Episode 327. Susan Reigler- Author- “Kentucky Bourbon Country”- Bourbon & Beyond
Award-winning writer and Louisville native Susan Reigler is the author of Kentucky Bourbon Country: The Essential Travel Guide (now in its second edition) and is a co-author of The Bourbon Tasting Notebook (with Michael Veach), The Kentucky Bourbon Cocktail Book, and More Kentucky Bourbon Cocktails (with Joy Perrine). Her other books are Kentucky Sweet & Savory: Finding the Artisan Foods and Beverages of the Bluegrass State and The Complete Guide to Kentucky State Parks. From 1992 to 2007, Reigler was the restaurant critic, beverage columnist, and travel writer for the Louisville Courier-Journal. She has also written about bourbon for Wine Enthusiast, Malt(now Whiskey) Advocate, and LEO (Louisville Eccentric Observer). She has been a judge for the James Beard Foundation Restaurant Awards since 1997, and in 2015 she was invited to join Les Dames d’Escoffier International, a society of women culinary professionals.
A certified Executive Bourbon Steward, Reigler has led bourbon tastings from Seattle to Savannah and tastings to benefit non-profit organizations including Locust Grove, the Falls of the Ohio Foundation, and Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill. In addition, she has been a judge for craft spirits awards and numerous bourbon cocktail contests, and she regularly helps restaurants and retailers select barrels from distilleries for private bourbon bottlings, including Party Mart in Louisville as a member of its three-person Bourbon Board of Directors. Reigler is also the current president of the Bourbon Women Association, which has members across the United States.
A graduate of Indiana and Oxford Universities, she is a Research Associate in Biology at Indiana University Southeast. Her research examines the possible effects of bourbon warehouse staining on polymorphism in Geometrid moths. She lives in Louisville.