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On the ‘Whiskey Trail’: The adventure begins

Dispatches from the ‘Whiskey Trail’:

Dispatch 1: 7 secrets of bourbon tasting

Dispatch 2: Maker's Mark: A tale of whiskey and wax

Dispatch 3: Whiskey vs. bourbon -- know the difference?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — There’s something very James Bond about arriving at your hotel room to find a mysterious package waiting for you on the bed.

It helps to be staying in a 100-year-old luxury hotel that Al Capone and nine U.S. presidents have all slept in. That writer F. Scott Fitzgerald so adored, he used as an inspiration for scenes in “The Great Gatsby.”

Oh yes, the mysterious black paper bag is very 007.

It’s a room-warming present from Bill Samuels Jr., the president of Maker’s Mark distillery. He’s not exactly Dr. No, but since there’s no booze in the bag, we’re putting him down in the “evil villain” category anyway.

On the side of the bag, attached by a thin red ribbon, is a card. Sort of a “Welcome to Whiskey Country.”

For the next five days, your good friends at Military Times have decided to take one for the team, going behind-the-scenes on a media tour of some of the nation’s most prominent distilleries, all in an effort to bring you the ins and outs of everything whiskey. We’ll start with two days of Kentucky bourbon, work our way through Tennessee, and wrap it all up with a grand reopening of one of the nation’s first major distilleries.

From Beam to Daniel’s to Dickel and beyond, most of these fine American companies are well within weekend striking distance of a variety of military bases in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia. And before the week is over, your shot glass of whiskey knowledge will runneth over, leaving you well armed to pay them a visit.

From the differences between Kentucky bourbon and Tennessee whiskey, to tasting secrets only a master distiller can provide, to the story of how our first commander-in-chief went on to become the largest distiller of his time, we won’t rest until you rise to the level of true connoisseur.

“Take care,” Samuels says in the card. “Be sure to pace. For two full days with Ky. distillers can be dangerous to your health.”

Sounds like our “evil villain” description was right on after all. But wait, didn’t Bond drink martinis?