One night, built for your group.

A mini Old Fashioned, and one question.

Everyone gets a small Old Fashioned on arrival. We go around the room: your name, and your favorite bourbon if you have one. Then you open the booklet to the first blank page and write down what bourbon is to you. There are no wrong answers, and we talk about them before the first pour.

The law, in seven letters.

For most of its life bourbon had no rules. Prohibition left only the few distillers licensed to sell it as medicine. In 1964 Congress declared bourbon a distinctive product of the United States, and the standards it protects fit in an alphabet.

1. AAmerican madeAnywhere in the United States.
2. BBarrel agedIn a new, charred oak barrel.
3. CCornAt least 51 percent of the grain.
4. DDistillationNo higher than 160 proof.
5. EEntry proofInto the barrel at 125 proof or less.
6. FFill proofInto the bottle at 80 proof or more.
7. GGenuineNothing added. Grain and water.

Four aromas before any bourbon.

A small kit of scents goes around the table, unlabeled: the grains and the wood that bourbon is made from. Nose in, mouth open. Breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth, and use both sides of your nose. You write what each one reminds you of on the aroma pages.

This is the bridge the class is named for: from the raw grain to the glass in front of you.

Five sips a pour, and a wheel to name them.

Four bourbons from across the flavor map: a traditional, a high-rye, a wheated and an honest value pour. The names stay hidden. We share each one’s story, then you work it.

1. First sip. Chew it for a few seconds. It wakes your palate up. Keep what you find to yourself.
2. Second and third. Now it has flavor. Say what you find, out loud.
3. The distiller’s notes. We read what the bottle claims against what the room found.
4. Fourth and fifth, with water. A few drops, a swirl, and you taste what opened up.

The American Whiskey Wheel sits in the middle of the booklet. Start at the center with one of five: grain, wood, fruit and floral, sweet or spice. Then narrow it down. What kind of sweet? Close your eyes: what does it remind you of? You smell what you smell. Every pour gets its own page and a grade from 1 to 10.

One more pour, revealed last.

Once the room can taste, we pour the Unicorn, and then we show you the bottle. It shows what’s possible once you know how to taste, and it’s rarely the most expensive bottle in the room. Then you turn to the page called Describe Your Unicorn: the aroma, the palate and the finish of the bourbon you’re looking for.

What the room found, and where you go next.

Everyone says what they found. Someone caught what you missed. Before you leave, we fill in the last page together: if you liked bourbon number one, try this; if you liked number two, try that. The wheel pulls out of the booklet and goes home with you. The host keeps the open bottles.

Your homework, from the back page. This weekend, order one pour neat at a bar with a good shelf, with a glass of water and a straw on the side. The straw is your dropper.