Two weekends ago we crossed something off our bucket list, visiting the Bourbon Trail in Kentucky. The impetus for the trip was our 10th wedding anniversary last year. April made sense to travel there and the baby was old enough that we (kinda, sorta) felt comfortable leaving her with my parents for a few days. We flew out late Wednesday night and came back Saturday evening, three nights and like two and half days.
There's no way I can go in depth on everything, but I'll try to relay as much as I can in an efficient manner. We flew into Cincinnati (Louisville airport is small), rented a car, and stayed there Wednesday night. Thursday morning we drove (an hour+) south into Kentucky (near-ish Lexington), stopping at Buffalo Trace, the Wild Turkey temp shop and Four Roses before driving (also an hour+) to Louisville. We returned the car and got an Uber downtown, which was outrageously expensive due to a Morgan Wallen concert. We stayed on Main Street, in the Bourbon District, the next two nights. On Friday we had a hired driver who took us to Bardstown Bourbon Co, Limestone Branch and Jim Beam. Saturday we didn't have an itinerary and explored downtown Louisville (amid growing crowds for Thunder Over Louisville) before hitting the (Louisville) airport and flying out.
Some general comments before getting into the different distilleries, the focus of the trip. Relatively speaking there are a ton of distilleries in, around and between the two largest cities in Kentucky, Louisville and Lexington, separated by only 75 miles. But that's still a lot of ground to cover. Even in downtown Louisville, where there are actual working distilleries (Peerless, Michter's Fort Nelson, Angel's Envy, Rabbit Hole), and whiskey experiences (Evan Williams, Old Forester), the Bourbon District or 'Whiskey Row' is not a tiny area. For example, it's two miles from Peerless to Rabbit Hole. Also, we learned that whiskey in liquor stores there is a highly inflated market. You can find plenty that's basically impossible to get outside a lottery elsewhere, you just have to pay way up. I was happy with some interesting distillery releases, fwiw. Lastly the growth in the whiskey industry is obvious traveling there, there's a ton of expansion going on.
I think this'll be the best way to cover each distillery: tell what we did (tour/tasting), include if it was a good or worthwhile stop, state how my opinion of the place was altered, and provide some quick-hitter notes. Let's do it.
Tour - 'Trace Tour'
Tasting (w/ tour) - vodka, BT, Weller SR, Eagle Rare, Bourbon cream, root beer
At Shop - BT, baby Sazerac, Weller SR (rotates daily)
Worthwhile? - if you're a fan already, options at shop/tasting very limited, tons of merch
Opinion Up/Down - about the same, liking less with time
Notes - super busy place, free tours and we lucked into one without a reservation, Trace Tour mostly history/lore, though got to see a small rickhouse, the Blanton's building (where no one was working of course), and lots of barrels rolling on rails, need to do different tours to see production, least technically informative tour visit we did, no glassware from tour
Wild Turkey, temporary gift shop (Lawrenceburg)
Tour - no
Tasting - no
At Shop - nothing unusual, Russell's Single Barrels (Bourbon/Rye) best options
Worthwhile? - yes, to try some rare and incredible whiskies
Opinion Up/Down - up, and it was already high
Notes - distillery/visitor's center undergoing renovation/expansion so a small shop is all that's open, however they had awesome selection (including Russell's Single Rickhouse and 13y) at a small bar area and we got to keep the branded glasses afterward
Tour - 'Legacy Tour'
Tasting (w/ tour) - FR, FR Small Batch, FR Single Barrel, FR Small Batch Select
At Shop - same as tasting
Worthwhile? - yes, educational tour, fun experience
Opinion Up/Down - up, was middling before
Notes - new-ish visitor's center, old (1910) Spanish Mission style distillery building, nothing about maturation/bottling (done elsewhere), great tour for learning about traditional spirit-making and what makes Four Roses unique, like their 10 mashbills, keep glass from tour
Tour - no
Tasting #1 - US*1 Bourbon, 10y Bourbon, Barrel Strength Bourbon, Bomberger's Declaration
Tasting #2 - US*1 Rye, 10y Rye, Barrel Strength Rye, Toasted Barrel Finish Rye
At Shop - standard US*1 bottles, plus a distillery-only version of the US*1 Bourbon/Rye
Worthwhile? - yes, at least go to the bar for flights/cocktails
Opinion Up/Down - up, had already liked a little
Notes - appears to be a working, and historic, distillery downtown but we only checked out the upstairs bar, which was fancy and had the best flights we did in Kentucky, they're also open late (11pm Th-Sa) unlike any of the other distilleries/experiences, a huge plus
Tour #1 - 'Distillate to Barrel'
Tour #2 - 'Barrel Thieving'
Tasting (w/ tour #2) - three straight from barrels
At Shop - nice selection of ever-shifting offerings, also some from partner distilleries
Worthwhile? - absolutely, best stop of the trip
Opinion Up/Down - way up, didn't have opinion before
Notes - founded in 2014, it's bougie, high-tech and large-scale, they make spirit for themselves and do contract work too, check sides of bottles for what's in it ('Origin' series is their own, 'Discovery' is sourced blends, 'Fusion' is a combination), clean and easy to tour distillery, liked seeing operational screens, evenly spaced rickhouses made me think of Communist housing (or prisons), tour was smart and guide was extremely knowledgeable, keep glasses from both tours, go here if you can and eat at the restaurant too
Tour - 'Limestone Branch Distillery Tour'
Tasting (w/ tour) - gin, Minor Case Rye, Yellowstone Select, YS Single Barrels, YS Single Malt
At Shop - same as tasting, plus a half-sized experimental rye
Worthwhile? - meh, can be fun seeing tiny operation
Opinion Up/Down - didn't have strong opinion before, still don't really
Notes - recommended by our tour company, it's farther out and a lot smaller in scale then others we visited, run by an offshoot of Beam family, Yellowstone brand is named for National Park (not the show), quick tour with a large tasting (which I think I got right above), was fun tasting mash from out of the cookers, unimpressed by guide, no glassware from tour
Tour - 'Beam Made Tour'
Tasting (w/ tour) - JB white label, Basil Hayden's, Baker's, Legent
In Shop - standard stuff (Knob Creek, Basil Hayden's etc.), Little Book
Worthwhile? - stop in the shop, tour was subpar and overly expensive
Opinion Up/Down - down a tad, but I still like them a lot
Notes - big place, you take a bus from the visitors center to parts of the tour, distillery not well optimized for visitors but you see all the steps (mash, stills, bottling, rickhouse), can get personalized bottle of Knob Creek 120, guide was fine but seemed checked out (tour was last of day and group was rambunctious), no glassware from tour
Rabbit Hole (DT Louisville, NuLu) -> 'Overlook Bar'
Tour - No
Tasting - Cavehill, Heigold, Boxergrail, Derringer
In Shop - same as tasting
Worthwhile? - probably not
Opinion Up/Down - down, didn't have opinion before
Notes - another new (2012) distillery, in a more happening part of Louisville, they're trying new things with mashbill grains, distillery is nice looking and filled with Alice in Wonderland themed art, bar has lovely view of the city, didn't like any of their whiskies
Other places:
- Upscale steakhouse downtown for our splurge meal, great food, long whiskey list
- Breakfast/dinner tacos and burritos in a cool hangout spot, also a full bar
- Lots of baseball activities in this city (LS Walk of Fame plates on street, AAA ballpark too)
- Liquor store with a bar, every bottle you want to try (includ. Pappy), reasonable prices too
- Super cute building and delicious Cuban food
I have a few regrets, though maybe that's not the right word. We didn't make it into Lexington, a casualty of getting on a BT tour. We somehow never had a Mint Julip, whoops. I probably should've bought something (merch?) at BT. It would've been nice to get on a tour of Old Forester, something I had wanted to do but they sold out quickly. I learned that Heaven Hill, which we skipped, has a great tasting selection unlike most other distilleries. It was a mistake to wait until after the tour to grab a Little Book at Beam (never assume something will be there later!). And now that we've gotten home, and learned Bardstown doesn't distribute in Minnesota, I should've picked up more than one bottle from them.
We did get some interesting stuff, the suitcase was heavy. At Bardstown the bottle we took with us was a brand new collaboration with Foursquare Rum. At the Old Forester shop I nabbed a special release 'Extra Extra Old' version of 1910 (375 ml). We got the experimental malted rye (375 ml) at Limestone Branch. Since I'm a sucker for Knob Creek I did the 120 where I stamped my thumbprint in hot wax. We also have a couple cheap bottles (Very Old Barton 80 proof, Old Bardstown BiB) supplied up by our driver, who told us they were Kentucky exclusives, though I've seen the labels (not the exact bottles) since returning to Minnesota. No, I didn't pay exorbitant prices for Blanton's, or Stagg Jr, or something like Michter's Toasted Rye (which is fantastic). And that's fine.
With new information in hand, there are some items I'll now be on the lookout for. Buffalo Trace's Bourbon cream was really good and I could see us using that or a similar product. I'd love to find one of the special Rose Roses single barrels using their different mashbill recipes. Hopefully Bardstown distributes here soon, otherwise I'll look for them out of state, like Wisconsin. They're who I'm most interested in after our trip.
I had a great time, so thanks to my wife for making the trip happen (also my parents). It was a ton of fun exploring all these places, but it was also amazing getting to spend a few days alone with you for the first time in years. It went by too fast. Now, maybe I should look into jobs down there...
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