Whiskey Wednesday: Three Shots of Whiskey News and a Mezcal Chaser

If you love whiskey, the next few weeks are going to be a highlight of your year thanks to some excellent upcoming opportunities around town. Whether you just want to sample some outstanding and rare pours or actually learn how distilling works in a hands-on deep-dive class, we’ve got you covered this week. And if you prefer the smoky goodness of a well-made mezcal cocktail, that’s on offer as well. Let’s proceed with the good news!

Owner-distiller Bruce Boeko of Nashville Craft Distillery has quietly been making some waves (along with some fine spirits) at his Wedgewood-Houston facility. He’s been leading educational tours of his distillery since 2016, sharing his own growth as a distiller as he fine-tunes his process. Now he’s going even deeper with a series of two-day hands-on workshops where attendees can learn the history and science of fermentation and distillation and really get up close and personal with an operating still. 

Designed for serious whiskey nerds, home brewers and winemakers, or anyone who has in interest in getting into the spirits industry, the workshop will cover topics including:

• The science of fermentation and distillation
• Legal requirements (standards of identity) for whiskey, gin and other spirits
• Operation and maintenance of the mechanical systems used in distilling
• Infusions, barrel aging and other post-distillation methods
• Distillery business strategies, whiskey economics
• Hands-on participation in mashing grain, fermentation, first and second distillation for whiskey, and botanical distillation of gin

The two-day program costs $725 per attendee, plus tax. Classes are currently scheduled to take place Sep. 11-12, Sep. 18-19, Oct. 9-10, Oct. 23-24, Nov. 13-14 and Nov. 27-28. Each day will be a full one with hours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday. Each class is limited to eight people, so check out the registration website to check availability if you’re interested.

Corkdorks is at it again with their 10th Annual Nashville Whiskey Festival coming to the ballroom at the Omni Hotel downtown on Oct. 5 and 7. Thursday night’s event will feature the return of the fantastic Women in Whiskey tasting and panel discussion, where tasters, blenders, brand ambassadors and other badass women in the industry will gather to share stories and remind everyone how important they are to the traditionally male-dominated spirits business. Raise a toast to these women who are moving the spirits world in the right direction!

The Grand Tasting will be held Saturday night at the Omni with more than a thousand whiskey lovers gathering to sample wee drams of bourbon, Tennessee whiskey, rye, scotch and more from their commemorative Glencairn glasses. In addition to whiskeys you might find on a local store shelf, they’ll also be pouring rare and scarce spirits along with some individual barrel picks that probably won’t ever pass this way again.

The event will also feature education seminars and live entertainment throughout the day into the evening, so book your rideshare in advance and grab your tickets at the festival website.

If you’ve been hunting some of the holy grails of whiskey, particularly the rare whiskeys from Buffalo Trace, here’s your chance to taste your way through some of that vaunted portfolio as part of a whiskey dinner at the Dream Nashville hotel in Printers Alley on Wednesday, Oct. 4. Dream Nashville’s chef Liron Eisenberg will join forces with chef Josue Pena of Atlanta’s (and soon to be Nashville’s) Iberian Pig to create a six-course whiskey pairing menu that will be served alongside 1-ounce pours of rare whiskeys ranging from Weller to Pappy 10- and 15-year-old whiskey.

The event will be held in a private room at Dream Nashville, so register for the $350 event if you want to know how to be in “the room where it happens.”

Finally, moving from corn whiskey to agave products, Superica Nashville has big plans for their upcoming Mezcal Week, which will take place Sept. 8-15. The bar has been hoarding its best stuff and coming up with inventive cocktails to feature during the week, so you’ll find special drinks, rare pours and flights of mezcal to pair with the superior Tex-Mex at Superica.

Here are some of the cocktails they’ve been cooking up at Superica:

• Dessert in the Desert featuring Del Maguey Vida mezcal with Kahlua, cream, banana syrup, and mole bitters

• Mezcal Margarita with mezcal, Stirrings triple sec, and fresh lime juice 

• The Highwayman, a mezcal Old-Fashioned featuring Banhez mezcal, honey/agave syrup and Bittermen's Mexican Mole bitters, garnished with coffee beans 

• Mezcal Mule featuring Banhez mezcal, Lunazul reposado, lime, ginger beer, cucumber, and Tajin

• Mezcal Smash with Banhez mezcal, orange, and mint on crushed ice

See you at the bar!