Recently, Rosemary and I were asked to pick some barrels at James E. Pepper Distillery by Steve Akley. The other members of the team picking the barrels were Royce and Rebekah Neeley, Maggie Kimberl and Fred Mozenter. We gathered at the Pepper Distillery at 10:30, but did not get started till about 11:00 because traffic made some of the people late getting there.

We started the day with a tour of the distillery. It is a wonderful distillery built in the original distillery building of the James E. Pepper Distillery as it was rebuilt after the fire that destroyed the building in 1933. We listened to the history of James E. Pepper and his wife Ella Offut Pepper, who played an important role in James’ career as a distiller and a horse breeder. We then moved to the distillery and mash tubs. They use a very fine grind of their grains in making their mash. It is almost a flour grind. They make about 1,800 barrels a year with their small column and pot still doubler.

We then sat down and tasted the samples they had poured for us. We started with the Bourbon. There were three samples set before us. We tasted them and then Steve took a vote on what was our favorite in order of the samples. I picked one that was maybe not my favorite, but was different enough that I thought it would sell better in Steve’s liquor store. I think that is the most important criteria for picking a barrel. The whiskey has to be different from the normal offering as well as being a good tasting whiskey. If it is the same as the normal offering, then why bother to pick a barrel?

Next, we moved on to picking a Rye whiskey barrel. They poured us three more samples and we tasted through them. Once again, I picked a very good barrel because it was more complex and different from what I remembered Pepper Rye tasting like. There was a sample that I liked better but it tasted too much like other Pepper Rye whiskeys. Once again, Steve took a vote on which ones we liked.

In the end, the two barrels I picked were chosen as our choices. The Rye will be bottled and shipped out soon and the Bourbon will be shipped out after it ages another month so that it will be four years old when bottled. Steve promised to send us a bottle of each when he gets them.
I like doing barrel picks. I think Steve picked a good team to help him select these barrels. He had an odd number of pickers to prevent ties when voting. He also picked some people with excellent palates. There were no bad whiskeys in the tasting selections and I would have been happy to get a bottle of anything we had to choose from in the selection. I am honored to be part of such a team of tasters.

Photos Courtesy of Rosemary Miller and Steve Akley