“Whiskey is the water of life,” joked Bulleit master of whiskey Stephen Wilson at recent whiskey tasting dinner held in New York in honor of the Big Apple Film Festival. The guests, who included Howard Goldberg, the writer and director behind Jake Squared, Wilson, various press members, as well as us at The Manual, dined at Tiny’s. The menu was an array of sumptuous appetizers like the smoked salmon rilette, meatballs and garlic toast, an amazing burrata and a kale salad. Guests then dine on steak, chicken, risotto or hake before a marvelous dessert of chocolate fudge, blueberry cheesecake and mini pot de creme.
The highlight of the evening of course was the wonderful whiskey tasting led by Wilson, who took us on a journey through Bulleit’s various varieties, starting with the brand’s famous bourbon, an oaky, smooth bouquet with hints of caramel and vanilla. Next, Wilson journeyed through Bulleit Rye, which has hints of tobacco and cherry notes. Lastly we dove into the Bulleit 10 Year, which you should have learned about here if you’re a regular Manual reader.
After the dinner we ventured to a screening of Goldberg’s Jake Squared, a semi-biographical meta look back from a filmmaker going through a midlife crisis. In the film, Jake meets with younger versions of himself, pondering over the mistakes he made while looking for love. Just as Bulleit hails itself “frontier whiskey,” The Manual would like to hail Jake Squared as a frontier film, because it certainly went in a direction that most films would not dare to go in. For that, The Manual commends you.
