“Paint. Drink. Have fun.” We did all of that last week at Pinot’s Palette, a new paint-and-sip studio in St. Matthews. While Pinot’s and other similar studios ply amateur artists with wine for inspiration, Pinot’s has added a twist: Bourbon Night. We sampled Woodford Reserve and Woodford Double Oaked while creating our masterpieces. 

When I saw the sample of the picture we’d be copying (a bottle of Woodford and a glass sitting on a bourbon barrel, below), I admit, I was intimidated.   

But the staff made the process really easy, and yes, fun. Everything was waiting for us: the canvas, paper-plate palettes loaded with the colors we’d need, two brushes - one big, one small - and a cup of water for rinsing, and they talked us through the picture step by step. (I thought the biggest danger would be accidentally rinsing my brush in my bourbon glass, but it turned out to be almost drinking from the paint-rinsing cup. Thankfully, neither occurred.)

Samples of the real thing served as inspiration. At a couple of points during the evening as we waited for our paintings to dry, brand representative Adam Hayes educated us about Woodford and Woodford Double Oaked and answered questions. (Disclosure: Adam covered the $45-per-person cost for my husband and me at this very first Bourbon Night, which Pinot’s Palette began at his suggestion.) 

Three hours after we started, everyone had a painting to take home. The variations on the theme were fun to see. (You’ll see below that I chose to have my Woodford neat, rather than paint the mint julep, for example.) We had a great time and would definitely do it again. Pinot’s Palette plans to offer one Bourbon Night per month, featuring different Brown-Forman products and painting subjects. Check Pinot’s Palette’s Facebook page for details.

It is slightly less than one month until the Kentucky Derby, which means that people around here are starting to talk about mint juleps. It can be difficult to make a good mint julep; many of them end up way too sweet, or tasting sort of like mouthwash. If that’s been your experience, help is on the way.

Master mixologist Joy Perrine, the “bad girl of bourbon,” will demonstrate how to make the perfect julep from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 11, at an event called “Juleps: Mint & More” at Locust Grove, 561 Blankenbaker Lane. As the name implies, Joy won’t just focus on the traditional julep - she’ll be making strawberry, pineapple and chocolate juleps too, and you’ll get to sample all four.

In addition, Woodford Reserve master distiller Chris Morris will be there to talk about the juleps served at Churchill Downs on Derby Day, from the ones in the souvenir glasses to the special $1,000 Woodford Reserve Julep. (Woodford is the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby).

The julep event is $30 ($20 for Friends of Locust Grove) and includes light hors d’oeuvres. Call 502-897-9845 to make your reservation. 

You know, the more you type the word “julep,” the weirder it looks. Which, of course, made this English major wonder about its origin. Here’s what Merriam-Webster has to say: “Middle English, from Middle French, from Arabic julāb, from Persian gulāb, from gul rose + āb water. First Known Use: 14th century.”

So there you have it: Rose water. Feel free to drop that bit of trivia at your Derby parties. 

Much of the bourbon reporting I do is planned well in advance. For example, I’m looking forward to learning a lot at this coming weekend’s Bourbon Classic at the Kentucky Center for the Arts. (Don’t have your tickets yet? Click here.) And looking even further ahead, I’ll be attending the Bourbon Academy at Woodford Reserve in August.

But sometimes, serendipity plays a role. On Saturday, while out for a walk in the (all-too-brief) lovely warm weather, we stopped in at Party Mart to see what was new and happened upon a Woodford bourbon tasting led by “whiskey brand champion” Adam Hayes, above. Using five food items - Parmesan cheese, dark chocolate, dried cranberry, orange and sorghum - Adam showed us how a taste of each item drew out a different segment of the bourbon’s flavor profile.

This flavor wheel is an integral part of the Bourbon Academy at Woodford. “I said, ‘We’ve got to get this out - it’s silly not to share it” outside the distillery, Adam said. He’s been rolling out the mobile flavor wheel over the past month.

Several Party Mart customers who tried it were surprised by the results. “I drink Woodford all the time, but I never tasted rose petals until I tasted it with the cheese,” one of them said.

If you’d like to give the wheel a spin, Adam will be at the Liquor Barn in St. Matthews (4301 Shelbyville Road) from 4 to 7 p.m. April 25.

The Kentucky Distillers’ Association will feature an exclusive sampling of bourbon brands at the Bluegrass Ball on Jan. 19 in Washington, D.C. The non-partisan event, hosted by the Kentucky Society of Washington, is the first of a series of black-tie celebrations surrounding the presidential inauguration.

Seven Kentucky distillers will pour premium single-barrel and small-batch bourbons: Bulleit, Four Roses, Heaven Hill, Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark, Wild Turkey and Woodford Reserve. Bourbon VIPs scheduled to attend include Master Distillers Jimmy Russell of Wild Turkey, Chris Morris of Woodford Reserve and Craig Beam of Heaven Hill, as well as Rob Samuels, chief operating officer of Maker’s Mark.

The Kentucky-inspired menu will be created by Chef Edward Lee, proprietor of 610 Magnolia in Louisville and a contestant on TV’s “Iron Chef America” and “Top Chef.”

The Kentucky Society of Washington, a not-for-profit organization, was founded in 1912 with a purpose to promote goodwill, fellowship and amicable relations among Kentuckians in the nation’s Capital region. The Bluegrass Ball started in 1949 to honor then-Vice President Alben W. Barkley, a Western Kentucky native who served under President Harry S Truman.  

Tickets to the 2013 Bluegrass Ball are $250 each and may be purchased here.

Before the holiday hullabaloo set in, my husband and I spent a lovely, relaxing weekend at West Baden Springs Hotel in West Baden Springs, Ind. Its fantastic domed atrium, shown above, was called “the Eighth Wonder of the World” when it was built in 1902. At various times during its history, the hotel also served as a military hospital, a Jesuit seminary and a liberal-arts college before falling into near ruin in the 1980s. It reopened in 2007 following a complete restoration by the Cook Group and it’s gorgeous.

In Ballard’s Bar, named for Ed Ballard, one of the hotel’s historic owners, we enjoyed a cocktail called the Bourbon Bliss that adds both orange juice and Grand Marnier to Woodford Reserve, the hotel’s house brand. I made one at home and it was just as good. (As an aside, I am not a huge fan of flavored bourbons, but orange pairs so well with bourbon that I don’t understand why everyone is cranking out cherry- and honey-flavored bourbons and no one has produced an orange-flavored one. How about it, science?)

In the meantime, here is the recipe for the Bourbon Bliss. Enjoy one this weekend after you’ve finished all that shopping and wrapping.

The Bourbon Bliss

1 ¼ ounce bourbon

¾ ounce Grand Marnier

4 ounces of orange juice

Splash of grenadine

Shake all ingredients and serve over ice with an orange/cherry flag.

Looking for festive things to do this weekend? A couple of distilleries have holiday-related goings-on:

Buffalo Trace in Frankfort is all decked out for the season with Christmas light displays. You can drive through the distillery property nightly through Jan. 1, starting at dusk and ending at 11 p.m. (Note that the distillery itself will be closed on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.) Buffalo Trace is located at 113 Great Buffalo Trace. Click here for tour information and maps.

Woodford Reserve Distillery in Versailles has its final Holiday Luncheons this weekend. The buffet created by Chef-in-Residence Ouita Michel and her culinary team is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. today through Saturday and 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday. After you dine, you can take a tour of the distillery or visit the gift shop. The buffet is $25 per person. I’m told that the weekend is fairly booked, but there’s always the chance someone will cancel. Call ahead for reservations at (859) 879-1953. Click here for directions.

And as always, celebrate responsibly!

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.

I am always on the lookout for delicious cocktails, particularly delicious bourbon cocktails, and especially delicious bourbon cocktails that are easy to make. I found the recipe for this one, which meets all my criteria, in Michael Dietsch’s “Cocktail 101” column on the blog Serious Eats.

There are several cocktails called “Derby” cocktails, I suppose because of the connection between drinking and betting on the ponies. (That would exclude the Brown Derby, which is named for the Brown Derby restaurant chain in Los Angeles and is made with bourbon, grapefruit juice and honey.) The most famous cocktail associated with the Kentucky Derby is, of course, the mint julep. But I think most juleps are far too sweet and much prefer this Derby, which is a sour cocktail by virtue of the lime juice.

Here is what Dietsch said about it: “Wait. Bourbon and lime juice? Yes. How often do you see this? The combination is rare enough to be worth trying just for fun. But this is no simple novelty. The resulting drink is complex, delicious, and utterly satisfying. Peppery, dry but fruity, tart, and very mildly herbal. This, for a bourbon lover, is an essential cocktail.”

I second that. Here is the recipe.

The Derby

Ice

1 ounce bourbon whiskey (I used Woodford Reserve, which pairs well with orange)

3/4 ounce lime juice

1/2 ounce sweet vermouth

1/2 ounce Grand Marnier or orange curaçao (having neither of these on hand, I used Cointreau)

Lime wedge or mint leaf, for garnish

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add bourbon, lime, sweet vermouth, and Grand Marnier (or other orange-flavored liqueur equivalent) and shake well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lime wedge or mint leaf. And you’re off!

Photo by Michael Dietsch

The Beaumont Inn has been welcoming travelers to Harrodsburg, Ky., since 1919, and yet somehow I hadn’t made my way there until last weekend. I stayed at the Beaumont’s Goddard Hall after attending an event for ambassadors at Maker’s Mark in Loretto, about an hour away.

That’s appropriate, because the Beaumont Inn is now an official sponsor of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail tour and its Old Owl Tavern offers more than 50 bourbons. Upstairs, the cozy Owl’s Nest Pub serves classic cocktails, including The Derby, made with Woodford Reserve, sweet vermouth, orange Curacao and lime juice - a sight better than a mint julep, if you ask me.

What’s with all the owls? The Dedman family, which has operated the inn for five generations, distilled a whiskey called Kentucky Owl Bourbon before Prohibition. You can’t buy Owl Bourbon anymore, but you can buy a poster of the label in the Beaumont Inn’s gift shop - along with lots of owl-bedecked home decor items.

The Beaumont Inn is a genteel place to spend a night or a weekend. Learn more about the inn, the Old Owl Tavern and the Owl’s Nest by clicking here.

The Beaumont Inn

Woodford Reserve Master’s Collection: Four Wood

94.4 proof

The 2012 Master’s Collection entry by Chris Morris, the seventh in the series, batches Woodford Reserve fully aged in white oak and then finished in maple barrels, sherry barrels and ruby port barrels. Woodford Reserve provided the Bourbon Babe with a sample of Four Wood, which retails for around $99 for the 750ml bottle.

Aroma: One of the most luscious noses I’ve encountered in bourbon. Very buttery, lots of toffee, with dried fruit (raisin) and a whiff of maple sweetness.

Taste: Tingly on the lips and the front of the palate; warm, but not fiery in the middle. Flavors of dark fruit are quickly overtaken by a nutty, oaky essence. I didn’t find the butter or the toffee promised in the nose. The finish is fairly dry and spiced with cinnamon.

Verdict: This is a good bourbon, but if the taste had lived up to that amazing nose, it would be a great bourbon.