I want to do this one day. For now we are headed to The smoky MTNS in early May. we will stop at the Jack Daniels Distillery and do that tour. We plan on doing the free part. Cant beat the price!

 

Friends are heading out to the run in two weeks. Hired a limo to take all of them around... Put out the "Who Wants To GO" thingy and well 30 signed up!!! All riding out together and yep nice BIG bus to get driven around in!!!

 

As a big fan of Buffalo Trace and Four Roses, I want to do those. When I drive to Indiana I always stop at the Liquour Barn in Bowling Green. They have an amazing selection and many types I cannot get down here.

 

I'll definitely update this once I've completed my trip with our final plans and any recommendations I have. We are talking about maybe hitting up a campground in Bardstown - if anyone has any suggestions on that let me know.

Sounds like the favorite tours are: Maker's Mark, Wild Turkey, and Woodford.

For anyone who hasn't looked into the Bourbon Trail, I chose my route based on proximity. All of the distilleries on the trail are about 15-40 minutes from each other so you have to choose your route carefully. If you start in Lexington instead of Louisville you can just take my list in reverse. I am a little nervous about finding my way in-between stops so I hope it is marked well.

On a side note, does a thread get deleted in here after so many days of inactivity? My trip isn't for another month and I would hate for this to be deleted before then.

 

This post will live for as long as this site exists. When you update it we will see that you have. Look forward to future posts on this subject.

 

Trip is tomorrow! Weather looks great with the exception of scattered storms on Sunday. We picked out some campgrounds so we will be doing it right (and cheap). I'll post a full update sometime next week for anyone interested. I have put a decent amount of planning into this to be able to do it in 3 days (hopefully).

Send some prayers my way for safe travel!
-Adam

 

Looking forward to what you have to say. Just a little farther away and would like to do as a weekend trip or on the way to the mountains.

 

SHORT SUMMARY (in order):
Friday - Rode from Columbus to Cinci to Louisville to Bardstown. Stopped at Evan Williams and Jim Beam
Saturday - Stopped at Heaven Hill, Maker's Mark, Four Roses, Wild Turkey
Sunday - Stopped at Woodford Reserve and Town Branch then rode back home.


EXTENDED SUMMARY:
*Please note that the samples are 1/2 oz samples and at no point did I feel like I left a place with a buzz which was good for us being on the bikes. I think the laws prohibit them from having bars on site - probably for the best.

Cinci/Newport:
If you are heading there from Ohio make sure you stop in Newport and check out the Hofbrauhaus. Its a German beer hall type of place and had some really good food and beer. It didn't open until 11am but that was fine.

Evan Williams:
This was the first stop so we were excited. However, looking back this was not my favorite. The distillery is not at this location and it is in down town Louisville. We did the Speak Easy thing which was $12. We went to the basement and knocked on a safe door in the wall then it opened up to a really neat room with a bar. The guy gave us a history of prohibition while we got to sample 3 bourbons including a 23 yr old that was great.

Jim Beam:
We got here shortly after the last tour so we missed it but we were able to do two free samples of our choice so that was nice. There was a smokehouse on site so we ate there. Pretty good stuff

Holt's Campground:
This was in Bardstown and it was a small campground that is poorly labeled but the guy was really nice and a primitive site was only $15. It worked great for what we needed plus there was a gas station 2 miles away for beverages and Heaven Hill is like 5 minutes away. Just follow your GPS to the campground - if it is labeled as something else and the 'office' building is completely empty - you are there! Bathrooms and bath house on site - its OK.

Heaven Hill:
Evan Williams and Heaven Hill are somehow related so they have the same products at both locations but Heaven Hill has actual equipment and a nice visitors center with some cool displays. Didn't do much here. There is a bonus stop around the corner called Kentucky Bourbon Distillers/Willett Distillery. It is only a half mile away but we didn't stop because we had a full day ahead of us.

Maker's Mark:
This was our first tour and I was really excited to check it out. This was probably my favorite property of all of them - its a beautiful location and a nice ride. The tour was something like $9 and lasted about an hour. Got to see the whole production and then get 4 samples at the end. Look into their ambassador program - it is free to join and pretty neat. Everyone was really nice and in the gift shop you can dip your own bottle if you buy one. This is one of the recommended tours and we were really happy with it.

Four Roses:
This was also a really nice ride. Actually everything from Heaven Hill to Maker's Mark to Four Roses to Wild Turkey was great riding. We did not do a tour but they offered a tasting for $5. We got a short version of the history of the company then sampled 3 bourbons THEN got to keep the glass which had their name on it. This was the best deal yet. (Made the $12 at Evan Williams seem a little steep). I actually bought a bottle of their yellow label which was only $20.

Wild Turkey:
This was the last stop for the day so we decided to do a tour. It also was somewhere around $10 (I think). Their property is a little more spread out so they load you onto a bus (that has AC) and drive you to the destinations. They weren't running production but once you've seen one tour you get the process. At this point it is just picking out the little things that the places do differently. I found it interesting touring Maker's Mark then a place like Wild Turkey because MM comes off as a company that puts a little more care into each bottle and produces less where WT just mass produces but has a larger product line as well. I recommend touring either Jim Beam or Wild Turkey in combination with Maker's Mark just to see the differences.

Lexington:
We camped out at Kentucky Horse Park which is a state park about 10 minutes north of Lexington. This is a much much larger campground than Holt's and was only $20 for a primitive site. 2 miles down the road back towards the highway follow the signs for Red State BBQ. It's a hole in the wall place that has some legit BBQ for a good price. Try the Beer Cheese Grits - they are awesome. FYI - they typically run out of brisket after lunch.

Woodford Reserve:
On Sunday, none of the places open until noon which kind of stinks. The ride to Woodford is one of the best as it takes you along one of the scenic byways which is basically a back road sandwiched between horse farms/ranches. Another great ride that ends kind of back in the hills a bit. Woodford was my second favorite ride and property - definitely beautiful. I would have liked to tour here but we were in kind of a hurry to get going because we had to head home later. They only have two products and did not offer a sampling - you had to do a tour to do a sample. The tour was also something like $9-12.

Town Branch (Alltech brewing):
This ride is not bad but you are heading back towards Lexington which is a larger town so it started to remind me of Louisville but not nearly as big. Be on the watch for this place as we almost zoomed right past it. They brew beer and spirits here which is unique to the rest. If you have ever had the Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale they make it. We just wanted to do a sampling; your choice between beer and spirits - we chose spirits. The tour went thru the beer and spirits process which is probably neat. The sampling was free and we got four samples! We also got to tag along with the tour group for the end of the tour and basically got to tour the bourbon process for free. The tour guide was also one of my favorites - so this was a great way to end the trip. They only started making bourbon a couple years ago but it was pretty good but a little pricey.


CONCLUSION:
Definitely an overall great time and repeatable trip. If you are traveling from a few hours away you will no way complete the trail in less than 3 days. This was probably the minimum needed to complete it and tour a couple places. You won't get buzzed or drunk at the distilleries so don't worry about that. Some places you can only sample if you do a tour. Most of the tours are a good hour if not longer. Most places are open 10-5 during the week and Saturday. Sunday none of them open until noon. This leaves you limited on time plus there is a good amount of driving between some of them. Plan accordingly! Make sure you do some tent camping. I think that in combination with the bikes and the trail it make it a weekend to remember.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.
-Adam

 

Yes, Evan Williams is one of Heaven Hill's many labels. It is the label they sell the most of and is most well known. Heaven Hill might be my favorite distillery as far as taste and bottles I buy/drink. From what I have heard their gift shop gouge's more than most which is very unfourtunate.

I knew KBD was real close to HH but I didn't realize it was THAT close! Half mile...damn. KBD is also known as Willett. It was a distillery back in the day and they just started distilling in the last 2 years but nothing they have distilled is ready for market yet. For about 30 years they were what is known as an NDP (Non Distilling Producer). They had some very good palettes in their employ that would pick and buy barrels from other distilleries. Some already aged. Ones that were partially aged or not aged at all they would sometimes store on their property in their own rickhouses. They have turned out some AMAZING Bourbons and Rye's and no doubt their gift shop had some jaw droppers in-stock. The reason I find the closeness the HH so interesting is that HH is where they have gotten a vast majority of their product.

 

In general, most gift shops did not seem to have great prices. They all agree not to compete with local liquor stores and their distributors on the liquor prices too. I was also a little bummed that most of them did not offer smaller bottles or the mini's either. I was hoping to grab a few small ones to try since I had limited space.


FUN FACT:
Kentucky has more BARRELS of bourbon than people and horses combined...