The friends and I took advantage of a relatively mild day over the weekend to get up to the Weston area of Missouri, easily one of our favorite places. It's the perfect small town, with Main Street-esque antique shops and an underground bar, O'Malley's, that features Irish beer and music. On this occasion we were celebrating a birthday despite the fact that our original plans of snow tubing at nearby Snow Creek in Ruston had been cancelled because it was unusually warm. We made do and headed down the street to try a few wines at Riverwood Winery, a favorite of ours, but then we found the new Whiskey and scotch tasting bar they have added. What a great surprise!
As you can see they had quite the selection of Bourbon brands and many different scotches to sample. I always favor the wine here, but we had to do a whiskey tasting to check out the new offerings. So, we decided on the flight of 6 bourbon brands and made our selections. I don't care for scotch, so we decided on an all bourbon tasking. We were not disappointed.
I couldn't pass up a taste of my all time favorite Bourbon Whiskey, Bulleit 10. I have been making all my Manhattans with Bulleit now and I am never disappointed. It is a very good tasting whiskey. I never thought that 20 years ago when I would serve the old folks their Manhattans at the restaurant that I would be drinking these things, but now I love them!!
We made our way through their pretty gift shop, paid for our tastings and purchases and headed out to the back to sit by the fire pit and listen to the music. We brought our whiskey samples, and then also purchased their hot mulled blueberry wine, one of the best mulled wines I have ever had, so I get it every winter here at Riverwood.
Okay, I couldn't leave without sampling at least one of my favorite wines here, the Asian Pear. Super fresh pear flavor, not to sweet, and goes well with my favorite dish, spicy shrimp. I grabbed a bottle before we headed out to Weston. It was a great way to celebrate a birthday!
See that Knob Creek Smoked Maple sticking out there on the end? It was my favorite and it was delicious. It is most definitely a sipping bourbon for me as it's a little heavy for most cocktails. But wow, the maple flavor was just sweet enough without being over-kill and it was very smooth going down.
I couldn't pass up a taste of my all time favorite Bourbon Whiskey, Bulleit 10. I have been making all my Manhattans with Bulleit now and I am never disappointed. It is a very good tasting whiskey. I never thought that 20 years ago when I would serve the old folks their Manhattans at the restaurant that I would be drinking these things, but now I love them!!
The tasting was fun and informative. We sniffed, swirled and then discussed the different bourbons in our glasses. the staff was knowledgeable and had good recommendations, but one of our friends is also a bit of a whiskey aficionado himself and shared quite a bit of his knowledge with us. I think we found a new place to come regularly for bourbon whiskey tastings.
We made our way through their pretty gift shop, paid for our tastings and purchases and headed out to the back to sit by the fire pit and listen to the music. We brought our whiskey samples, and then also purchased their hot mulled blueberry wine, one of the best mulled wines I have ever had, so I get it every winter here at Riverwood.
Okay, I couldn't leave without sampling at least one of my favorite wines here, the Asian Pear. Super fresh pear flavor, not to sweet, and goes well with my favorite dish, spicy shrimp. I grabbed a bottle before we headed out to Weston. It was a great way to celebrate a birthday!
