Second Sight – Craft Bourbon Tour #6
My second visit of the Northern Region was Second Sight. As usual, I didn’t know what to expect so I just followed the guidance of Google Maps and found a distillery in a downtown area west of the metropolitan area south of Cincinnati. Have you ever noticed that making geographic decisions on you cell phone doesn’t provide the full context. Had I taken a bit of time and actually looked at a map, I wouldn’t have gone here next. Ah well, there’s nothing wrong with backtracking a bit. Life is about discovery, after all.
When I arrived they were in the midst of a tasting so I went to the coffee bar for a drink.
Second Sight is what I picture a craft distillery to be like. They picked a theme and, on a small scale, have begun true hand crafted distilling. The aesthetic reminds me of the boardwalk in the movie Big.
I was there in the midst of the fear of communicable diseases and the age of plexiglass screens on the counter. The way it was handled at Second Sight was truly unique. I loved it.
When the group before me departed I was left by myself in the tasting room with the unique still on display.
Still
I had a very personal tasting and spent quite a while talking about the philosophy and the challenges of starting a distillery and the thought process of how to make money, what products to start with based on how quickly you can turn them into a salable product and generate income, what raw ingredients you need to start with and how much you need… I was reminded that all the ingredients were brought into the building through the very same pedestrian door I entered.
That’s why gin and rum tend to be some of the first products offered by fledgling operations. The molasses base for rum can be very efficient for delivery because it doesn’t take the sheer volume of product that all those bags of corn occupy. And the distillation process can convert it into a bottled spirit in a short period of time. There’s no requirement to age it to get the signature flavors.
The conversation over a few pours of bourbon was really entertaining. I learned a so much and I appreciate the openness of these small places. I now have a bottle on my shelf!
Second Sight Spirits
301 Elm Street
Ludlow, KY
SecondSightSpirits.com
Second Sight was my second stamp in the Northern Region and my sixth overall.
~ Freddy
