Wanderlust Wednesday: The Kentucky Bourbon Trail

If you've been reading my blog for a bit, you know I like my drinks, particularly bourbon. So back in December, Blue and I decided to go on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail for my birthday. If you're unfamiliar, The Kentucky Bourbon Trail is a "trail" of 9 bourbon distilleries in Kentucky, the bourbon capital of the world. To be clear, they are not next to each other, or even that close to one another- they are spread throughout the state. And these 9 are certainly not the only distilleries in KY; there are MANY other, smaller ones, but these are the ones that are members of the official trail. Being that we were only able to spend about 2 1/2 days there, we weren't able to visit them all, but we did see a few of the biggies! (For overall stats, scroll down to the bottom.) 

Fried chicken and waffles/ birthday cake/ selfie

The drive from NJ to KY is about 12 hours, so we decided to break up the trip by staying at our friend's place the first night, who lives right over the border in Ohio. We went out to dinner where I had my first ever chicken and waffles, and it was MAGICAL. I honestly don't know why I never tried it before. Then we went back to her place and she surprised me with ice cream cake for my birthday!

road trippin

A stop at Louisville Slugger Museum/ Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig plates outside

The next day was my actual birthday. We left Ohio early and made it to Louisville, KY by 10AM. Our first stop was... well, actually it was the Louisville Slugger Museum, which we passed by accident. We didn't get a chance to go in, but of course we took a pic before heading to our destination- Evan Williams. We had tickets for the Speakeasy Tour, which was really cool. We've done distillery tours before, so I didn't want to choose the generic ones. In this one, there were only 8 of us, and we got a code and a special knock on the "speakeasy," where we were ushered in to a gorgeous bar area and a guy in the old dress where we sipped the finest bourbon Evan Williams made as the "tour guide" told us all about speakeasies and laws and stuff during Prohibition.

Evan Williams

Our next stop was Bulleit, a mere 5 min away. This is Blue's favorite whiskey, so we were definitely going to do a tasting, but you couldn't do a tasting without the tour, so we did that too. The cool thing about their tour was that they were the only ones that actually had a cooperage/repair shop on site, and though he wasn't there on that particular day, we got to tour Thomas E. Bulleit, Jr's office area. (A cooperage is the craft of making and charring the white oak barrels that the bourbon is stored in.)

Bulleit Distillery

Our next stop was Jim Beam. We didn't do a tour here because it was too late, and the tours literally took 2 hours, as opposed to the regular 30 min most distillery tours take. This was the biggest distillery we went to. We went here specifically for their first ever "Light Up The Holidays" event, a free event that had fresh apple cider, live ice sculpting, tastings, carolers, and a 3D light show. They said there were bottles you could get custom engraved, but I didn't see them. It was obvious that this was the first time they held this event, because it was a chaotic, disorganized mess. But hey, at least everything was free!

A note on the tasting: unlike the other ones, they didn't explain anything. They opened the doors, instructed you to take a tasting glass and a plastic card that was "preloaded" with two tastings. There were a bunch of machines with all different kinds/flavors/years aged whiskey in them, and you out your card in the machine, selected which one you wanted and pushed the button, and a shot size of whiskey came out, much like a coffee machine. It was really weird and impersonal.

Jim Beam Distillery

the ad for the event

ice sculpting, tasting machines, and Jim Beam statue

After Jim Beam, we experienced our biggest fail of the trip. So,... I had heard that there was going to be a meteor shower. (I'm not sure how or where, but I found it while I was doing research for the trip.) And I was all, "A meteor shower on my birthday?! We MUST see it!" I found a forest that was offering a special program for the event, where people would talk to you about what you were seeing, and they had all this special equipment that we could use to see it even better, and I signed us up. Except that night it was cloudy, so they moved the event indoors. We entered (late, mind you) a pitch black forest and found the parking area, and then some guy came out of the darkness and scared the crap out of us, but directed us towards the rest of the group- inside a building, where they sat in a U-shape around some guy talking about the stars and black holes and white holes and OMG it was like being in an unfunny version of Big Bang Theory. We had no idea what they were talking about, it was SO boring, and there was no escape, because the group was small and had moved tables around to accommodate us. Luckily the speaker offered a "short break" to use the bathroom, grab snacks, etc and we made a beeline for the exit.

Usually I have a full itinerary for trips and for Sunday, I had allowed a day of rest, or to explore the town we were staying in, Bardstown, which won the award for Most Beautiful Small Town in America and is located in the heart of Bourbon Country. One thing I failed to realize however, is that everything is closed on Sundays in Bardstown. So we did the next best thing... went to more distilleries! Our first stop was Heaven Hill. What was cool about this place was that they are actually the owners of Evan Williams and Elijah Craig whiskeys, among many others. And they don't just do whiskey, they also have vodkas and scotches. We did the Whiskey Connoisseur tasting, in which we got to taste 4 of their limited edition whiskeys, and got the glass.

tasting in style

Next stop was a craft distillery that wasn't on the official Bourbon Trail, called Willet. The most interesting part of this tour was that because they are so small, they do everything by hand, included moving the barrels with an old-school pulley system. They also store/freeze meats in their rack-house, which I thought was odd, but kind of cool too. Also, the SMELL in this place was so...pungent. This was probably due to the small size and lack of airflow, but wow.

Willet, mash, and hanging meats

the rackhouse and old-school pulley system

We had a few hours to kill before dinner, so we checked out Old Talbott Tavern. It is said to be the oldest western stagecoach stop in America as the westward expansion brought explorers from the east into Kentucky." It is also famous for its visitors; Daniel Boone, the Beams, the Maker's Mark owners, among others. We had a few drinks in the Bourbon Bar, where the bartender was telling us a bunch of ghost stories which I found absolutely fascinating. (I wanted to do a ghost tour, but they don't offer them in December.)

silly pics, a hot brown, and roast beef/mash potatoes

Whenever I go on a trip, I like to eat the food of the region, and I learned that in this area, that would be the Kentucky hot brown. A hot brown is "an open-faced sandwich of turkey and bacon, covered in Mornay sauce and baked or broiled until the bread is crisp and the sauce begins to brown" (thanks Wikipedia!). And the best place to get one of these hot browns, and a famous "thing to do" in Bardstown was a meal on My Old Kentucky Dinner Train. We got a special treat because they were in their "holiday schedule" which included a visit from Santa and Mrs. Clause!

Manhattans, the Clauses, birthday dinner selfie

On the last day, before a 12 hour drive home, we went to our last distillery, Maker's Mark. I wanted to do the "Beyond the Mark" tour, which is only available on Mondays and Fridays. This was my favorite tour because the guide was extremely knowledgeable, I got to see the process while the employees were actually doing it and was able to ask them questions about their jobs (like the chemists in the testing lab, or the guys on the bottling line). Usually in tours, you see the stuff, but not in motion. We got to sip the white dog, or un-aged whiskey, straight out of the stills, and we got to go everywhere- the bottling line, where they filled the barrels, the chemist lab, even the building where they produced the labels! And then, we got to dip our own bottles in the wax! It's harder than it looks, and I did it wrong (I forgot to spin the bottle in my hand directly after dipping...oops), but it was still awesome. (FUN FACT: Each bottle of Maker's Mark is hand-dipped in wax.) The only thing taht was not awesome was the tasting, because they only make 2 products: Maker's Mark, and Maker's 46. That's it. So the tasting was those two, one whiskey that was pulled prematurely (not in barrels long enough), and one that was overdone. Gross on both counts. But it was still a great tour and I'm really glad we went.

bourbon coffee (which we purchased), glass art in the ceiling of one
of the rackhouses, and the main entrance/house.

filling,hand-dipping, and bottling in action

dipping our own bottles at Maker's Mark

Signs from God alive and well in the Bible Belt

outtakes

Road Trip In Numbers: 

1400: miles traveled 

140: pics taken 

89: roadkill 

32: years celebrated 

27: songs sung/shazamed 

~18: Cracker Barrel restaurants seen 

15: bourbon samples

6: distilleries visited

5: states traveled through

4: signs from God

3: awesome meals devoured 

2: confederate flags hanging 

1: shooting star witnessed 

Countless: memories made

What was your favorite road trip? 

Linking up with these lovely ladies!