Before our original departure date from Georgetown, we decided we should visit at least one distillery since they are all over the area. After visiting one, we extended our stay another week so we'd have time to drive the Bourbon Trail and visit the 10 distilleries on the trail. Mind you I don't much care for whiskey and at my first tasting after taking a tiny sip I thought I was going to throw up. My goal after completing the trail is to be able to take a couple of sips without gagging! John of course has no problem with whiskey...
The first distillery we visited was not even on the Bourbon Trail but it was the prettiest. It was Buffalo Trace in Frankfort, KY. It is a beautiful facility and is a National Historic Landmark. The distillery was built in 1858. It is the oldest continuously operating distillery. Warehouse A and B were built in 1881 and are still standing. It continued production during Prohibition because it distilled whiskey for medicinal purposes. With a doctor's prescription every member of your family (old and young) could each buy a pint of whiskey every month for whatever ailed them.
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| Bookcase was actually a door into a warehouse |
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| Filling the bottles |
When you tour the Bourbon Trail you can pick up a passport that each distillery will stamp. At the end of the tour you turn in your passport for a free t-shirt. That's what I'm going for.
All distilleries use the same ingredients to make whiskey--corn, rye, malted barley, and yeast. Different proportions give each bourbon its unique flavor. All bourbon is whiskey but not all whiskey is bourbon. To be a bourbon it must have at least 51% corn, no additives except water, and be stored in a new, charred, oak barrel.
The black you see on the side of the buildings is called Angel's Share. This is the amount of distilled spirits lost to evaporation from the barrel as the whiskey ages. The longer the liquor is stored, the more evaporation there is, the stronger it gets, and the more expensive it is to buy because of the amount lost.
#1 on the trail was Town Branch Bourbon in Lexington. Their warehouses are at a different site so we saw no barrels. They are a microbrewery and distillery so we had the option of also sampling beer.
Next on the trail was Wild Turkey in Lawrenceburg.
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| Huge metal vats of bubbling yeast |
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| Large column still. Larger distilleries use these. They can be several stories high. |
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| The view from the tasting room |
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| Angel's Share on a warehouse |
#3 was Woodford Reserve in Versailles. They are the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby.
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| Some distilleries use closed metal tubs and some still use wooden tubs |
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| Pot stills used mostly by smaller distlleries |
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| My first tasting with chocolate |
#4 was Four Roses in Lawrenceburg. They were renovating their distillery so we only walked on the grounds. We got to keep the glass from the tasting but I forgot to take pictures.
#5 was Angel's Envy in downtown Louisville. The distillery manager was excited to hear we're from Texas because they just started selling Angel's Envy in San Antonio. Try them at Bohanan's!
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| Beautiful bottle with angel wings on the bottle. |
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| Every distillery has a stencil to make their barrels |
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| Another tasting with chocolate! |
#6 was Evan Williams in Louisville. They call this the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience. Their distillery was at a different location. Our tour included videos and history of the distillery, and of course, a tasting.
Next was Bulleit Frontier Whiskey Experience at Stitzel-Weller in Louisville. No photos were allowed in their distillery. The current owner, the great-great-great grandson of the original distiller, left a successful law practice in 1987 to start distilling bourbon again using the old family recipe. He purchased this unused site to distill his bourbon.
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| Visitor Center |
#8 was Jim Beam in Clermont, the largest of the distilleries we toured. They fill 500,000 barrels a year. Each barrel is filled with 53 gallons of bourbon. This tour was a lot of fun because we watched our very own bottle go through the bottling line. We purchased it at the end of the tour.
Below is clear White Dog (160 proof pure grain alcohol). All distilleries make bourbon by aging White Dog in new charred oak barrels.
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| Mila Kunis' bourbon barrel |
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| We selected our bottle and put our initials on it. |
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| Rinsed out any dust using bourbon. The bourbon is later filtered then put in bottles. |
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| Watched it get filled |
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| It was then dipped in wax then I put my thumbprint in the wax. |
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| We had a choice of 3 of any of these bottles to taste. |
#9 was Heaven Hill in Bardstown.
We learned how to read the date stamp on barrels. The barrel below is stamped 15 G 25. 15 is the year it was barreled, G is July, and 25 is the date. So this barrel was barreled and stored on July 25, 2015. To be considered straight bourbon the White Dog must be aged 2 years. Most distillers age their bourbon 4-8 years. Of course some are aged 15 years or more--these are quite expensive!
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| Antique barrel mover with ramps |
All distilleries use wood framed warehouses (called rickhouses) to age bourbon. Many of them were built in the 1800s. In a Heaven Hill rickhouse we were shown a plumb bob suspended from the ceiling 4 stories up. When removing barrels they have to remove them both sides of the rickhouse to keep it from becoming unbalanced (and maybe collapsing). The plumb bob is an easy way to make sure the rickhouse doesn't start to lean. Sometimes they remove 1000 barrels at a time and at 500 lbs per barrel, that's a lot of weight.
And #10 was Maker's Mark in Loretto. Their bourbon is unusual in that no rye is used as part of the mash (the cooked grain). Instead red winter wheat is used, along with corn and malted barley. This produces a milder, smoother bourbon. Rye adds a peppery taste. The buildings on the property are beautiful. They are black with red doors and shutters. The shutters have the iconic bottle shape cut in them.
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| The Visitor Center is on the hill. |
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| Black and red buildings are beautiful |
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| They use wooden vats for fermentation |
The barrels below are in the cellar. This is a small warehouse built into the side of a hill. You can see one wall of the cellar is the stone of the hill. This helps keep the cellar at 55 degrees. In this warehouse they age barrels that were special mixed by bars and companies that customized the flavor by adding up to 10 slats of French oak. Each barrel is unique in flavor and very expensive!
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| A very good example of the dry stone walls in the area |
Well, I accomplished my goal. I can now take a few sips of whiskey without gagging but it's easier to do after I coat my tongue with a small bit of chocolate!
