Although we had visited each of the distilleries on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail a couple of years
ago, we had not been to any of the stops on the new Craft Spirits Trail so we
decided that this was the week.
Leaving home a little after 6 am, we wanted to get an early
start for get to some of the places in Western Kentucky that we planned to
visit. The temperatures were in the
upper 20s when we left Milton, WV, which was a shock to us after the upper 80s
on Sunday. We had no trouble making our
way through Lexington to Louisville, arriving a little after 9 am. We were able to find street parking at a
meter that was less than a block from our first destination.
The Evan
Williams Bourbon Experience has only been open five months, so this was our
first visit here to the refurbished building on Louisville’s historic “Whiskey
Row” where a great deal of bourbon and other whiskey was made and sold in
pre-prohibition Louisville. We were
pleased that Sarah could get away to join us for the tour. She was able to get a couple of vacation days
and to do the tour with us. Two
fellows, presumably a father and son, were also there from Annapolis, Maryland. Our guide, Pat, was well informed about the
history of whiskey making in the area, as well as Evan Williams, who started distilling in Louisville in 1773. He was instrumental not only in pioneering
bourbon making techniques but in settling the frontier town of Louisville. We learned that Heaven Hill is the world’s second largest
bourbon distiller with only Jim Beam being larger.
At the end of the tour we did a tasting of Evan Williams Single Barrel and Larceny bourbons with Pat. She gave us a chance to have the two bourbons
“neat” or “straight up” as well as the “bourbon & branch” that has a few
drops of spring water added to open up the complex flavors of the bourbon. After the tasting, we walked through the gift
shop were several Heaven Hill products are sold. Heaven Hill is the parent company of Evan
Williams and Larceny. The lady working
the gift shop gave us a sample taste of Henry
McKenna Single Barrel, aged 10 years which was also very drinkable but not
suited to my taste as much as Larceny. We
saw some nice small water pitchers that will be perfect for adding a few
drops of water to bourbon glasses for our bourbon tastings.
We left the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience around 11:30
and had a little trouble getting out of Louisville with all of the construction
downtown. We drove the short distance to
Clermont where we
visited the Jim Beam Distillery. We had been on their tour before but hadn’t
been to their new visitor center, which is very nice. We walked up to the barbecue place beside the
visitor center for lunch. Mary and I had
a brisket sandwich, and Sarah had pulled pork.
We all enjoyed our lunch.
Sarah left for Cincinnati but may rejoin us on Thursday in Bardstown. As we drove down I-65 toward Bowling Green, KY, we noticed a number of
dead coyotes on the highway. Near the
town of Munfordville, Kentucky, a huge coyote ran right in front of us. We nearly hit it. The size of the coyote supports a theory
that we have been hearing about, eastern coyotes interbreeding with northeastern
wolves. In the American Southwest,
coyotes are small scraggly canines that always look mangy and malnourished. In the Southwest, coyotes are often attacked
by the grey wolves in the area. However,
when coyotes migrated back to the Northeast, they encountered wolves of Eastern
Canada that do not prey on the coyotes and are reputed to interbreed with
them. The premise of the coywolf theory is that most
eastern coyotes are actually hybrids of coyotes and wolves that are genetically
larger and benefit from the more abundant food supplies of the Eastern US. The coyote we saw today certain didn’t appear
to have missed any meals. Had we been a little
slower on the brakes, however, he could have had his last meal.
We drove the 90 minutes on I-65 to Bowling Green to Corsair Artisan Distillery
near the Fountain
Square at the town’s center. Unlike some
of the other distillers, Corsair produces only a few gallons a day. However, being a small operation, they are
able to make a variety of
spirits, some of which have infusions from botanicals and spices. Corsair stores their barreled spirits in
barrels that are 3, 5 or 15 gallons, which speeds the aging process faster than
in the traditional 53 gallon casks. We
were interested in the way that Corsair infuses flavors into the spirits as
they are distilled. Following our tour
we did a tasting of Corsair’s gin, rum, quinoa whiskey, rye whiskey, triple
smoked whiskey and absinthe.
We enjoyed
the tasting and enjoyed the varieties of spirits they have to offer. I didn’t expect to like some of the infused
flavors but was surprised that they were very good. We both liked the triple smoked whiskey made
with malted barley that has been smoked by peat and multiple wood fires.
We spent a few minutes walking around the historic areas of Bowling Green
and liked the nice small town feel of the beautiful area. There was a restored old filling station from
the 1920s that included some restored gas pumps and air supply.
From there we drove over to the National Corvette Museum nearby
hoping to see the giant sinkhole that swallowed several vintage Corvettes a few
months back. Unfortunately, visitors
were unable to see the sinkhole, but some of the cars damaged by the floor collapse
were on display.
We drove over to our lodging at the Microtel
where we will spend the night before driving west to visit a few other artisan
distilleries on Thursday. We ran out for
dinner to Garcia’s
Grill which was well rated on Trip
Advisor. We both enjoyed our
meals. Mary had roasted pork with mole
sauce and I had pork enchiladas with a creamy verde sauce.
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