Keeneland Spring/Fall Meet:
Authentic Kentucky entertainment for your private box guests or corporate outing. Learn about bourbon between races or as a unique whole group guided tasting before the first post.
- Keeneland Race Meet season is April & October
- Derby is first Saturday in May but there are parties all week Derby Week from Thurby to Oaks Day.
Derby/Oaks parties:
The Kentucky Derby is a must-do event once in everyone’s life. It’s the most famous horse race in the world! Or maybe you just want a very lavish Derby watching party. Complete your Kentucky experience with a professional guided Bourbon tasting for you and your guests.
We offer education on the basics of Bourbon plus how to nose and taste like a professional. Our training is often the first time people can taste the nuanced flavors in Bourbons like caramel, vanilla, smoke, spice and fruit. Sometimes it will be the first time a guest actually truly enjoys bourbon!
If cocktails are more your style, we can help you and your guests learn the art of making a perfect mint julep. Yes, most people say they don’t like mint juleps – but most people have never had one make correctly! Despite having just five ingredients – mint, sugar, water, spirit, and ice – the Mint Julep is one of the most misunderstood (and often mis-made) cocktails.
We can teach you the techniques of proper muddling (press, don’t tear), use of sugar and ice, and how to select the correct Bourbon for your julep. If your friends love learning random facts and trivia, along the way we can talk about the history of the drink, from the earliest days of distillation in the Middle East to the development of Kentucky’s first breakfast cocktail. Yes, it was originally a breakfast cocktail!
And who better to learn from than someone who has made & served $1,000 mint juleps at Churchill Downs before? 🐎😎
Distilled Living’s Founder, Tim Knittel, is also the official bourbon ambassador of Churchill Downs.
1 • Standard Event FAQ
A letter of agreement & 50% retainer that applies towards your event secures you on our calendar.
Often, I’ll set up a phone appointment so I can get to know more about what you’re looking for and find out about your wedding day just to make sure everyone is on the same page before requesting these. When it’s decided that you want to book, we’ll email an agreement for you to sign and an invoice for the retainer. These can be signed and paid for online or mailed with check. If you choose to send a check, please send it promptly because until the retainer is received, you are only penciled-in for that date.
Distilled Living does not carry a liquor license, so we are not able to provide the Bourbon. We can work with your venue or caterer if they are providing the alcohol or with the family if they are providing it. We can help with Bourbon selection and sourcing including vintage and rare products if requested.
We provide a certified Executive Bourbon Steward, which is usually Tim Knittel (subject to availability). We provide visual and aromatic tasting aids plus a mini-distillery display for the tasting table. We can also provide plastic sample cups plus tasting mats and written tasting guides upon request.
We can also provide culinary food pairings (provided as packaged food to comply with health department codes) or we can assist in having those provided through your venue or caterer.
You will need to provide the alcohol plus a table. Some couples also like to provide a memento of the Bourbon tasting experience like a gift mini-bottle or basket or an engraved Bourbon tasting glass.
2 • Wedding specific FAQ
Like wedding venues, we have high and low seasons. Keeneland & Derby weeks are our busiest even though this is outside of the typical wedding season. We have other types of events booked during these times.
3 • Charity Event FAQ
The short answer: Probably not.
The long answer: Distilled Living works with charities providing distillery relations services. Sometimes we can secure bottle or other auction items donations, sponsored Bourbon tastings or other charity support. However, rare Bourbon are rare because they’re rare. Every charity would like to have one but very few rare Bourbons are ever donated by the distilleries themselves. We do not provide Bourbons from our own collection (it’s all opened bottles anyway!) nor do we solicit donations from other individual collections. Because everyone is asking is for rare bottles, they’re very hard to find.
We do not have standard pricing for individual activities like auction item donations.
Pricing is based on scope and scale of the task, what the timeline is, what distilleries are requested from and any other beverage alcohol related functions of the event.
Sometimes it’s a percentage of monies raised from sourced auction items, other times it may be a flat fee or part of a larger consulting package.
Yes! Like our other charity services, presentations are offered at a fee but again we strive to create value greater than the fee. Specific pricing is based on type and size of event and time of year, plus any secondary requested services like sourcing in-kind donations for the Bourbon to be poured.
The majority of the distilleries have donations review committees which only meet every month or every other month. As a result, standard lead times for auction item donations are 3-4 months or longer and distillery participation is typically 6-9 months or longer.
4 • Virtual Event FAQ
Unfortunately, we do not have the ability to reduce our prices for the presentation. While the event is “virtual,” we still have to pay an expert presenter as well as support staff.
This is very similar to renting a venue (the studio space) and renting A/V equipment plus hiring a keynote speaker and the necessary event support staff. Because of our extensive experience in providing premium, engaging virtual events we choose not to offer any presentation options that do not include all of these components and which may result in a sub-par experience for your guests.
As a result, there is a fixed minimum cost regardless of the number of attendees or formality level of the event.
Our Bourbon tasting kits offered through our retail fulfillment partners are designed exclusively for use as part of live, virtual Bourbon tasting presentations and not available for sale without the presentation.
They are built to be a guided experience.
- Zoom
- Microsoft Teams
- Remo
- Bluejeans
- WebEx
- Google Hangouts
- GoToMeeting
- On24
- Amazon Chime
- Skype
- Facetime
- Facebook Messenger
- Google Duo
There are a few platforms that we would not recommend for cocktail events as they can’t handle the extra movement of the presentation and some platforms would only be advisable for small private parties.