Distilled: A Guitar Great’s New Bourbon

Plus: Arnold Palmer slushes, top releases, ice cube science

DAVID DIBENEDETTO

These days you can hardly toss a cork in a liquor store without hitting a celebrity bourbon. Steph Curry, Bob Dylan, Peyton Manning, Jason Aldean, and more all have bottles bearing their backing. Dylan’s Heaven’s Door is one of my faves, but I’ve yet to get a sip of guitar great Derek Trucks’s new juice. Our friend the writer Wright Thompson, who knows a thing or two about bourbon, met up with Trucks recently to talk about his whiskey journey. By the way, happy National Bourbon Heritage Month, a sure sign we’re in prime brown water season. Here’s hoping the stories below will help inspire your next pour. Cheers!

The guitar great just released the fourth edition of his, ahem, Ass Pocket Whiskey (APW). Pappyland author Wright Thompson gets to the bottom of Trucks’s bourbon love.

Beverage pros weigh in on the science behind the single large cube: Does it make your bourbon better?

Carrie Greener and her sisters, Louise Breen and Chenault James, founded Pappy & Company in 2013. (The triplets are great-granddaughters of Julian P. “Pappy” Van Winkle, Sr., the founder and namesake of the esteemed bourbon.) They partner with various producers to create whiskey-adjacent goods such as clothing, glassware, and chocolates. Their bestseller? Cigars made with Nicaraguan tobacco fermented in ex-Pappy casks.

“My go-to right now is a bourbon maple sour—I make it with an egg white, which makes it that much more delicious. If you add an egg white and shake it really hard, it’s just beautiful. It opens the drink up and is creamier and lighter. I learned about these from seeing them on menus, but they’re actually really easy to make at home. The only hard part is shaking it to oblivion. You want it really good and foamy, with a good head on top, so you get a real arm workout. It adds a whole other level of flavor, and it’s not as boozy. I mean, I like a boozy cocktail, but this just mellows it out.”

Here’s Greener’s recipe:
1½ oz. bourbon
¾ oz. fresh lemon juice
½ oz. maple syrup (Greener uses Pappy & Co.’s bourbon barrel–aged maple syrup)
1 egg white

Shake all ingredients with ice until your arm gets tired, and then shake a little more. Strain into a coupe, or any small glass will do.

—Wayne Curtis, G&G contributing editor

Enjoy this icy, refreshing mix of black tea, sugar, citrus, and bourbon, preferably while sitting on a porch.

National Bourbon Heritage Month is in full swing, with a slate of heavy-hitting (albeit tough-to-find) releases rolling out across the country: Four Roses 2025 Limited Edition Small Batch marries thirteen- and nineteen-year-old barrels into a harmonious blend; Maker’s Mark Cellar Aged 2025 showcases its oldest released stocks yet; the fourth edition in the VVS (very, very special) Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond Decanter Series is a soft and silky eleven-year-old stunner; Woodford Reserve released the 2025 entry in its distinctive Master’s Collection, Sweet Oak Bourbon, aged in chinkapin oak barrels; also releasing this month, the 2025 Van Winkle Collection—from Old Rip Van Winkle 10-year to the legendary Family Reserve 23-year—remains a sought-after prize.

Headed to Bourbon & Beyond in Louisville this weekend? Pro tip: If you want a chance to join the bourbon tastings (not just listen in) at the Fork & Flask stage, get to the front of the stage at least thirty minutes before scheduled start times to secure a wristband. Highlights include sessions with actress Elizabeth Banks today, Angel’s Envy master distiller Owen Martin on Saturday, and “Bourbon Parenting” with comedian Jim Gaffigan on Sunday.

Art of Bourbon, the annual online auction and in-person event (September 18) benefiting Louisville’s Speed Art Museum, this year raises the bar with twenty-eight lots that include rare and historic bottles curated by author and critic Fred Minnick. Preview the items and register for the auction here.

Tennessee’s Jack Daniel’s introduced Heritage Barrel as the first permanent, year-round addition to its single-barrel lineup (following two popular limited editions). These barrels are toasted twice as long as usual before being flash-charred.

Heaven Hill whiskey ambassador emeritus Bernie Lubbers, a.k.a. Mr. Bottled-in-Bond, this week debuted Bourbon Through Bluegrass, a tasting and performance held four mornings a week at Louisville’s Frazier History Museum. Learn about the origins of Kentucky bourbon as Lubbers and Grammy-nominated banjo player Steve Cooley pair sips and stories with old-time tunes.

Be among the first to tour the newly opened Heaven Hill Springs Distillery. The $200 million facility marks Heaven Hill’s return to distillation in Bardstown following a devastating fire in 1996.

—Tom Wilmes, G&G contributor