After a winter of snow and cold wind followed by heavy rain
resulting in local flooding, we were anxious to take advantage of a beautiful
day and take an outing with friends.
We picked up our longtime friends, Greg & Janina Michael
for a tour of a couple of our favorite Kentucky Bourbon distilleries. The drive to Frankfort, Kentucky was very
pleasant and gave us a chance to catch up with our companions arriving at Buffalo Trace Distillery a little after
10 am. Our Hardhat Tour
didn’t start until 10:30 so we walked around the visitor center and gift shop
in the midst of a major construction project.
Like most distilleries, the current boom in the Bourbon industry has
created a flood of visitors to distilleries.
Bourbon makers have expanded and improved the visitor centers and tours
to accommodate the growing number of foreign and domestic tourists. We learned that the gift shop will now expand
to include most of the first floor of the visitor center while displays and
tastings will move to the building’s second floor.
Although we have taken the standard tour of Buffalo Trace on
many occasions over the years, we had never been on a hardhat tour. Our knowledgeable guide, Shelly, a 30+ year
employee of Buffalo Trace, took us through the distillery from where the corn,
malted barley and rye enter, through hammer mill areas, to mash cookers,
coolers, fermenters, yeast tanks, stills, rickhouses and even bottling
operations. I didn’t know that Buffalo
Trace doesn’t combine their grains until after cooking. Milled corn is cooked at the highest
temperature and for the longest time, rye is cooked for a shorter time and at a
lower temperature. Since germination
processes have begun converting the barley’s starches into sugars in the
malting process, very little cooking is required prior to fermentation.
Some of the best things about a distillery tour are the
smells. I love the scent of the grains
being crushed in the hammer mill. The sweet smell of corn mingled with the
spicy rye aroma is very pleasant. Moving
to the fermentation areas, the acrid smell of sour mash, fermenting corn and
the intoxicating layer of carbon dioxide is a smell that is quite unique and
not unpleasant. My personal favorite
scents of the day are in the old dimly lit rickhouses. Oak barrels, cold
Kentucky air, aging Bourbon leaking between oak staves and old wood from the
decades old post and beam buildings give a unique and pleasant smell. The final aroma of the day was in the
bottling area. We were in the area where
the premium single barrel Blanton’s
Reserve is hand bottled and labeled.
The smell of the outstanding barrel proof Bourbon made us anxious to
enjoy a sip of Buffalo Trace products in the tasting room. We had sips of Buffalo Trace,
Eagle Rare,
Wheatley Vodka
and White Dog. We followed with a sip of Bourbon Cream
and a Rebecca
Ruth Bourbon Chocolate.
Unlike some distillery tours we have taken, the group on the
Buffalo Trace Hardhat Tour was small. In
addition, nearly everyone but us was in the spirits industry. One member of the group was the national sales
director for Blanton’s Reserve. He had
two of Europe’s leading Blanton’s distributors where there from France. Once gentleman was with Everclear and a couple of other
Buffalo Trace employees were on the tour.
It was great to interact with so many people with so much knowledge of
Bourbon and spirits. We bought a few
gifts at the gift shop and left the distillery at 12:30.
Emily recommended a restaurant in Frankfort called Gibby’s for lunch. The sandwiches we each had were very good and
the prices were quite reasonable. We
were able to park right in front of the restaurant and were able to get a table
easily. After we finished our lunch, we
drove the short distance to Lawrenceburg to tour the Wild Turkey Distillery.
We got to the distillery a little after 1:30 and signed up
for a 2 pm tour and enjoyed the warm sunny day while we waited on our tour
shuttle to arrive. Our guide at Wild Turkey was interesting and well
informed. We saw the Bourbon making
process from milling grain through barrel aging in Wild Turkey’s many
rickhouses. We were unable to see the mechanized
bottling operations but were able to see all other aspects of making the wide
variety of Bourbon made there.
The
highlight of the trip was a visit by Master Distiller, Eddie
Russell. He took time from his busy
schedule to meet with us and give us an insider’s view of how premium Bourbon
is made.
After our tour, we arrived back at the newly built visitor center for a
tasting. Sips of most of Wild Turkey’s products were available
including Wild Turkey 101, Wild Turkey 81, Rare Breed Barrel Proof, Russell’s
Reserve 10 Year Old Small Batch, Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel, Kentucky
Spirit, Wild Turkey Rye, Russell’s Reserve Rye, American Honey and American
Honey Sting. We enjoyed our sips and
conversation before taking the short drive to Four Roses
Distillery.
We arrived at Four Roses a few minutes too late to take the
day’s final tour. We really like the visitor center and
distillery tour at Four Roses but have been unable to get a knowledgeable guide
on any of our previous tours. We like
Four Roses Bourbon and enjoy the beautiful distillery and wish that we would
get a guide at some point that can communicate adequately about the variety of Four Roses Bourbons. Although we couldn’t take a tour, we were
able to purchase ($5) tickets for a tasting that included Four Roses Yellow Label,
Four Roses Small
Batch and Four
Roses Single Barrel. Our tasting fee
included the souvenir rocks glass. We
walked around the newly remodeled visitor center then left for Lexington to do
some shopping and for dinner.
We arrived at the Liquor
Barn off Man O’ War around 5 pm to shop for some of our favorite Bourbons
and to chat with the Liquor
Barn Bourbon concierge to get additional recommendations. We tasted a featured Irish Whiskey but
neither of us was impressed. We picked
up some Ole Smokey Moonshine
and were browsing the Bourbon selections, noticing that they were out of stock
of our favorites, Eagle Rare
and Johnny
Drum Private Stock. The concierge
recommended a bottle of Buck’s Bourbon,
an eight year old Bourbon from Kentucky that has a low rye mashbill and a
balanced flavor. She also recommended
the New Make Bourbon White
Dog from New Riff Distillery
in Newport, Kentucky. This clear spirit
is supposed to have the delicate flavor of fresh corn that I really enjoy in an
unaged whiskey. We purchased a bottle of
each of these as well as a premixed mojito for Mary that she really enjoys. Greg got a bottle of his favorite, 1972 from Barton and we made our way to Ramsey’s for dinner which is in a nearby
strip mall.
We got a table quickly and had a short wait for Emily to
join us after she got off work. We all
enjoyed our meals and especially the dinner conversation. The food at Ramsey’s is always excellent. Janina had a vegetable plate, Greg had a huge
buffalo chicken salad, I had the Kentucky hot brown sandwich and Mary &
Emily had the country steak and gravy.
Emily especially enjoys the corn oysters from Ramsey’s.
After saying our goodbyes, we drove back to Cabell County on
I-64 enjoying our chat and planning to get together again soon.
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