As wine is to northern California, bourbon is to Kentucky. As we had already seen the state’s biggest city and it’s most widely known national park it was time to sample Kentucky’s most famous export, its bourbon.
Growing up in Kentucky I was well aware of the states bourbon heritage but as a 7 year old didn’t really have the opportunity to try much of it when we lived there. That was all about to change today. A few days prior we decided to do a little research to find out about how bourbon tasting worked. Living in the Finger Lakes wine area in upstate New York we were pretty accustomed to how wine tasting worked there; you just showed up, tasted a few wines and went on your way. Bourbon tasting works a bit differently as, 1. Bourbon distilleries are much larger than a normal winery so you spend more time at them and 2. The alcohol content in bourbon is very much higher than wine. Generally speaking in order to taste at a distillery you have to go on a tour of the distillery and to do so you need to book in advance. So we went online, and made a booking at Wild Turkey for our first day.
First, before getting into our tasting adventure a little knowledge about whiskey, bourbon and Kentucky. As the saying goes, ‘All bourbon is whiskey but not all whiskey is bourbon”. This is true as bourbon is a type of whiskey. What makes it specifically bourbon though is its corn content. To be classified as bourbon it must have been distilled using at minimum 51% corn (among other things). This corn is what gives bourbon a richer and sweeter taste than whiskey or scotch. As to why 95% of all bourbon comes from the state of Kentucky, it boils down to 5 factors. 1. Rock – most of Kentucky lies atop a bed of Blue Limestone which water filters through gaining minerals. This in turn gives the water a different taste. 2. Water – The water in Kentucky has a high Ph and minerals, especially calcium & magnesium. These minerals help during the fermentation process. 3. Soil – Kentucky has extremely fertile soil, which is great for growing all the corn that is needed to produce bourbon. 4. Weather – Hot, humid summers and cold winters. This aids in the aging process as the change in temperature helps to expand and contract the wooden barrels that the bourbon ages in. The bourbon in turn seeps into and out of the charred wooden barrels giving the bourbon color and flavor. 5. People – Central Kentucky was settled by people of Scottish and Irish heritage. They brought with them knowledge of how to make whiskey and now bourbon whiskey. Without them Kentucky would never have become the bourbon producer for the world.
Driving from our Kentucky base at Shepherdsville to Wild Turkey located just outside of Lexington took a little over an hour. We took the back roads per our usual to enjoy the Kentucky countryside. We both thought that the Kentucky countryside is vastly underrated. Rolling hills, forests, small towns, farms and distilleries. There was so much to look at and see. It was beautiful! Soon enough we pulled up to the large Wild Turkey property drove to the visitor’s center and walked in. At our tour time we hopped onto a bus and met our tour guide, Bubba, a former army drill instructor. Bubba stood no more than 5’5” but his voice sounded like he could scare a mountain into moving. He was sure not someone that you wanted to be on their bad side.
The bus took us to one of Wild Turkey’s main fermentation and distilling buildings. Bubba walked us through the distillation process showing where the grain was dropped off, the large vats where the mash is heated and fermented then where the bourbon is put into barrels to age. We then hopped back onto the bus to see a bourbon-aging barn. Driving around the central Kentucky countryside we saw these massive 3 -4 story barns painted black. We learned though from Bubba that, these were the bourbon aging barns and that the bourbon is aged generally for 4 plus years. The bourbon-aging barn or “rackhouse” that we entered was one of Wild Turkeys oldest. In the rackhouse the bourbon barrels are lined up and stacked in rows, one on top of another. The barrels are then rotated, as the temperature at the top of the rackhouse is warmer than the air temperature on the floor. This was all pretty neat to see. We then headed back to the visitors center, which also housed the tasting room. Here as a group we were lead through a Wild Turkey tasting, being able to have a few of their different brands and styles. It was all very good and an excellent first experience on the bourbon trail!
After lunch in the van we headed to our second distillery of the day, Four Roses. This was a much smaller and we thought prettier property than Wild Turkey. The buildings on the property were done in the Spanish style and were beautiful. We had not made a tour appointment on this one and by the time we got there they were all sold out for the day. We were in luck however as we were told that we could just do a tasting here and one started in a few minutes. After browsing around the distillery store for a few minutes we walked over to the tasting area and were led with a group through a few of Four Roses offerings. We were a bit sad we didn’t make the distillery tour but the tasting was great and overall we had a blast. After the tasting we walked around the property a bit before jumping into Bubbles and heading back to Shepherdsville and our campground for the night.
We woke up the next morning ready for our 2nd day of bourbon tasting. We were really excited about today. Today would be going to Maker’s Mark and Jim Beam, two of our favorites. I had been to Maker’s Mark years before and remembered it as one of the most beautiful properties that I had ever been on. We set off again from Shepherdsville driving to the small town of Loretto, the home of Maker’s Mark. The property was just as beautiful as I had remembered it, although they had expanded a bit. The property was set in a small valley with beautiful red and black buildings scattered throughout. There were trees everywhere and even a stream running through the property.
We checked in and soon we were off following our tour guide Jackie. The Maker’s Mark tour wound through a few of their small buildings showing the big barrels of mash to the bottling room where they still hand dip each bottle in distinctive red wax. It was pretty crazy that a brand as big as Maker’s Mark still does one step of production by hand for each and every bottle. We then saw their rackhouses before going into their newest building. This new building was pretty neat. It was built directly into the adjacent mountain. It was where bars, liquor stores as well as other bourbon sellers could come in to make their own version of Maker’s Mark. How they did it was through bourbon staves. A bourbon stave is a long, thin piece of white oak charred to produce different flavors. Flavors could be anything from vanilla, to cherry, smoke, anything like that. The business could combine a few of these to create their own unique flavor of Maker’s Mark, which they would have exclusive rights to sell in their business. We saw where these staves were picked from, the tasting room for these businesses to choose their flavor profile and the aging area where barrels were aged prior to bottling. Also in this building was the best part, the tour tasting room! We were able to try a few different varieties of Maker’s Mark and even a Maker’s Mark chocolate bourbon ball. We then headed to the gift shop where you are able to buy an un-waxed bottle and dip it in the wax yourself (under supervision of course). We purchased two small bottles, donned protective smocks, eyewear and gloves and were then given a small tutorial about how to dip our bottles. We then dipped then turned the bottles as they were coming out of the wax and we were done! We wrote our name and date on the side of the bottle and now have a pretty neat souvenir! We then walked around the property for a bit before heading back to the van for lunch. If anyone is going on the bourbon trail please make Maker’s Mark one of your stops. It is an amazing place!
Our next and last stop on the bourbon trail was the famous Jim Beam distillery. Much like the Four Roses distillery the previous day we did not have a reservation for a tour and when we arrived we were totally out of luck. There were no tour spots left for the day and we could not do a tasting without going on the tour. We were told however that the bar was open and we could have a cocktail and see the tasting room. We thought this was a pretty good option so we walked across the property to the bar/tasting room building. Julie got a delicious foamy cocktail called the Pumpkin Spiked while I opted for a classic old fashioned. They were both delicious.
What was really unique about this building however was the tasting room. In each of the 3 other distilleries that we had a tasting at you were given a tray with 4 or 5 small tasting glasses with bourbon in them. At the Jim Beam tasting room all of the varieties of Jim Beam were set around the room in automatic dispensers. You had a card that would let you try 4 of the varieties. After that the card knew you had your 4 it would not dispense for you again. We watched a group go through the process as we sipped on our cocktails then walked around the property for a bit. Lastly we went into the gift shop before hopping back in the van and going back to Shepherdsville for one final night.
Overall we had an amazing time in Kentucky. Seeing everything big city Louisville had to offer, reconnecting with old friends and sipping on the best bourbon in the world, it was a blast!
Next up… We head to Music City USA, Nashville, Tennessee!
