Joe here, this is a Life on Newark-Granville Rd blog takeover! Something great happened to me this week, something I’ve never been able to do pre-coronavirus. I bought a bottle of Blanton’s at the IGA. For those who are new to bourbon, Blanton’s is an excellent wheated (the mashbill contains wheat instead of rye) bourbon from Buffalo Trace. This is the same distiller that blessed the world with Weller, Col EH Taylor, Eagle Rare and Old Rip and Pappy Van Winkle.
So I thought I would write about the history of bourbon at the Derby party…the last couple of years we have been using Evan Williams to mix in our juleps, but it was not always that way. One thing to note, I married into this party – some grooms get a dowry, I got a Derby Party – I will take that trade any day of the week. When Susan and I were living in Grandview, we had a make-your-own-julep bar. We had a big poster board with the instructions on how to make a julep and all the ingredients on a prettily decorated table. About halfway through the party I asked one of my friends how he liked his julep. His answer surprised me, he said it was the worst drink he ever had. I asked him how he made it and he said he just poured it from the pitcher – the pitcher contained the simple syrup – he was 2/3 of the way through a glass of sugar water! I do admire his determination.
When we moved to Granville, all of our friends drank Makers Mark, Susan and I drink scotch we weren’t really bourbon drinkers and we were use to paying more than $50 for a bottle of single malt, so we mixed our juleps with Makers Mark. About half way through the party my good friends Pat Ford and Craig Baldwin started to question my judgement – why waste Makers by mixing it in a julep. I also noticed that a bottle of Makers Mark migrated from the bar to a table surrounded by my dear friends. Since then we went with better blending bourbon and settled on Evan Williams, usually imported from Maryland (hopefully I am not breaking any laws). A fine $20 bourbon. We also provide a jug of Makers Mark on a table surrounded by our cigar smoking, bourbon drinking Granville friends. We also enjoy when Laura Hills delivers her bottle of Heaven Hill every year and we mix a batch of juleps with this whiskey (FYI, Heaven Hill distillery also makes Evan Williams). One thing I learned is never let the mother-in-law pick the bourbon, one year we couldn’t make it to MD to purchase our bourbon, so we let Susan’s mother buy it for us. I thought the instructions were clear, evidently they were not, we ended up with smaller bottles of Evan Williams single barrel – we ran out of bourbon so I had to raid my personal stash – this did not save us any money. I’d be remiss without giving a huge shout out to our amazing bartender these past few years- Emily. Executing the party has been so much more enjoyable with your partnership. You always follow Susan’s number one rule- the bar must be ready by the time the first guest arrives! Even for the early arriving Parson boys.
I hope you enjoyed this short report on the history of bourbon at the Leithauser Derby Party, we have enjoyed having you all attend over the years and will miss you dearly in 2020.
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