Nestled beneath the breathtaking Teton Mountains, Jackson, Wyoming, is rightly famous for its inviting downtown, luxury accommodations, and access to some of the best that Mother Nature has to offer. For its first whiskey experience of 2024, Bourbon Lore® decided to combine all three.
The afternoon excursion began at Kemo Sabe, a world-renowned purveyor of Western apparel just off Jackson’s iconic town square. With a two-piece band as accompaniment, Dave DeFazio, the founder of Wyoming Whiskey, walked our guests through a tasting of some of his distillery’s rare and unreleased expressions. Offered just once a year in very small numbers, Wyoming’s National Park bottles are uniquely crafted from some of DeFazio’s most prized barrels, and we got to taste them all. In between sips, associates from Kemo Sabe pulled away guests one by one for a hat-fitting session – by the time we left, each guest had their own bespoke, authentic cowboy hat.
It was a fitting item for the next step in our adventure. From the doors of Kemo Sabe we bundled into waiting SUVs for a ride out to a private trailhead inside Grand Teton National Park. There we met up with the team from JH Outfitting, who had a horse waiting for each of us. After a quick primer on riding for the uninitiated, we saddled up and headed out for a 90-minute trek through the park. The trail took us up a steep hill to an overlook offering a stunning view of the Tetons. There wasn’t another soul in sight, save for a few pronghorns.
As the early evening sun cast long shadows on our line, we made our way along a ridge, then down a gentle slope to our next stop: a safari-style spread of tents tucked alongside a grove of aspen trees. Cocktails awaited, along with handmade camp blankets, a gift from Jackson Hole Pendleton, a famed producer of Western wool apparel. We mingled, shared stories and photos from the ride, and watched in awe as the sun set behind the Tetons.
We then sat down to a sumptuous meal prepared by the chefs at JH Outfitting, with dishes that blended Western fare with Argentinian influences, like steak accompanied by a homemade chimichurri sauce. There was whiskey too, of course: in between courses, we broke out some of Bourbon Lore’s® exclusive bottlings – our 18-bottle blend with Holladay Bourbon; our 17-year bourbon finished in mizunara casks, with Woodwork Collective; and our cask-strength release with Premier Drams – as well as a bottle of 23-year-old Pappy Van Winkle.
The night wasn’t over. We got back into the waiting SUVs, then drove back into Jackson for a nightcap at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, one of the premier saloons in the American West. It was getting on midnight before the last of us called it a day, heading home with new memories and new friends – and the knowledge that next year, Bourbon Lore® will do it all again!
