Teri Anne Stanley | Research. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Sometimes a question comes up when I’m writing, and the answer is as close as
Google (does anyone remember having to go to an actual LIBRARY to find out
answers to things?). Sometimes you have to go a little farther.

A couple of years ago, when my agent and I were tossing setting ideas for a new
series back and forth, I said, “Maybe they own a vineyard,” thinking that maybe
Mr. Stanley and I could use his airline points for a trip to California. But
then she said, “What about a bourbon distillery?”

Being the agreeable little writer that I am, I said, “Okay!”

After which I hung up the phone and went, “Um, I don’t drink liquor. My bourbon days are (thankfully) long past.” On the other hand, I do live in Kentucky, which is the absolute best (some might say only) place in the world to get good bourbon whiskey. So I gathered up the previously mentioned Mr. Stanley, and we drove an hour South to tour the Buffalo Trace Distillery It was a tough job, but my brave and heroic husband drank my share of the free samples. I learned a lot of good stuff about bourbon—I can quote grain bills (I even know what a grain bill is! It’s the ratio of corn to wheat and/or rye and/or whatever the hell else is being fermented to produce the alcohol. Mostly corn). I know that, in order to be bourbon, it’s also got to be aged in NEW charred oak barrels. There are actual laws about it. To be Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, it’s got to be made in KY (duh), aged for at least two years, and have a grain bill of at least 51%. There some other details, like how much alcohol can go in the barrel and how much is in the final bottled product. But my next book is about the barrel part of the business. The cool thing is that the barrels are re-used to age other spirits—which led me down the path of Brandon and Lesa’s story.

Brandon is one of the brothers from one of the families that own Blue Mountain.
He’s the business major, the marketing guru, the one in the dress shirt and
khakis, and he knows that if he makes an exclusive deal to sell his used barrels
to another distillery, he can exploit that for everyone’s benefit, and he’s
going to sell them to his heroine’s family’s distillery. But what to distill?

Luckily, my glorious editor, Robin Haseltine, happened to go on a cruise that
landed her and her husband at a tequila tasting right about the same time I was
starting my research. Ah ha!

Bring on more research. And if my bourbon days are behind me, we REALLY don’t
want me reliving the tequila days!

Unfortunately, I don’t live a hop and a skip from any tequila distilleries.
Google did tell me, however, that like Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey,
tequila has rules. It’s got to be distilled from blue agave, and can only be
made in the Mexican state of Jalisco. Aaaand if you look on a map, Jalisco
happens to be right smack dab next to Puerto Vallarta, a really cool place with
lots of resorts.

And my 25^th wedding anniversary was coming up, so…

Hasta la vista, USA!

I’m not sure the IRS will buy my story that this was a business trip, however…