The Whiskey Ledger with Bourbon Apprentice

 I can distinctly remember wanting to try something different – not a beer, not a cocktail. I scanned the restaurant menu and a descriptive caption caught my eye, “Notes of caramel, cinnamon, and fruit.” SOLD! The drink I ordered that night was Buffalo Trace bourbon, and that was my gateway into whiskey.

My name is Mike and I’d like to introduce this new Feathers & Whiskey column by telling you about the path that led me here. I grew up in a small town north of Boston, Massachusetts in the 80’s. Beer was my dad’s drink of choice and that morphed into wine as he got older. You could probably say I followed suit early on. The first whiskey I had ever owned was a 1.75L of Johnny Walker Black that I had won in a charity golf tournament raffle. It took me almost two years to drink it – mostly over ice – I just couldn’t acquire a taste for it. Fast forward a few years to when I moved to North Carolina and got into craft beers, pumpkins beers and sours. I was probably just bored by the “same old thing” option at the restaurant that night, but drinking Buffalo Trace neat changed everything for me and my appreciation of whiskey.