This is my one thousandth blog post. It was six and a half years ago that I started my blog. My purpose in writing the blog has always been to share the historical knowledge I have picked up over the years with as many people as possible. I started doing tasting notes as much for the record of what whiskey tastes like in the 21st century. Back in the early days of my career, Gary Gilmore on Bourbon Enthusiasts asked me the question, “What did people write about the taste of Bourbon and Rye in the 19th century?”  I looked through as many of the records I could find and found very little information on the subject. I decided then that the people of the 22nd century would not have that problem and started writing tasting notes.

As I continued to write the blog, I decided to add some other features. I wrote about people who contributed to the industry in my “Unsung Heroes” blogs. I then decided that I needed to add book reviews to help people decide what they may want to read about whiskey. I then added “Images of the Past” to showcase photographs and other images I have found over the years.

History remains the main focus of the blog, but I also write about the distilling process and distilleries I have visited over the years. I always enjoy finding a description of distilleries from the past. Many of these descriptions were written by the marketing department of the distillery and can be a bit slanted, but they are worth reading when I find them. My goal is to write about the distilleries I visit in a more neutral manner so people who read my blog fifty years from now will find an honest look at what the distillery was like when I visited it. 

I also have an interest in American Brandy – fruit brandies in particular. I have written about them and have a brandy history timeline on my website.

I have been a pipe smoker for almost fifty years now. Cigars are a more recent addition to my smoking habit – only about twenty years. Still, I enjoy tobacco and how it influences the taste of Bourbon and Rye whiskeys. I wrote my first blog on pairing tobacco with Bourbon on February 29th, 2016. Since then I have added a tobacco pairing with my tasting notes. I have also been blessed with a friendship with Maggie Kimberl, who is an expert on cigars. For a while, she was a contributor of cigar blogs to the site. We started pairing Bourbon and cigars in a series of blogs back in 2016. Maggie has become too busy to write cigar blogs for me now, but they are still a valuable contribution to the website.

So what is the future of Bourbonveach.com? I am getting older and might start slowing down on my writing. Right now, I write three blogs a week. I may slow down to just two blogs a week. Matt Kohorst, my nephew, will occasionally write a blog post or two as he has done in the past. However, he is a young man who is very busy with his career and family. I do hope to see him write more on his hobby of smoking meats and pairing it with Bourbon and Rye. 

I get a lot of requests from other people who want to write for the blog, but I am not interested in that. I want to keep the blog honest and brand neutral.

I hope that you, the reader of my blog like what I write. I will continue to write about Bourbon, and other American whiskey, and Brandy. It may take more than six and a half years to reach two thousand blogs, but that is my next goal.

Photos Courtesy of Rosemary Miller