When Fred Minnick joined the Oklahoma National Guard, becoming the bourbon industry's foremost spirits tasting expert was not on his mind. In fact, "bourbon" wasn't really part of his vocabulary. But a 2003-2004 deployment to Mosul, Iraq changed all that.
Minnick, who attended Oklahoma State, joined the National Guard in 1996 to help pay for college.
"I always wanted to serve--as a kid who grew up loving my GI Joe's I think I was influenced by that," he explained.
Initially he joined as an infantryman, but once he learned that the Army had jobs for Army journalists, and with the help of a well-placed support system, he reclassified. By the time he graduated and started his job with a marketing firm in Wisconsin, he found himself serving in a mobile public affairs detachment--the week before 9/11.
"We knew things were about to change for us," he said.
And there were new missions and deployments to places like Nicaragua.
Then, Valentine's Day 2003 his unit received its operations order sending them to Iraq. He was more than half way through his tour when an event happened that would affect the rest of his life.
As insurgents' attacks occurred he was sent out as a combat photographer, accompanied by a videographer, to document whatever his command wanted captured. He and the MPAD were based out of Mosul but traveled everywhere.
"There were car bombs going off everywhere and we lost Soldiers--they hit all the police installations," he said. "Our unit took on a lot of combat camera missions.
"We'd go out and capture the footage of the bombing and it was atrocious--a foot here, blood everywhere. And we were leaving one of the car bombing sites and it comes over the radio that we were getting attacked from one of the mosques," he recounted.
Within the news media narrative, the military hadn't had any documentation that insurgents were shooting at forces from the mosque because this was before cameras were prolific and Soldiers in the units started carrying them. Minnick said his command radioed him to get his team over to the mosque to document what was happening.
"So we went over there, and it was intense… we were out on the perimeter, and it was winding down, when a van pulled up and fired an RPG and it was coming right at me," Minnick said with effort.
The RPG hit the ground about 10 feet in front of him, bounced over his head--and never went off.
"My life had been spared--I had a few other incidents like that, but that was the most intense and I don't know what happened after that. Don't know if I fired my weapon--I know we killed them all. But from that moment to the moment we got back to the base, I don't know what went on," he said.
In this same time frame the unit lost an interpreter, Samir Faisal, with whom Minnick was close, and he lost a good friend named David Mitts.
Like many returning veterans, Minnick suffered from PTSD symptoms. But the road to recovery and some peace was not a short one.
"All the things, all my personal stuff with June 24 (the day of the incident) leading that charge, weighed on me. I got home and didn't want to do anything with anyone," he explained. "My coping mechanism at the time was running. And I ended up breaking my foot and I couldn't run."
"Things at my job weren't good when I went back. I was still at the ad agency and they did everything for me. They rolled out the carpet, gave me a corner office and said 'whatever you need.' But I wasn't adjusting well."
He said he was angry at everyone, and isolating himself. He tried to get help--but that didn't work well. So, he started writing a book, "Camera Boy," as part of his vehicle for getting it all out. And he would read it as he wrote, to his girlfriend who lived in Louisville, Kentucky, and who he would later marry once he moved there.
He eventually quit his job stating, "I couldn't handle it anymore--I couldn't do it and needed something new." He took a job as a food editor with a restaurant trade publication but later went out on his own as a freelance writer. In this way he could see a therapist twice a week if he needed to and he was able to spend time on himself.
"I would see something and be depressed for a week. I would see someone in uniform and it would trigger me or I would see white vans that would trigger it, and trash on the roadside made me jumpy," he remembered. "And I didn't have the tools to deal with it. It put me in a state of depression and irritability that certainly wasn't good for the women I was seeing, or for my professional career."
And these isolated incidents started to topple on each other.
In therapy he and his counselor worked on each issue one at a time, peeling them back like an onion until they peeled away the core event, dated June 24, 2004.
"By working on that and what happened there I was able to live a whole life again. I will never be who I was before, but I am much better now," he said. "I am able to deal with that and I have used the tools I have learned in other areas of my life. It has helped me become a better problem solver and helped me to overcome a lot of fear. Because at the end of the day the PTSD I was facing was fear based. And if I can conquer that I feel like I can conquer anything."
One of the ways he said he got through the tougher moments was a technique he learned called mindfulness--touching something and thinking of textures or tasting something and focusing on it.
"That technique is incredible for learning anything--a technique I learned from my incredible therapist at the VA. And it is a good technique for learning to taste bourbon," he explained.
Which is how he has become the industry's leading spirits taster, traveling all over the world.
There was no one specializing in bourbon and spirit tasting at the time, yet publications wanted the information, there was a broad audience and the market could handle it. Before he knew it, a new career was born.
The first thing that makes him a bourbon connoisseur is knowing the history of bourbon, and knowing the difference between whiskey and bourbon--which he learned through thorough study.
"All whiskey is bourbon but not all bourbon is whiskey. Whiskey is a categorical term that means distilled fermented grains that are aged in oak," he explained. "Each whiskey category has its own set of regulations, histories and laws. Scotch is a whiskey, Canadian whiskey is a whiskey, Irish whiskey is a whiskey, and bourbon is a whiskey. But the similarities stop there. Bourbon is unique from many perspectives."
First, he said, it has to be made in the United States, not just Kentucky, but anywhere in the United States. A majority of it is made in Kentucky though and the heritage of it is made here--its history.
"In 1964 Congress declared it to be a unique product to the U.S. and gave it geographic protection. Any country that has a free trade agreement with the U.S. has to follow our laws for bourbon," he said.
"So the U.K. can't come out with a whiskey and call it bourbon whiskey. They would be in violation of our trade agreement."
Second is that bourbon also has to be made from at least 51 percent corn fermented mash. The other, not in the regulation though, is the grains they use--malted barley, wheat and rye.
And last but of equal importance is that bourbon is cured in charred oak barrels which lends the unique color and taste. While bourbon cures in the barrels it expands and contracts with the heat which pulls the different wood sugars out of the barrel. Once it is aged, it is mixed with a small percentage of water--bourbon can't be bottled at less than 80 proof--and bottled.
"If the label says "straight bourbon" then it has to be at least two years old," he explained. "If it is under 4 years old, they have to say how old it is. With no exact age on the label, you know it is older than 4 years old."
The second thing that makes him a bourbon connoisseur is knowing how to taste and knowing what he is looking for.
Minnick spent a lot of time with bourbon's master distillers and learned what they looked for when they tested and tasted their products.
"Woodford Reserve Master Distiller Chris Morris has been influential in the way I taste. And Jim Beam's Fred Noe has also been influential," he noted. "But I think I have taken a little bit of everybody over the years and tasted like they do, or created my own style out of what the distillers do."
When tasting bourbon, Minnick first looks at the color--that tells him how it did in the barrel. For example, if it is five years old and looks like a bed of straw, he knows it didn't age very well. Then he swirls it and looks for "legs."
"In wine that indicates sugar content. In bourbon, it generally indicates the oils that survived the distillation process," he explained.
And then, he tastes it, letting it roll around his tongue to get a feel for it and let it coat the entire tongue.
"You are looking for flavors. The point of bourbon is flavor--not intoxication or taking it as a shot. It is about picking up the flavors," he added. "Bourbon was meant to be sipped and if you don't abuse the product and enjoy it responsibly--it's good."
The caramel and vanilla flavors are ones that Minnick said should be in every taste of bourbon because of using a new barrel to cure every time.
"And the nutmeg is my favorite (taste) and can be found in a lot of bourbons, and when I find that it is like, 'Yeess,'" he explained. "I also love the cornbread--the younger bourbons will have the grainy notes--I love finding cornbread. That is the moment when the corn flavor is soon to become something else because it is baked and ready to go."
It wasn't an easy road to where he sits atop the bourbon world, waiting on a new batch to write about and taste. But looking back at Iraq as a father, husband, successful author, and a sought-after spirits expert--he said he is in a good place now.
"I love my family, and enjoy my job," he said. "It's exciting. This whole thing about covering bourbon has become like sports with personalities and teams and styles. People enjoy it and it's a lot of fun."
The following are local bourbon events Minnick recommends visiting:
* Bourbon festival in Bardstown -- http://www.kybourbonfestival.com
* "In Western Kentucky there is a distillery called MB Roland, started by an Iraq veteran and they do music festivals throughout the summer and I love those guys for reasons beyond their whiskey." http://www.mbrdistillery.com/
* The bourbon affair: Scheduled June 3-7. Events at multiple locations. http://www.kybourbonaffair.com/
* Bourbon classic--is held in January-February, in Louisville.
* Legends series at the Kentucky Derby museum. The next engagement in the series is slated for 5:30 p.m., June 2. http://www.derbymuseum.org/Events/Detail/1/Legends-Series-Bill-Samuels-Jr.-Maker-s-Mark
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