrels of bourbon being made… We’re the fragile part of this whole thing.” When Freddie tells the story now he says “it’s not about the whiskey. It’s about the lives you touch and the people you meet. And the whiskey’s a byproduct of a good relationship.”
This is why I’m so passionate about whiskey.
