Folks, I’d like to warn you up front: this will be a long post, and there will be lots of pictures plus some videos. I’ll put it after the jump, but just a head’s up if you’re reading this on a mobile device.
Some of the land on the Woodford Reserve Estate.
Have you ever had a road trip where everything just went right? The timing was impeccable, the weather perfect, no drama at all?
Over Memorial Day weekend my old friend Roy, his brother Matt, and I did the nine hour road trip from Washington, DC, to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, basing ourselves out of Louisville. For reasons I couldn’t really specify other than perhaps laziness, I’d been reticent to go, but it ended up being an absolutely fantastic experience.
Buffalo Trace Water Tower
We left Roy’s house right around 5 AM on Friday morning. From that area, it’s not a bad drive – I-66 to I-81 in Winchester, then on to I-64 in Lexington, VA and straight on to Kentucky. We took turns driving which made things easier – I had the most experience with driving 64 through West Virginia, so that was my part both ways. Calling ahead, we learned there was a 2 PM tour at the Buffalo Trace distillery, which was on the way into Louisville. Thanks to some prudent driving, we arrived just in time for it.
Now, here’s the first thing that we didn’t know. We had made up plans for who would be the designated driver. We were very worried about that, up to the point that if we’d had more people we’d considered renting a van or other service to drive us around. What we discovered is that you can only get 1 ounce of whiskey, total, at any distillery, so between that and the time between distilleries, not to mention the tour time, you ain’t gonna get drunk unless you bring some of your own.
Also, prices at the distillery are not better. I’d recommend only getting what you can’t get elsewhere (such as Buffalo Trace’s Bourbon Cream liqueur). To give two examples: a fifth of Buffalo Trace bourbon was $26. In DC, at Costco, you can get a handle for $27. And at Heaven Hill, a fifth of Larceny wheated bourbon was $30, while at the Liquor Barn near our hotel it was $22.
Grounds at Buffalo Trace
Buffalo Trace was a good one to start with for several reasons. First off, it was very well run and did a good job of covering the basics of bourbon distillation and Prohibition. Unfortunately, you didn’t really get to see a lot of the distillation process in person. You did get to see more of the bottling process than we saw at other tours (though at Maker’s Mark, that was due to it being a weekend day). They took us through the area where they hand label and prepare Blanton’s bottles for shipment.
Buffalo Trace Warehouse
You did get to visit one of their warehouses. My picture of barrels there didn’t come out well, but not to fear: we took five tours in total while in Kentucky, and you got to see lots and lots of barrels. (The only one that didn’t show us the warehouses was Four Roses, as their warehouses are about an hour away from the distillery. You have to make an appointment for a tour there but I’d recommend it – that was the only one we heard of where you could taste straight out of the barrel.)
After Buffalo Trace and some purchases (including cigars and cigar cutters for myself and Mr. Fawley) we headed into Louisville to check into our hotel and get some food. For food, we went to the Silver Dollar. That, my friends, was a fantastic restaurant. We had some great food (though I will recommend if you try the fried chicken livers and the onion rings, please do not forget to brush your teeth before bed or you will be despondent come the morning), great drinks, and great service. We walked around the corner afterwards to Apocalypse Brew Works and had a couple of beers before calling it a night.
Just outside the Willett tasting room
The next morning we got up bright and early and headed out to the distillery I was most excited to see, Willett aka KBD. We’d made reservations for the tour which was a good thing as it was full on the list when we got there, though the large group that was supposed to be part didn’t show and so we had room for walk-ins. It ends up our extremely friendly tour guide is moving to the DC area so we gave her some recommendations on good bars to visit. She’d been worried that she wouldn’t be able to get any Willett in DC!
For those of you who don’t know, Ledroit often brings in single barrels of Willett for resell. You can also get the Willett pot still regularly, and occasionally I’ve seen the “Vintage” whiskeys, though I don’t typically recommend those. I picked up some Old Kentucky and Kentucky Vintage while there as I’d not seen them before, and I liked them a lot at tasting.
Fermentation tank at Willett
Here we actually got to see (and smell, and feel the heat of) the fermentation tanks. If you’re not familiar with the process, to start making bourbon (or any other whiskey for that matter) you have to start with a mash. For bourbon, it’s required by law to be at least 51% corn. The rest is either barley, wheat, or rye. This is made to ferment – sour mash refers to the fact that they retain some of the mash from the previous batch(es) to start the current batch. The fermentation creates a distiller’s beer which smells sweet and kind of tastes like corn cereal mush (we discovered at other distilleries).
Copper Pot Kettle at Willett
After fermentation it’s distilled – they have a columnar still and a copper pot still. If you’ve seen the bottles of Willett’s Pot Still bourbon, you’ll recognize that shape. After cutting off the heads and tails (see video below), getting the whiskey to the proper proof, it’s put into barrels to age. Like most of the distilleries, Willett uses tall warehouses so that the whiskey (they make both rye and bourbon) will age at different temperatures over the years.
You can even buy your own barrel, if you’d like. They’ll bottle it up for you (as required by law) and bang, you’ve got 200-some bottles of whiskey.?I cannot express strongly enough how much I want to do that!
Here’s a video of the heads and tails coming off, plus some pictures of the landscape. I can’t get over how beautiful the Kentucky landscape was. There might even be a picture or two of barrels!
The pond at Willett will help run a water wheel soon
Distillery building, columnar still, grain bin at Willett
Barrel run at Willett
Another pond and warehouses at Willett
Barrels at Willett
After we stocked up at Willett, it was time to go to our next stop. We headed to nearby Heaven Hill. Our tour wouldn’t start for about an hour, so we ducked over to Mammy’s Kitchen in nearby Bardstown for a great country lunch. Seriously. The Ultimate Fried Bologna sandwich was FANTASTIC.
Heaven Hill does not do distillation on premises, so we could not see that portion of the process. They don’t really talk about it, but quick Googling can show you stories of the fire that they had back in the 1990s. (Also, while they don’t talk about it, the other distilleries will!)
Heaven Hill warehouses
The tour at Heaven Hill basically consists of a video talking about how wonderful they are, then a short walk over to a warehouse to look at tons of barrels. After that, you walk back through their large Bourbon Heritage Center, which has lots of cool exhibits, and do a sampling of some of their whiskeys.
Tasting and judgment (at Heaven Hill)
One of the nifty things they did there was to provide two small vials before your tasting. These had different scents in them and helped to practice your nose before smelling and tasting the whiskey.
While the Heritage Center was nice, this was one of the tours I cared for the least. By this point, we knew the laws and stories regarding bourbon, and so when our tour guide got some small details wrong it was annoying. Like Buffalo Trace, not being able to see the distillation was also disappointing, as rack after rack of barrels isn’t exactly the most exciting thing to look at.
(One example of small details wrong: most distilleries will tell you that the portion of the alcohol that evaporates off during aging is called the angel’s share. Also, it was pointed out to us that the black stuff you see on the walls of the warehouses is mold, and all of them get that. Some clean it off, some don’t. However, our tour guide told us that the black stuff on their warehouses was the angel’s share. If I remember correctly – and it has been a month – she referred to the part commonly known as the angel’s share as the devil’s cut, which other distilleries define as the bourbon that seeps into the wood of the barrel during aging. That’s the stuff that Jim Beam is using a rinse process on the barrels to get for their new Devil’s Cut bottling, and Maker’s Mark, also owned by Beam, will start doing as well.)
HELLO DISTILLER! at Maker’s Mark
Following Heaven Hill we drove over to Maker’s Mark. Of all the tours we did, this one was definite the slickest corporate-wise. The visitor’s center is done up like it was in the olden days, except with a phone that rings to tell you a story about Maker’s Mark, talking portraits, and other silliness. It was probably the most crowded distillery we’d been to at this point but it was also very well managed.
There’s a lot of the little things at Maker’s Mark that are interesting to note. For example, the shape of the bottle is carved into all of the shudders on the windows. Their warehouses are black, to hide the mold. There was a very friendly cat who visited us. And you got to see the entire process of bourbon, from fermentation to distillation to aging to bottling (except we only saw the bottling line thanks to it being a weekend, it wasn’t in operation).
Columnar Still at Maker’s Mark
One thing about Maker’s Mark is that it’s a wheated bourbon – that’s a fairly small number of the bourbons out there. If I remember correctly, there are only 5 or 7 labels of wheated bourbon in Kentucky. (Heaven Hill has one, Larceny, and you have Maker’s Mark and Maker’s 46. Though more on 46 in a couple.)
Fermentation Tank at Maker’s Mark
Maker’s was the first distillery to let us taste the fermenting mash. That was pretty cool. They also have a heads and tails part of the distillation portion of the tour but unfortunately were not distilling in that section when we were there. After that, you get to visit the bottling line, where (as a fun fact) each bottle is sterilized with a shot of Maker’s Mark bourbon before being filled. They also told us of the occasional bottle getting an extra deep dip into the wax and how some people consider those bottles collectors items.
After viewing all that and the warehouses, they also showed us how Maker’s 46 is different. Maker’s 46 has the bourbon removed from the barrel and additional charred white oak staves added to the barrel, then refilled with the bourbon. To me, that seems to violate the spirit of the bourbon laws, if not the letter, but they insist it can still be called bourbon.
Finally, we got to taste their white dog, regular label, and 46 in a nice tasting room surrounded by barrels with plaques on them. The barrels are part of their ambassador program where you can get your name on one, and when the bourbon is ready, you can buy it.
After we were done for that day it was back to Louisville. That night we went to the Blind Pig for dinner – another fantastic choice of venues with great food and service. From there, we walked over to Rye for a few more drinks. It was quite quiet there, and my friends like more crowded places, so we walked down to the Garage Bar for a few more drinks. After that, we hit an Irish bar called Molly Malone’s and I made the decision it was time for bed. The BP near the hotel was out of alcohol so I went straight to sleep – my friends stayed out much, much later.
Four Roses
We knew Four Roses opened at noon so we got up in time to get there, along with the requisite stop at Waffle House on the way. That was the best Waffle House ever, probably because we were so hungover and starving.
We ended up on the second tour of the day at Four Roses. The tour was probably one of my favorites, thanks to the honesty about it. They admitted that their product had been crap for a number of years while owned by Seagram’s. They talked about how they have a variety of mash builds, and different yeast strains, and how they use those to make a consistent product.
Mash and yeast, at Four Roses
The distillery has a much different style than the other ones, more of a Spanish style. Inside, it was also more crowded and automated, something they are not shy about telling you about (though we wonder if some of the other ones just hide behind the guise of everything done by wizened old men).
Outside at Four Roses
I will admit, Four Roses is one of my favorite bourbons. For the price and the consistency, it’s a regular go to for me. At the gift shop, you can pick up some of the rarer single barrel selections that are selected by the distiller. I got a bottle of the OBSV (Delicate Fruity (Pear, Apricot), Spicy, Creamy) aged 11 years 10 months and bottled at 61.6% alcohol (123.2 proof).
But enjoy some pictures of the inside of the distillery…
After Four Roses, we made the longer-than-expected trip to Woodford Reserve.
Woodford Reserve Visitor Center
Unfortunately for us, the tours were sold out by the time we got there. We were given a drink ticket for a taste of Woodford and wandered the visitor center a bit.
There was some decent displays there. There was no real direction to the tasting and it just reminded me that I don’t care for their product that much. Of all the ones we visited, Woodford has the least amount of products to try or buy in terms of alcohol of all of them.
Press to smell white dog. Uh, okay, I guess. At Woodford Reserve.
It was also incredibly crowded there, but not surprising given the weekend and such. When we left, we came back the way we came, and I only learned too late that the other way has the ruins of some other older distilleries you can see. Ahhh, well.
Being done with that, we decided to visit Churchill Downs on what ended up being family day. Yay horses!
Churchill Downs
It was very pretty on the inside. I was actually kind of surprised at how run down it seemed on the inside.
Once we got in and found our way around we got the requisite mint juleps. They had fruit-infused Woodford if that was your thing – for me, it was not. I got a basic one so I could keep the glass, really.
I am not a gambling man. I’ve never really seen the thrill in it. When I was in Reno, staying at a casino for work, I put $20 down on the Steelers opening game because I felt like I should try it once and I hated it. I didn’t want to bet on them but their my favorite team and I knew that Denver would beat them. I was right. It didn’t make the game more exciting it made me sadder that I’d wasted $20.
However, my friends wanted to make some small bets on the horses. I decided to place $5 on one horse to win, and see what happens. I just needed one with a good name. And guess what?
The ticket for Gentleman’s Kitten
WAIT YOU’RE KIDDING ME NO FUCKING WAY WTF
That’s $34 cold, hard cash, baby.
Yeah. I won. IT FELT GREAT AND I’M NEVER DOING IT AGAIN.
Go out while ahead, I say.
That night we hit Proof on Main for more great food – which I ordered WAY TOO MUCH OF – and then wandered the streets. There was a festival going on called Abbey Road on the River, which seemed pretty cool if you’re a Beatles fan.
But, really, from there it was all pretty much done. The next morning we got on the road for the long drive home.
This was one of the most fun trips I’ve ever done in my life. The scenery is beautiful, the people are fantastic, the food awesome. If you haven’t tried it you really, really must. I can’t wait to go again.
Cheers y’all!
