One of the highlights of Kelly and my current road trip through the American South has been the Maker’s Mark distillery tour. We had grand aspirations of covering a majority of the American Whiskey Trail, most of it dotted along the Tennessee and Kentucky borders, but several factors, including time constraints, shitty weather and the impending arrival of Christmas led us to abandon all others and go straight to the king of bourbon.

I had never tasted whiskey until I moved to New York City for college in 2001, after which I tried really hard to get into alcohol. I was going though my Bukowski/Kerouac phase, so I considered it of the utmost importance that I find a suitable drink that matched my riotous and rebellious East Village attitude. Continue reading »