Clay Risen
With Father’s Day coming up (not to mention Mother’s Day!), I’ve got a great gift suggestion for the whiskey lover in your life. (Apropos of everything, my birthday is May 11.) Nashville native Clay Risen has written a new tome on the topic of whiskey that should be at the top of your gift list for any spirit lover.
Risen, who is a reporter for The New York Times as well as a thoughtful and entertaining obituary writer, is probably best known in the local whiskey community for writing the first big story revealing the connection between Nearest Green and Jack Daniel that really reshaped the history of Tennessee whiskey.
His latest project is a new box-set book on the topic of Kentucky bourbon that is like a curio box of whiskey history. In addition to a 288-page book, Bourbon [Boxed Book & Ephemera Set]: The Story of Kentucky Whiskey is packaged with a pullout drawer that holds historic distillery maps and blueprints, reproductions of rare bottle labels and old photographs from across the decades.
Risen will return to his hometown — where he graduated from Montgomery Bell Academy in 1995 — for a special book-signing event and whiskey seminar on Wednesday, April 27 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Saint Goose, a lovely upscale wine and spirits store at 134 2nd Ave. N. in Franklin. This is Risen’s fourth spirits book, so I’m sure he’ll have an opinion on just about any topic you ask him about.
The event is free to attend if you purchase a copy of the book, and Risen will stick around to sign books and chat afterwards. Don’t miss a chance to welcome him home and learn more about your favorite brown liquor!
