Fred Noe, Jim Beam master distiller, answering a question on a panel at the Bourbon Classic in Louisville. (Booker’s generally has a proof between 121 and 130.)

This past weekend saw the debut of an event aimed at bourbon connoisseurs: the Bourbon Classic. Held at the Kentucky Center for the Arts in downtown Louisville, the Classic brought together a great blend of master distillers, top-notch chefs and other bourbon experts for two days of tasting, learning, mingling and shopping.

I was out of town and had to miss Friday night’s festivities, in which eight master bartenders paired with noted chefs for a cocktail/small plate competition. But I had the good fortune to attend on Saturday, soaking up two of the educational sessions and then sampling a variety of bourbons - including the new Barrel Proof Elijah Craig 12-year-old - from 14 sponsoring distilleries in my official Bourbon Classic Glencairn tasting glass.

I’ll share more specific details in coming days, but my overall impression was quite favorable. With its elegant setting and focus on fine food and bourbon pairings, the Bourbon Classic itself is a natural urban pairing for its country cousin, the annual Kentucky Bourbon Festival in Bardstown, Ky.

I was glad to see that, like the Bourbon Festival, the Classic offered a variety of bourbon education opportunities in its “Bourbon Classic University” - from how-to sessions on pairing bourbon and chocolate, entertaining with your own bourbon tasting, and crafting cocktails to panel discussions of the bourbon barons of the past and the bourbon trends of the future. In fact, there were so many intriguing options that I was sad I could choose only one of four in each of the two time periods. I would suggest starting a bit earlier to add a third time slot and repeating a few of the options next time. The sessions I attended were full, and everyone seemed pleased with the information and access to panelists like Jim Beam master distiller Fred Noe and cocktail master Josh Durr.

I also enjoyed visiting with master distillers and other distillery notables during the Ultimate Bourbon Experience that followed the sessions - and tasting lots of bourbon, of course.

Cheers to the Bourbon Classic. I look forward to seeing what they mix up next year. 

(Full disclosure: I am a regular contributor to The Bourbon Review, one of the event’s sponsors.)

“Beam, Straight Up: The Bold Story of the First Family of Bourbon” by master distiller Fred Noe. Booker Noe, of course, was his father.

As promised, here are more gift ideas for the bourbon lovers on your list.

Mini bottles of bourbon make great stocking stuffers. Most are priced around $6. The selection above can be found at Party Mart.

Candleberry’s Kentucky Bourbon-scented candles will fill the house with the warm aromas associated with bourbon – vanilla, caramel, woodsy undertones – while never becoming cloyingly sweet. 10-ounce candle, around $13.99; 26-ounce, $23.99. Available at Westport Whiskey & Wine, the gift shops at Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark and elsewhere.

Kentucky Cocktail Book ($14.95): Bartender extraordinaire Joy Perrine and local writer Susan Reigler teamed up for this handy guide to cocktails, arranged by season and beautifully photographed by Pam Spaulding. Available at Carmichael’s, Whole Foods and Locust Grove in Louisville.

Consider pairing it with the new Woodford Reserve Spiced Cherry Bitters ($12.95) created by Bourbon Barrel Foods, which provided these tasting notes: “Barrel-aged with aromatic notes of black cherry, anise, vanilla and caramel, with spicy hints of cherry and bourbon oak on the tongue.” Available at most local liquor stores.

Two other books about bourbon to consider:

Beam, Straight Up: The Bold Story of the First Family of Bourbon (list price $22.95) by Fred Noe. If you’ve ever spent any time around Beam’s seventh-generation master distiller, you know that he’s a hoot, and his distinctive voice comes through on every page of this history of his family’s 217-year whiskey dynasty. He covers not only how to make a great bourbon, but how to establish a lasting brand. Available at Barnes and Noble.

But Always Fine Bourbon: Pappy Van Winkle and the Story of Old Fitzgerald (list price $50) by Sally Van Winkle Campbell. You may not be able to find a bottle of Pappy for your bourbon lover, but you can give her this beautiful coffeetable book about the man behind the iconic brand – the grandfather of the author. I found my copy at Party Mart; it’s also carried in the gift shop at Buffalo Trace.

Eat your bourbon in some sumptuous small-batch bourbon truffles from Art Eatables, a new shop at 631 S. Fourth St. “Cocktail Chocolatier” Kelly Ramsey artfully matches just the right type of chocolate to enhance the flavor of whatever bourbon she’s using – and yes, you can tell the difference. Then she hand-paints each one. 4-piece sampler, $9.50.

Wild Turkey broke ground yesterday on a $4 million visitors center that will sit just behind its new distillery building on Wild Turkey Hill in Lawrenceburg, Ky. (That’s an artist rendering above.)

The 8,500-square-foot visitors center will replace the current 1,000-square-foot gift shop and tasting area and will also include interactive displays and a large seminar room where you might be fortunate enough to hear charming master distiller Jimmy Russell talk about bourbon production. “While I wasn’t all that fond of going to school in my youth,” he said in a news release, “I look forward to opening the doors to what will essentially serve as the ‘University of Bourbon’ when we christen our new visitor center in the spring of next year… with a bottle of Wild Turkey, of course.”

(Side note: My husband is from Lawrenceburg; his father went to Anderson County High School with Jimmy Russell, and let’s just say that quote squares with the stories I’ve heard.)

The Wild Turkey Visitors Center is the latest in $100 million in improvements that Campari Gruppo has made since it acquired Wild Turkey in 2009.

Like Jim Beam, which will unveil a multimillion-dollar Visitors Center in October, Wild Turkey is capitalizing on the great increase in public interest both in bourbon and in bourbon tourism. Last year was a record year for the Kentucky Bourbon Trail tour, where both distilleries are stops, and a new record seems likely this year. Wild Turkey expects to welcome 70,000 visitors a year to its new visitors center.

I think it’s wonderful that Jim Beam and Wild Turkey will finally have upgraded visitors centers - but I also hope they won’t lose their homespun, personal touch. Bourbon production is still very much a hands-on process, and the personalities of the people in the industry, from Jimmy Russell and Jim Beam master distiller Fred Noe to the folks who lead the tours and work the gift shops, are a big part of the appeal. It’s an issue that all Kentucky distillers are dealing with as more and more people travel to our fair state to explore the history and heritage of bourbon.

(Below: Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, master distiller Jimmy Russell and Campari CEO Gerry Ruvo at the groundbreaking. Both images courtesy of Campari Gruppo)

Jim Beam Devil’s Cut

6 years old; 90 proof

As you may have read here, Jim Beam master distiller Fred Noe recently played host to a special tasting for the Bourbon Women Association. He sent us all home with goodie bags containing little bottles of what we’d tasted along with a bonus: a sample of Beam’s new bourbon, Devil’s Cut.

The name “Devil’s Cut” plays off the angel’s share, the 4 percent or so of maturing bourbon that is lost each year to evaporation. After a barrel is dumped, about 2 gallons of whiskey remain trapped in the wood, Noe said. In a process called sweating the barrel, “we put about 35 gallons of water in there and shake it like a paint can at Home Depot,” he said. The resulting extract is blended with 6-year-old bourbon and bottled at 90 proof. Let’s give it a try.

Aroma: Vanilla, spice, evergreen

Taste: Brief sweetness at the front, quickly overtaken by oak. Lots of alcohol burn for a 90 proof. Flat, dry finish with a lingering spiciness. 

Verdict: I love the origin of this bourbon’s name and the enterprising spirit who decided to market what I’ve heard old-timers talk about producing themselves from discarded bourbon barrels. The nose of this bourbon was promising; unfortunately, the flavor didn’t deliver on it. It’s like they say: The devil is in the details. 

One of the benefits of membership in the Bourbon Women Association is the opportunity for bourbon-related experiences not available to the general public. A small group of Bourbon Women enjoyed such an experience Friday night at the Jim Beam Distillery, first having a private tasting with master distiller Fred Noe in the T. Jeremiah Beam House and then a barbecue dinner at the Knob Creek Guest House, above, a private facility on the distillery grounds in Clermont, Ky.

Before getting into the history of the Beam family, which has been making bourbon for seven generations, Fred talked a little bit about what’s coming next - namely, $18 million in improvements at the distillery, including a greatly expanded visitors center scheduled to open next year. Also in 2012, Jim Beam will start offering public tours for the very first time.

“Our visitors’ experience has been ‘minimal’ - I’ll be nice,” Fred said. “But we’re stepping it up.” 

Then it was on to the program, during which Fred encouraged us to ask questions. “If I don’t know the answer, hell, I’ll make one up.”

He pre-empted one question immediately: If he’s the seventh generation of the Beam bourbon dynasty, why is his last name Noe? The answer: T. Jeremiah Beam, the great-great grandson of founder Jacob Beam, had no children. But he did have two sisters, and it was the son of sister Margaret Noe, Frederick “Booker” Noe II, who carried on the family business as the sixth generation.

Booker was Fred Noe’s father, but it was not a foregone conclusion that Frederick Booker Noe III would become the seventh generation to make Jim Beam, Fred said. “Booker’s rule for me was, ‘You finish college and we’ll put you to work.’ After about, oh, seven and a half years and a lot of Booker’s money, I did finish college, and he did put me to work - supervising the night shift bottling line.”

Twenty-eight years later, Fred Noe is the master distiller at Jim Beam. Booker died in 2004. He is memorialized with a statue on the distillery grounds - and still very much present in Fred’s memories and stories. He told us Friday that at Jim Beam, the 4 percent or so of the bourbon that is lost annually to evaporation isn’t called the “angel’s share” - it’s called “Booker’s share.”

“And I’m pretty sure we’re losing more than 4 percent now,” he said, smiling.

Tomorrow: How to taste bourbon Booker’s way.