Blanton's #17 8" x 8" oil

As requested, here is a Blanton's Bourbon painting, 8in x 8in, painted on Centurion Linen painting panel.  The corks on the bottles are collectable.

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Pappy Van Winkle, 20 yr. 8in x 8in, Oil

Everyone here in Louisville Kentucky knows about Pappy, Pappy Van Winkle.   This one is from the Pappy Van Winkle Reserve, 20 year which comes with a red velvet bag.... woo, spiffy!   Just to be clear, it is the bourbon that comes with the bag, not this painting.    I was going to sell it in a gallery here in town but instead I am putting it up for sale on my DPW gallery site.

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"Knob Creek Glow" 6in x 6in Oil

Recently I have gone through my stash of paintings and realized that there are a number of them that I have not published for some unknown reason.   So I am putting them in my blog and also on my Daily PaintWorks site. (see the DPW gallery below)

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"Gran Patron Piedra Tequila" 8in x 8in oil

At first glance this looks like a bourbon but... much to my surprise... it is a Tequila!  I thought all tequilas were clear.    Obviously, I don't know much.  I was sent this bottle to do a painting for someone and I thought I would practice first.    When I saw those glass stripes on the sides of the bottle, I panicked.   Much to my relief they were fairly easy to do.  Whew!  The cork top is stainless around a lava rock.  It's heavy and pretty cool.

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"And the three stand alone". 8in x 8in. oil

These three grapes are about to go on an adventure.

Thank you for your interest.

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My blog: http://claudiahammer.blogspot.com 

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My email: iclaudiahammer@twc.com 

My DPW gallery: http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Artists/chammer-209

"Blanton's 4" 6in x 6in oil

I just realized today that I had this painting and have not posted it!!

Blanton's is a popular bourbon.    I love the stoppers!  

Thank you for viewing my art.

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My blog: http://claudiahammer.blogspot.com 

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My email: iclaudiahammer@twc.com 

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"One finger of Maker's" 8" x 8" oil

Here is another one for me to take to the St James Art Fair.   This is especially popular here in Kentucky where all the Major bourbons are made.

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Rowans Creek on ice 6"x6" oil

This is a commission.   Rowans Creek Small Batch Bourbon is 100 proof.   Click here for a review by the Drink Insider.

My blog: http://claudiahammer.blogspot.com
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Makers on ice 6"x6" oil

This is another commission.   And this is a typical thing to see around here at Derby which is this Saturday by the way.   Everyone is tightening up their plans.

My blog: http://claudiahammer.blogspot.com
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My email: iclaudiahammer@insightbb.com
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Eagle Rare 17 year 6"x6" oil

 This is one of three commission bourbon paintings, Eagle Rare 17 year.

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Woodford Reserve on the rocks 12"x12" oil

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Chris Morris is the seventh Master Distiller in Brown-Forman Corporation's 140 year histor and is responsible for maintaining the award winning tast of Wordford Reserve.  Read about his profile here.  Head Chef Quita Michel was nominated four years in a row for a James Beard Foundation Award in 2011 for Best Chef Southeast.

My blog: http://claudiahammer.blogspot.com
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My email: iclaudiahammer@insightbb.com
My DPW gallery: http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Artists/chammer-209

Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 12"x12" oil

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  Jack Daniel was a real person and was a legend from birth to death and in between he created Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey.  No one really knows exactly when Jack was born.  A town fire destroyed the courthouse records and conflicting dates on Mr. Jack's and his mother's headstones have left his date of birth in question.  It is customary to celebrate Mr. Jack's birthday in September - so he gets a whole month.   But for a man as unique as Jack, one day just wouldn't seem proper anyway.  

As the story goes, Mr Jack arrived at work early one morning and tried to open the safe in his office.   Thing is, he couldn't recall the combination.   In his frustration he gave that safe a good solid kick.  The blow broke his toe and infection set in, leading to the blood poisoning that would take his life in 1911.  Because he never married or had children, he deeded the Distillery to his hard-working nephew, Lem Motlow.   Some people say Jack not only left his tennessee whiskey behind, he left us all a valuable lesson as well:  Don't go to work early.

He is buried in the Lynchburg, KY, town cemetery and you can find his grave by looking for the two chairs next to his headstone.   It's said that the chairs were placed there to comfort the many local ladies who mourned his passing.

Many stories have been passed down about the significance of Old No. 7.  Some say that Jack had 7 girlfriends, or that the way he wrote his "J" looked like a 7.   Some say he chose the number 7 simply because it's lucky.  One story goes that the recipe for Jack Daniels was Mr. Jack's 7th recipe or 7th trial batch.  One story says that is was the railroad shipping number on a barrel, we'll never know for sure.

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Pappy Van Winkle 6"x8" oil

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Someone told me once that there is over 100 bourbons that are made today.   I simply cannot paint them all and there were quite a few on my short list that I did not even get to but I saved the best for last.

   Pappy Van Winkle 20 year has received a rating of 99 by the Wine Enthusiast Magazine.

The Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery has a four generation history.  The Van Winkle family's involvement in the bourbon industry began in the late 1800s with Julian P. "Pappy" Van Winkle, Sr.  He was a traveling salesman for the W.L.Weller and Sons wholesale house in Louisville, Ky traveling around the state by horse and buggy.  Pappy and a friend, Alex Farnsley, eventually bought the wholesale house and also purchased the A. Ph. Stitzel Distillery, which made bourbon for Weller.  The merged the two companies and became the Stizel-Weller Distillery.  Their prominent brands were W.L.Weller, Old Fitzgerald, Rebel Yell and Cabin Still.

In May of 1935 at the age of 61, Pappy opened the newly completed Stitzel-Weller Distillery in South Louisville.  He had a heavy influence on the operations there until his death at the age of 91.  His son, Julian, Jr. took over operations until he was forced by stockholders to sell the distillery in 1972.  The rights to all of their brands were either sold with the distillery or to other distilleries.

After selling the distillery, Julian Jr. resurrected a pre-prohibition label, the only one to which the Van Winkles kept the rights, called Old Rip Van Winkle.  He used whiskeys stocks from the old distillery to supply his brand.  Julian Junior's son, Julian III took over in 1981 when Julian Jr. passed away.  Julian III has continued with the Van Winkle tradition of producing the highest quality wheated bourbon available.  His son, Preston joined the company in 2001.

Recently, the Van Winkles entered into a joint venture with the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Ky.   All of the Van Winkle's whiskey production now takes place at Buffalo Trace under the same strict guidelines the family has always followed in order to produce a superior quality product.

This company makes 7 great products click here to view.   

Click here to see retailers in your area.

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Old Forester Mint Julep 6"x6" oil

Click here to purchase.  $100

In the 1800's, bourbon whisky was sold in bulk to rectifiers, wholesalers, brokers and retailers.  Barrels were branded with a distillery or "brand"name.  Package stores/druggist bottled their own labels from bulk supplies.   Unscrupulous rectifiers, jobbers and retailers would often tamper with the quality and integrity of the whisky in the barrel.

In 1870, George Garvin Brown, a young pharmaceuticals salesman in Louisille, Kentucky, saw the need for a consistently high-quality whisky that met medicinal standards.   With $5,500 in saved and borrowed money, Brown and his half brother started J.T.S. Brown and Bros.   They sold Old Forester Bourbon Whisky exclusively in sealed glass bottles to assure its quality.   George Garvin Brown ensured the quality of his product with his handwritten guarantee on every bottle.   Unfortunately, the inspiration and origin of the Old Forrester brand name died with George Garvin Brown.   However, it is believed that George Garvin Brown's brand was named after one of Louisville's leading physicians, Dr. William Forrester (and presumably one of his best customers).  you will notice that the originally Old Forester was spelled with two r's.  When Dr Forrester retired, his endorsement would not longer have been valid. The name changed to reflect his change in status.

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Blanton's Single Barrel 6"x6" oil

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Blanton's is one of my favorite bourbons.  Colonel Albert B. Blanton first bottled his private reserve bourbon nearly a century ago.  He believed in the "center-cut' or middle sections of Warehouse H were the best for aging his bourbon.   Personally tasting and choosing each barrel, these barrels were reserved and bottled for ambassadors, dignitaries, family and friends becoming the world's first single barrel bourbon.

Blanton's bourbon has made TV appearances in: Outlaw, Entourage, True Blood, Bored to Death, Desperate Housewives, Justified, Big Bang Theory, Southland, NCIS, CSI.  Fox News acclaims Blanton's as one of the World's top 10 coolest liquor bottles.  The tiny horse and jockey on the bottle stoppers are now a recognized trademark of Blanton's.   They have produced a collectors edition set of eight different stoppers, featuring a horse and jockey in different strides and poses.   Each stopper is marked with a single letter that spells Blanton's when the set has been completed.

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Woodford Reserve Bourbon 6"x8" oil

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The very popular Woodford Reserve is twice-barreled which creates a rich, colorful flavor.  Uniquely matured in separate, charred oak barrels, the second barrel deeply toasted before a light charring, extracts additional amounts of soft, sweet oak character.  Click here for more information on Woodford Reserve.

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Willett Bourbon 6"x6" oil

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Here is a review from Whisky Connosr.

The Willett family owned the Willett Distilling Company until they sold it to Even Kulsveen in 1984. The company was renamed Kentucky Bourbon Distillers, Ltd. in order to make the company name more recognisable as being associated with Kentucky whiskey for the purpose of international marketing. 

Nose: brown sugar, like an aged rum, black cherry, plum, rye spices, subtantial oak, with just hints of vanilla and caramel.

Taste: the spices explode all over the palate--this is spicy like the spiciest rye whiskey. The alcohol taste reinforces the spicy effect. The wood is very strong here as well. This is a bourbon of enormous flavour, able to keep company with George T. Stagg, William Larue Weller, and Old Potrero. Vanilla, caramel, oak, black pepper, cherry and plum dance and crackle all about the mouth. A spicy beginning gives way to developing sweetness, which becomes all-encompassing

Finish: these enormous flavours just last and last, doing a slow fade together. The sweetness remains strong in the mouth throughout the finish

Balance: Lovely, lovely, lovely! I have had other Willett Bourbons, and have loved them all. This bourbon is quite delicious and quite balanced, for all of its enormous powerful flavour. 

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Knob Creek 6"x6" oil

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This is a cool bottle and label.  The packaging pays attention to the details. With a bottle reminiscent of a bootlegger’s flask, it embodies the unpretentious, handmade look and feel of turn-of-the-century bourbon. The observant eye will notice newsprint scrawled on the label—harkening back to the decades-old custom of wrapping bottles at the distillery in newspaper.  Knob Creek is 100 proof and aged 9 years.  When coming up with the name they went to history to name Know Creek, the answer was nearby.   Approximately 20 miles south of the distillery runs a little creek, the same creek that ran by Abraham Lincoln's boyhood home.    Kentucky is full of history.

Did you know.... Nothing can be added at bottling to enhance the flavor of bourbon, such as flavoring, sweeteners or artificial coloring, unlike whiskeys which can add those things.

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Maker's and 46 12"x12" oil

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Maker's 46 starts with Maker's Mark straight from the barrel, then the barrel head is removed and ten wooden staves are affixed to the inside of the existing barrel.   The staves are slowly seasoned and cooked in order to caramelize the sugars in the wood.   Ultimately this helps give Maker's 46 with its distinct caramel and toasted oak flavor.  The Maker's Mark goes back into the ready barrel for at lease several more months, which is not a specific time, when it is ready their panel knows it.  Read all about it and see a video at Maker's Mark 46.

My blog: http://claudiahammer.blogspot.com
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My email: iclaudiahammer@twc.com
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Makers Mark 6"x6" oil

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Each bourbon maker has their own special recipe and process.  Makers Mark attributes its unique taste to pure, iron free limestone spring water which comes from a 10 acre limestone spring fed lake at the Maker's Mark Distillery.  They also use red winter wheat rather than traditional rye, along with naturally malted barley and yellow corn.  They have beautiful distinctive copper still pots that are an important part of their double distillation process which removes impurities.   They use cypress tanks for fermentation and some of the planks are more than 200 years old.  There is more so click here to read more about it.   I have driven to this distillery and it is a beautiful drive through the Kentucky country side.   

My favorite part is when they dip each individual bottle in the red wax.  Here is how it came about.  Bill Samuels wife Marjorie was a fan of fine pewter pieces, which were known for the mark their maker put on them (hence their name) but to truly embrace the name, she felt that they needed their own special mark. This led her to create the SIV symbol, which stands for “Samuels - 4th generation.”  She also collected antique cognac bottles that were commonly dipped in wax. She thought that signature look would be a great idea for their bottle. And her creativity didn’t stop there: Marjorie completed the Maker’s look by creating their distinctive typeface herself.

My blog: http://claudiahammer.blogspot.com
My website: http://claudiahammer.com
My email: iclaudiahammer@insightbb.com
My DPW gallery: http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Artists/chammer-209