“There will always be more old barrels of Bourbon being made…so never ever save old bottles of Bourbon, they’re meant to be enjoyed with friends and family at the moment.” – Freddie Johnson

The fantastic thing about Bourbon is that you never know where it can take you. Sometimes that means it’s your 21st birthday and an entire bottle of Evan Williams Single Barrel is your muse for an awesome prank you and your roommates pull on your next door neighbors. Other times it means that a fellow Bourbon enthusiast in another state sends you an advanced screening for a new documentary about your favorite spirit and it leads to reconnecting with an old friend.

NEAT: The Story of Bourbon drops digitally on February 20th and features an incredible variety of players around the American Whiskey industry. Distillers such as Marianne Barnes of Castle and Key, Brent Elliot of Four Roses, and Denny Potter of Heaven Hill pepper the film with their knowledge, philosophies, and passion for the spirit. Along with those who make the juice, enthusiasts also get their place in the spotlight providing a well rounded portrait of the state of Bourbon and the community around it.

The film does a fantastic job of balancing education and the history of America’s spirit with Bourbon culture, and even some humor. I have to admit when I saw Steve Zahn credited I wasn’t sure how that could possibly work, but it does. He serves to lighten things up with very casual monologues while dropping info that helps progress the story. Taking this whole Bourbon documentary thing too seriously would have been a misstep in my opinion, and the filmmakers avoided it perfectly. One of the things that struck me the most was the beauty of the film. The thing just looks gorgeous and the locations they shot completely do justice to the subject and give the viewer a real feel for where their whiskey comes from.

The other star of the show is the best tour guide we’ve ever had, Freddie Johnson of Buffalo Trace. His narrative is placed throughout the film and for me acts as the centerpiece to the whole thing. His family’s legacy, his passion for the product, and his insane wealth of knowledge makes him a jewel in the industry, not to mention his incredibly warm and funny personality. He stole the show and and if anyone is going to pull someone new into the world of American Whiskey, it’s Freddie.

Now I’ll back up a bit and tell you about my experience while watching NEAT. As I mentioned before we were lucky enough to receive an early screener of the film, sent to us by Paul Steele of the Steele Speakeasy (@steelespeakeasy on IG) who has been helping with the movie’s promotion efforts. We’ve heard Paul on the Podcask and have followed his bad ass home bar on social media for quite a while now so it was super cool for him to reach out and shoot us a way to watch the movie. So, Kate and I snuggled up on a Sunday afternoon each with a glass of Four Roses Al Young and hit play on the Bourbon journey. A handful of minutes in to the movie Paul Steele himself is featured, and a weird thing happened in my brain. “I feel like I know that dude” I thought to myself. Obviously I knew his name and voice, but I had never seen a picture of him so it was a bit odd. So, I took to Facebook and realized why I had that feeling.

I totally did know him. The world is a small freaking place.

My freshman year of college I went to TCU in Fort Worth, TX and I hung out with a dude that lived upstairs from me in the dorm. I was just learning to play bass and guitar, and this guy helped me learn the instruments and we would drink cheap beer (Busch Light was my beverage of choice back when I was 18) and rock out with guitars, harmonicas, and even a mandolin he had sitting around. That dude was Paul Steele.

Upon this crazy realization I immediately paused the movie and sent him a message explaining who I was and how we knew each other. He even mentioned that he kept thinking I looked familiar from IG posts but never thought he knew anyone in Oklahoma. So we chatted for a couple of hours as Kate and I resumed the movie and all it’s Bourbon glory.

It’s a little hard to explain how mind-blowing that was. Here I am, 35 years old in Oklahoma City and super into whiskey. Another whiskey enthusiast in Tennessee sends me a screener for a movie and it turns out that we hung out for a full year in Fort Worth, Texas, lost touch, then are randomly reconnected 17 years later because of a Bourbon movie. So nuts.

Anyways, back to the issue at hand. NEAT: The Story of Bourbon comes out tomorrow, February 20th on iTunes and if you’ve ever even tasted Bourbon, you’ll want to buy it and give it a watch or two. It really is fantastic and does the spirit justice.

Cheers guys! Here’s to great movies and old friendships!