Bourbon connoisseur Fred Minnick is a busy man. The Iraq War veteran has written seven books, five of which focus on spirits, and he hosts the Bourbon Pursuit podcast as well as The Fred Minnick Show on YouTube. He has served as a judge in bourbon competitions and even started his own, American Spirits Council of Tasters, also known as ASCOT. He blogs about the liquor industry, is the bourbon headline speaker for Louisville’s Bourbon & Beyond music festival and has written on the topic for a multitude of magazines. In other words, he’s your go-to guy when you need to know something about bourbon.
Kentucky Monthly Assistant Editor Deborah Kohl Kremer spoke with Minnick, who lives in Louisville with his wife, Jaclyn, and their two children, about the Commonwealth’s No. 1 spirit.
What is your favorite thing about the Kentucky bourbon industry?
What it really comes down to is the people. I mean, there are a lot of great spirits in the world, and I love a lot of them. But there’s only one Jimmy Russell [Wild Turkey’s longtime master distiller], and there is only one Fred Noe [Jim Beam’s seventh-generation master distiller]. They’re the personalities in the history of bourbon.
In Kentucky, it is not so much of an industry as it is a community, and the distillers are every bit as important as the consumers. They have built their own kind of culture. What is really special about the distillers is how they help each other. In 1996, Heaven Hill Distillery in Bardstown had a terrible fire. All the other distilleries chipped in to make sure that they were OK and actually gave them whiskey to help them along. So, it just goes back to the fact that this is an industry filled with good, wholesome people who care about one another.
What do you like to eat with your bourbon?
Lots of food pairs well with bourbon, but I like to think about the whole meal.
If we’re doing an appetizer of fried shrimp, I would go with an Old Forrester, neat. Then for the entrée, a tender fillet—medium rare, when the juices are just absolutely on point. I love pairing that with something like E.H. Taylor Jr. Bottled-in-Bond, where there’s just a tad of some spice and some caramel to complement the fillet. For dessert, I would go with Chocolate Pots de Crème paired with Maker’s Mark, where the walnut shell bitterness offsets the sweetness of the chocolate.
How do you drink bourbon when you are relaxing at home?
I have an analytical brain that I use when I am focusing on trying to figure out which bourbon is better. Then, the other side of me is when I kick my feet up and I’m not working, and I’m just hanging out at home or with some friends. It will vary from one piece of ice to neat. I actually don’t like making bourbon cocktails, and it’s because I don’t do it as good as the bartenders. There are really good rum or tequila cocktails, but I just like bourbon by itself.
Do you have a favorite bourbon? And if you do, will you tell us?
Well, it changes, but last year I had a blind taste-off and chose Pappy Van Winkle 15-year-old as best bourbon and best American whiskey for 2020. So that is my pick for 2020.
For more on Fred Minnick and his bourbon expertise, visit fredminnick.com.