The Great Kentucky Bourbon Tasting & Gala

There are many things about living in Lexington I miss. There are the normal friends and bars and local eateries. But then there are the events that happen in Lexington which can not be found anywhere else. The Gala which ends the Kentucky Bourbon Festival every September is one of these events.
This black tie event is a Bourbon lover’s dream come true and costs around $ 150 per person. I was fortunate enough to go one year (I’m too poor to buy my own ticket but one year I was given a ticket by a friend).
The event starts at 6:30 pm. You enter the event hall and are given a «tasting» bag. In other words, a cloth sac to put all of your loot in. The first stop is the tasting room where distilleries have a bar set up. There are usually many Master Distillers on hand to answer questions and sign autographs.
Each distillery has most of Bourbon they make available and a special glass for the event. You are given a small amount of liquor in a glass to sip and if you do not like it, there are spittoons available to use. After you are finished, the glass is placed in your «loot» bag. If you are good, you can collect full sets of glasses (you should see our collection). The Maker”s Mark bar is always interesting, the year I went it was carved out of a solid block of ice.
Following the tasting, you check your bag into the coat room and head into the dinner & dance hall. There is a toast with the official Bourbon of the festival and a gourmet Kentucky meal and dancing. Each table has a full bottle of Bourbon and there is also an open bar.
The strangest part of the whole evening is what you see and hear. There are very wealthy people at this event, horsemen and women, politicians, jockeys, etc. They are all dressed to the nines. But what you hear is all of the glasses clanging in the bags as they walk around the tasting room to drink the Bourbon and eat the appetizers. Those tasting bags turn everyone into kleptomaniacs.
Now that I think about it, it is well worth the $ 150 a person. If you are anywhere near Lexington, Kentucky or Bourbon County in September, you MUST attend this event!