I recently just got back from a trip through the Kentucky Bourbon trail distilleries with my friends. We had such a great time touring all the best bourbon trailer tours and distilleries, so I decided to share all the details. If you’re planning on, I definitely recommend checking these best bourbon tours to visit.
Over the past few years, my friend Chuck has saved 4 oz from all Whiskey bottles he’s purchased. Now, he has over 90 different bottles which allows us to do tastings every time I go over! During a tasting a few months ago, we came up with the plans to take a trip to Kentucky to visit where over 95% of all bourbon in the world comes from!
Since we’re from Pittsburgh, we decided it would be best to drive and enjoy the 6 hour trip which allowed us to pick up our friend Andy who hopped a flight from San Francisco to Cincinnati. Another huge benefit of driving is that this allowed us to have absolutely zero issues bringing home all the bottles of whiskey!
I learned a lot from our trip and hope you enjoy reading about the experiences we had, our best bourbon trail distilleries and tours, and our favorite bourbons and foods we tried along the way.
Lexington Kentucky Bourbon Trail Distilleries
Our trip started in Lexington, Kentucky. We planned to spend all day Thursday in Lexington then spend Friday and Saturday in Louisville. What we didn’t expect is that all the distilleries in the Lexington area we wanted to go to would close at 4-5 pm. This made it a little difficult to squeeze a lot in, but we did our best. If you’re planning a trip, make sure to keep this in mind!
We arrived in Lexington to our Air BnB around 10 pm and checked around the area to see if there would be anywhere cool to grab a drink and a late dinner. We found a place right around the corner named Charlie Brown’s Restaurant.
It was a nice chill place with a nice library vibe and a decent beer selection. Was just what we were looking for after the 6 hour drive. We ordered sandwiches and a few beers and the bartender sensed that we were visiting from out of town so offered us all free Charlie Brown’s Restaurant shot glasses. I was particularly happy and grateful for this because just 3 weeks prior I had made my new D&D character and his name is Charlie Brownout and the shot glass seemed perfectly appropriate.
Charlie Brown's Restaurant
In the morning, we decided the first place we wanted to hit would be Buffalo Trace. Buffalo Trace, Blanton’s, Eagle Rare, and a few others are pretty hard for us to get in Pennsylvania, so we were pretty excited to check out the Buffalo Trace distillery.
Buffalo Trace Distillery Tour & Tasting
When we arrived at the Buffalo Trace distillery, we noticed a few interesting details about the place. The first was that all the buildings were covering in a “black mold”. We later learned that this mold is a results of the distillation process and is called Baudoinia Compniacensis… often called “distillers mold”. The ethanol bakes in the sun on the sides of the distillery structures and we did see this at many of the other distilleries we visited.
An interesting fact was that this mold is how many illegal moonshiners would get busted when distilling their own alcohol. Authorities would see the black mold on the houses distilling alcohol and were often a dead giveaway for who was distilling illegally.
Blanton's Bottling Hall Warehouse
We were surprised to see that the Buffalo Trace distillery tour was completely free. We just walked in and joined the tour that about to set out and the first place we visited was the Blanton’s Bottling Hall Warehouse.
Built in 1890 and renovated in 1936, this was the building where they bottle their small batch bourbon’s and Blanton’s single barrel bourbon.
Here we got to see the manual assembly line where employees hand bottled, labeled, and sealed the bottles of Blanton’s Bourbon. I was very surprised to see this process was manual and was pretty excited to purchase a bottle as a memento. However, they said the did not have any Blanton’s available for us to purchase and I was also unable to find any at the local liquor stores, so I was pretty bummed about that.
Here are some videos of the bottling process here for Blanton’s Bourbon Whiskey.
I am certainly on the lookout for a bottle of Blanton’s Bourbon Whiskey, but it would have been far cooler to have been able to see the bottles being sealed and labeled and bring one home to be a memorable part of my whiskey collection. Regardless, the experience was really cool and a lot of fun to see how some of the bottles were made in the warehouse.
As we continued the tour, we were shown the barreling warehouse where all the bourbon whiskey’s are barreled and stored for years.
Also, they had a nice section before our tasting where they had a collection of some of the rarest and most valuable bourbon’s offered from their warehouses in the past including Pappy Van Winkle’s, Blanton’s, Eagle Rare, and more.
So after completing the tour, watching a video on the history of Buffalo Trace, and visiting the bottling and barrel warehouses, it was time to taste some bourbon!
Since the tour was completely free, the pours were pretty light, but it served it’s purpose fine. The tour guide also said that Buffalo Trace was sitting on a new 1.2 billion dollar expansion deal and will be growing the business massively over the next few years.
During the tasting, we got to taste Buffalo Trace Bourbon Whiskey, Eagle Rare Bourbon Whiskey, Buffalo Trace Bourbon Cream, and Buffalo Trace Vodka.
My favorite was definitely the Eagle Rare Bourbon Whiskey and I absolutely would have purchased a bottle, but like with the Blanton’s, they said it was unavailable to purchase. Instead, I ended up purchasing a bottle of regular Buffalo Trace, a bottle of Buffalo Trace Creamed Bourbon (which was delicious), and a bottle of E.H. Taylor Small Batch Bourbon on my friends recommendation.
Wild Turkey Distillery Tasting
The next stop on our trip was to Wild Turkey Distillery. I had tasted Wild Turkey plenty of times in the past, but was interested in doing a tasting since they also offer bourbon’s like Russel’s, American Honey, Long Branch, and more.
We didn’t do a distillery tour here and just went with a tasting due to only having one day in the Lexington area before we headed over toward Louisville.
Since we weren’t doing a tour of the distillery, the woman said we could just do a tasting and set us up with our own personal tasting.
Of all the tastings we did on our trip, this one was definitely one of the best. It was clear that Mike, our tasting guide, had grown up and appreciated a good bourbon.
He walked us through the differences between each of the bourbon’s as well as explaining in detail the differences between single batch, single barrel, age statements, and what it means if a bottle doesn’t have an age statement at all (basically that it’s usually just the minimum years aged).
Of the bottles we tasted here (Russel’s Reserve 6 Year, Russel’s Reserve Single Barrel, Wild Turkey 101, Long Branch, and American Honey), our favorite was the Russel’s Reserve 6 year.
Surprisingly, the Russel’s Reserve 6 year is a very affordable go-to bourbon and usually only costs around $26 even here in Pennsylvania where prices are terrible. I’d definitely recommend trying a bottle if you’ve never had it.
My friend had also never had American Honey so tasting that was a bit of a shock to him at how sweet it was. His first reaction was that it wasn’t something he would drink normally, but would go excellent in tea. I have had American Honey before and it’s more of a lighter drink that does go well in tea or is great to bring to parties where people aren’t used to sipping on whiskey straight and plan to use things to make cocktails.
Next up was my favorite distillery of the entire trip – Four Roses Distillery.
Four Roses Distillery Tour & Tasting
If you have never had Four Roses bourbon, I would highly recommend trying a bottle before coming to Four Roses Distillery and making it a priority to make this a must visit destination in your trip. I thought this was by far the best bourbon trail distillery tour and tasting we did. Four Roses Distillery is a must see on any Kentucky Bourbon Trail Tour and the Four Roses Distillery tour was actually the most hands on and person tour of them all.
The Four Roses distillery is about 30 minutes west of Lexington in Lawrenceburg and is where all the Four Roses bourbon whiskey is distilled. As you arrive at the location, it’s easy to notice the beautiful Spanish mission-style architecture.
Four Roses is split between two locations: The distillery in Lawrenceburg and the bottling plant in Cox’s Creek. We visited the distillery first since it was right on our way through the Lexington portion of our trip and I will cover the bottling plant later as we visited it later.
The best thing about the Four Roses distillery tour (and possibly my favorite part of the entire trip) was how personal and hands on the tour felt. We started out the tour by learning how the bourbon is created. Starting with Four Roses 10 unique recipes, we were shown the fermentation process, the distillation, and everything that went into creating Four Roses bourbon.
Now when I say this tour was hands on, I literally meant it. The tour started out covering the basics of the Four Roses Process.
Of course, we didn’t see the milling and mashing of the grains, but we got started by visiting where the mash starts the fermentation process. From the moment we walked onto the Four Roses fermentation plot, everything smelled amazing. From outside, we would catch wafts of the grains and as we entered, the smell was everywhere.
Soon, we found out why.
The tour guide, Spencer, opened the doors to the warehouse and we were able to take a look directly into the wood vats where the mash was fermenting.
As we leaned over to look into the vats of bubbling mash being fermented, I was shocked to hear the tour guide say, “If anyone is interested, feel free to just reach over there, dip your finger in, and try a taste.”
“Don’t mind if I do”, I thought to myself. Some people were hesitant to try it I guess, but this was probably my favorite part of the entire trip. My friends and I dipped our fingers into the bubbling liquid and took a taste. It didn’t taste great, but also not bad.
This is the point where the mash will become “Distiller’s Beer” which is about 8-10% alcohol and is what will be used to further distill into a more concentrated alcohol. As we walked around the warehouse, the tour guide pointing out that the thicker, less bubbling vats were further along in the fermentation process. We also dipped our fingers into those and tried them out.
The vats further along in the process smelled and tasted much more sour to me. When I leaned my head over the longest cooking vat, I got smacked in the face with such a strong smell that it would have really knocked me back had I taken a deep whiff.
Not only was this tour the most personal, but I was shocked to see that the process was still more old-school. We learned on later tours that many distilleries are now technologically fitted which I will show in the next distilleries we toured.
As we continued through the tour, we were taught more about the distillation process which I had not actually know much about previously. I am still no expert in this, but here is what I took away from everything.
In the images and videos shown above, we were able to see, taste, and smell the fermentation of the yeast being converted into sugars by the enzyme amylase. At this point, it is often called distillers beer. This distillers beer is then poured through a “Beer Still” which separates the alcohol from the distillers beer.
Basically, the distillers beer is poured through the beer still and steam is sent up from the bottom. As the distillers beer flows through the still, it gets filtered and the steam attaches with the alcohol molecules to lift the alcohol out the top of the still. This is called distillation and is what makes the alcohol content so much more concentrated. This is done one more time in something called a “doubler” which has a much wider surface area to allow the second distillation to happen quickly.
Once this process is complete, you are left with something called “White Dog”, sometimes also known as white lightning or white whiskey. This is un-aged raw whiskey and is completely clear. This is basically whiskey that has been un-aged in a barrel and is what moonshiners would often called Hooch.
We did get to try this and all I will say is that I definitely wouldn’t want a glass of this to drink…ever.
In this case, it’s basically a mix of corn, rye, and barley. The Four Roses mixture is something along the lines of 75% corn, 20% rye, and 5% barley. Depending on how much corn there is, the more sweet the bourbon will be. The more rye, the most spicy and “rye” it will be. In order for a whiskey to be considered bourbon, it has to be at least 51% corn. If it is more than 51% rye, then it is called Rye Whiskey.
The next step for the “white dog” is to then be barrel in charred oak barrels. This is where 50-70% of all bourbon flavor comes from. When the inside of the barrels are charred for 50-60 seconds with a hot flame, the sugars are pulled out of the wood and get into the “white dog” which helps give it the traditional bourbon whiskey flavor.
At Four Roses, they follow a relatively simple process when creating their 10 different bourbon recipes. The following chart shows how they create their recipes which we got to taste some during our tasting.
To read this chart, they create two different combinations of corn, rye, and malted barley called “Mashbills”. The first is the E-Mashbill which is 75% corn, 20% rye, and 5% barley. The second is the B-Mashbill which is 60% corn, 35% rye, and 5% barley.
As mentioned before, the more rye in the mashbil, the more spicy flavor it will have whereas the more corn, the more sweet it will be. I definitely preferred the E-mashbill which was more on sweet bourbon side.
The next element is the proprietary yeast strains Four Roses uses. These add a range of delicate fruit, light spice, rich fruit, floral essence, and herbal notes. With these yeast strains mixed with the mashbills, there are ten combinations of bourbons Four Roses can create. The stack of barrels at the top of the chart matches the ten different combinations of recipes available for Four Roses bourbons.
If you are in the stores, you can usually check the bottles and they will have these mixes listed, so if you wanted to get really crazy you could try to collect a Four Roses single barrel variant of each of these recipes to compare. It’s a pretty interesting formula they use to create their bourbons and I will definitely be on the lookout for the more sweet variations if I can find them.
My favorite of the Four Roses selection was the Small Batch Select. I ended up purchasing a bottle of this and they had the option to get the bottle engraved, so I will likely be saving this bottle to share with my friends when we all get together over the next decade or so!
So that was it for the Four Roses Distillery plant. Since only the distillery process is in this location, all the “White Dog” is driven in tanker trucks over to the Four Roses bottling plant where it is barreled and bottled. So we planned to visit the Four Roses Bottling Plant in Cox’s Creek which is located close to Louisville over the next day or two.
This was the last distillery we had time to visit in Lexington, so the next day we would be headed out toward Louisville.
Luckily, throughout this whole day, we were hosted by an Uber driver by the name of Juan. When he picked us up at 10 am earlier that morning and heard about our plans, he offered to wait after the first distillery and give us a ride to the next one. We ended up using him as our Uber driver all day and it was perfect as we didn’t have to wait even a minute for the next ride and we were able to hook Juan up with an excellent rate.
Not only that, but he recommended a restaurant for us to try out and that’s exactly where we went. The place he recommended was called Red State BBQ.
Red State BBQ
When we arrived at the spot, it looked like a tiny place in the middle of the country. We went in and sat down and realized nearly the entire place was full with a line for take out out the door! If you’re in the area, I would highly recommend checking Red State BBQ out.
I ordered the double smoked brisket, smoked pulled pork, and two sides. It was easily our best meal of the entire trip and the entire meal only cost me $10.
So that was it for our time in Lexington. We set off toward Louisville in the morning and almost directly between the two cities, there was the Bulleit Frontier Whiskey Experience.
Bulleit Frontier Whiskey Experience Tour & Tasting
Of all the tastings we did, Bulleit Bourbon’s was my favorite. They gave decent pours and my favorite of all the bourbons we tried was the Bulleit 10 year.
We did take the distillery tour here and were definitely glad we did…especially after having done Four Roses the day before. The two were completely different.
Bulleit distillery was completely sealed and contained, much more technologically advanced that Four Roses had been. The tour guide said that they had just opened this new distillery and everything was state of the art. We had debated taking the distillery tour since we had just done one the day before, but we are sure glad we did. As we toured the plant, it was clear how much of a difference the newer and more branded Bulleit approach was having.
In order to get their brand into the hands of bars across the US, they implemented smart marketing plans to first put Bulleit into the hands of bartenders and mixologists across the country starting in New York and LA. Once the bartenders started appreciating the quality of cocktails they could make with the Bulleit bourbon whiskey, they helped spread the brand. Bartenders soon started moving across the country and taking Bulleit with them, which helped Bulleit kickstart their brand into a wide-spread industry name.
And since their Bulleit 10 year was our favorite of the entire trip, I’m assuming they will be growing for a while and for good reason. Another nice thing is that since we’re from Pennsylvania, Bulleit 10 year is readily available at all stores unlike most every other small batch or single barrel we tried.
So if you’re looking for an excellent go to bourbon that will almost certainly be available in your area, keep an eye out for Bulleit 10 year. It’ll usually cost you about $50, but it’s worth it.
Louisville Kentucky Bourbon Trail Distilleries
Once we finally made it to Louisville, the first distillery we stopped at was Angel’s Envy. I have been a big fan of Angel’s Envy since probably 2013 when I first tried it at a bar near me called Tender. They always made the best cocktails in the city of Pittsburgh and one night my friend Nate was in town and we decided to stop there for a few drinks.
As we were sitting at the bar, I remember a man sat down next to us and we got to talking about whiskeys and which were our favorites. We asked him what his favorites were and he said, “By shelf?”. He then proceeded to go shelf by shelf, and not just 4 shelves top to bottom, but top shelf left to right, 3rd shelf left to right, etc.
Many of the shelves he would grab the bartender and we would all taste his favorite and discuss them. I remember thinking to myself and my friend saying, “Damn, this is going to be one expensive night of drinking!” Well, it turned out that the guy we were talking to was the lead chef at the restaurant/bar and he got the hookup which meant we did as well!
Of all the drinks we tried, Angel’s Envy Straight Rye was one of my favorites, so I was very excited to visit the Angel’s Envy distillery and see if it lived up to my memory of it.
Against The Grain Brewery
For lunch while we were waiting for our Angel’s Envy tour, we stopped at a recommended brewery right nearby called Against The Grain brewery. It was a nice little place with a decent IPA and standard bar food. Perfect for what we needed before checking out our next tasting.
Angel's Envy Distillery Tour & Tasting
Unfortunately, despite after having to pay $10 for the tour, I was very disappointed to learn that this tasting was for just one single bourbon, the standard Angel’s Envy bourbon whiskey. I found it very hard to believe that they couldn’t give at least a taste of the Angel’s Envy Bourbon as well as the Angel’s Envy Straight Rye, but they did not.
For me, only having one type of bourbon to sample is not much of a tasting and I was very disappointed. I would probably recommend not going to Angel’s Envy and spend your time visiting another Louisville distillery.
With that being said, our tour guide was very friendly, he showed us around the distillery which consisted of just one big room where everything happens.
I still managed to pick up a bottle of Angel’s Envy bourbon at a local liquor store for only $40 which is at least $15-20 cheaper than I would ever find it back in Pennsylvania. Still cool to have a bottle and remember the visit and I did like the story they have behind the name “Angel’s Envy”.
Oftentimes, whiskey drinkers and distillers will call the portion that evaporates during the barreling process the “Angel’s Share”. This portion of the whiskey is lost into thin air as the whiskey ages in the barrel. Angel’s Envy took it’s name as their whiskey is the “Angel’s Envy” that is left for us and the angels were unable to steal for the themselves.
*Note: I did manage to try Angel’s Envy at a bar later in our trip which I’ll talk about with photos because it was one of the best whiskey bars I’ve ever been to!
Jim Beam - Urban Stillhouse Tasting
Jim Beam is one of the biggest names in whiskey. Everyone knows the name and surprisingly, it is now owned by the Japanese liquor giant Suntory. Since 1795 (aside from prohibition), seven generations of the Beam family have produced the recipes and bourbon for the company.
They account for nearly 9% of the entire world’s whiskey which includes a nearly 50% share of the bourbon market. Jim Beam produces many popular names on top of just Jim Beam like Knob Creek, Basil Hayden’s, Baker’s, and Booker’s.
If you’re in the area, I would definitely recommend visiting the Jim Beam Urban Stillhouse and do a tasting. A nice feature they had for this tasting is that you get their standard three bourbons and you get to choose your fourth for a selection of different bottles. This made it kind of fun to get to choose what you wanted to try.
Doc Crow's Smokehouse
Before coming to Kentucky, I had asked a few friends about where to go and quite a few of them mentioned Doc Crow’s Smokehouse. Since all the distilleries were closed at this point, we figured we would stop here for dinner, get an old fashioned or two and enjoy some smoked meats!
We hadn’t made a reservation since we had no clue on our timing, so when we got there, they said it’d be about a half hour wait, but they had just opened a new bar next door called Doc’s Bourbon Room. Sounded perfect to us so we headed over.
Doc's Bourbon Room
Little did we know that Doc’s Bourbon Room was competing for the world’s record for most whiskey’s in a single location available for order. They carried over 2,500 unique whiskeys, all which could be ordered, and even had a Dewey Decimal system in place so the servers would know where to find each whiskey!
As you can see, I managed to get my Angel’s Envy Straight Rye here since they wouldn’t let me try it at the ACTUAL Angel’s Envy! I was blown away by the selection here. Their menu was literally pages upon pages of whiskey’s like in the photo above. What was also interesting is that the prices weren’t too terrible if you were just going to get a relatively standard whiskey. We did see a few super rare whiskey’s and one was even $1500 for a 1 oz pour! They said the world record was 2800 bottles, so my guess is they will be reaching that soon enough as this location had only been open for about 2 months.
All along the massive bar, they had shelves with bottles and bottles of whiskey. What I wouldn’t give to be able to sample 20 of those for free!
We actually enjoyed Doc’s Bourbon Room so much that we totally missed our reservation at Doc Crow’s Smokehouse. Once we finished our whiskeys, we went back over to Doc Crow’s Smokehouse and got our table. We were a bit spoiled by Red State BBQ so while the food was very good, the main delight from Doc Crow’s was my old fashioned. I’ve tasted a number of Old Fashioned’s in my days, but this one was the very best I’d ever had.
You would think it may be because we had been drinking whiskey all day, but surprisingly if your goal is to hit distilleries and just do tastings, you won’t be nearly as drunk as you’d think. We made sure to get an Air BnB right downtown just to make sure we didn’t have to drive which was an excellent idea and I would highly suggest it to anyone planning a Kentucky Bourbon tour in the Louisville area.
We headed back for the night and planned to drive over to the Four Roses Bottling Plant in the morning.
Four Roses Bottling Plant & Barrel Warehouse Tour
Again, Four Roses Distillery and Bottling Plant were my favorite place(s) to visit of the entire tour. Not only were they the most old-style when it came to the distilling, barreling, and bottling process, they allowed you to get right into the entire process as if you were a part of it. At the Four Roses Distillery, we were able to dip our fingers into the fermenting mash, get a big whiff of the smells, and taste exactly what was happening as the bourbon was being created.
At the bottling plant, we got the exact same personal feel. As the “White Dog” came in from tanker trucks from the Four Roses Distillery, it was placed into barrels here at the Four Roses Barreling and Bottling Plant. The liquid got placed into barrels to be aged in their Barrel Warehouse.
A unique thing about Four Roses Bottling Plant and Barrel Warehouses is that since they had a lot of land, they are able to keep all their warehouses only one story high. This allows the barrels to stay within 6-8 degrees of each other from the top barrel vs the bottom. This means that they do not have to cycle barrels to ensure consistency like some of the other distillers
As we toured the barrel warehouse, we got to see the process they use to test and empty the barrels into a trough which contained the bourbon as well as the charred wood that falls out of the barrels when dumped. If we had gone during the weekday when the plant was operational, we would have been able to meet some of the employees and take a shot directly out of the barrel itself as it came off the line.
Lucky for us though, there was still some bourbon in the trough along with the charred wood which we were able to taste.
Some of the people on the tour weren’t too keen on dipping the wooden cork of the barrel into the bourbon to take a sip, but my friends and I were quite excited for the opportunity. We took our wood cork, dipped it in the remaining bourbon, took a taste, and damn did it taste good!
If I were to make one suggestion that would have improved my trip, it would have been to try and make sure to visit the Four Roses barrel and bottling plant during a weekday in working hours. I would have loved to see this entire barrel emptying process live and in action.
From here, we moved onto the bottling portion of the tour. Unfortunately, the bottling machinery was not up and running because employees did not work on weekends, but I will show you the photos I took anyways.
So without things running, there isn’t a whole ton to see here in the bottle warehouse. A few interesting facts that I did really enjoy learning about is that the 1st photo of the warehouse is the “manual” bottling portion whereas the 2nd photo is the more automated bottling section.
The automatic bottling machinery bottles 180 bottles per minute which is insane to me!
The more manual bottling is interesting too because it can only bottle 40 bottles per minute, but as you take a close look, the barrels come into the machinery where they are manually stationed for the barrels to be emptied.
The exact location of where the barrel was stored is written on the white dry-erase board for everyone on the production line to see. Once the bottle is filled, labeled, and almost ready to go, there is a station which you can see in the far right where there are four chairs. Four employees mark each of the bottles with the exact barrel the bourbon came from and is the reason you can see hand written labels on single barrel bottles of Four Roses bourbon.
Touches like these really help make me interested in purchasing Single Barrel bottles from the Four Roses distillery and I will certainly be on the lookout for unique recipes I have not yet tried from their distillery since they mark each of the recipes on the bottle.
Another interesting fact that I learned during this Four Roses tour was when the tour guide mentioned that their whiskey is chill-filtered in the huge tank in the center of the above photo. She was going to move on with the rest of the tour and asked if any of us had any questions so I spoke up and asked to hear a little more about what chill-filtering was.
She tried to think of a good comparison and the best way to answer that and did a very good job. Basically, she said imagine like when you cook bacon and in the grease is the oil from the bacon. When that oil cools down, it becomes harder and turns from oil into fat. This is similar to what happens in their bourbon. The fatty acids and oils are regarded as impurities and can often make the whiskey a bit more clouded, especially at cold temperatures.
So they chill-filter the bourbon and all the oils and fatty acids rise to the top like bacon fat and it gets removed. But what’s even more interesting is that later as we were completing our tasting here, the tasting guide mentioned that our favorite of the tasting was non-chill filtered.
He explained how if you taste the non-chill filtered bourbon, it would have a more oily, fatty texture to it and coat your mouth with almost a layer of oil. This is because those oils had not been chill filtered from the Small Batch Select. He also said to make note of when you put an ice cube into the bourbon. As the ice cube begins to melt, you’ll be able to see the oils start to separate from the bourbon and that is one good way to tell how fatty the bourbon is.
I tend to like the stronger, non-chill filtered flavors and texture, so I will certainly be on the lookout for more like this. I managed to pick up a new bourbon from the New Riff distillery and it is also non-chill filtered and the same things I like about it.
Another fun detail that we noticed during the barrel warehouse tour is that there were small little pegs poking out of some of the barrels.
If you look closely, you will notice the pegs sticking out. I asked about what they were and what they meant and the guide said that those pegs are where they drill to test the bourbon.
Generally, it is a sign of one of two things…either the bourbon is really good and they’re continuously testing it to determine the right time to pull it and bottle it….or it’s not good at atll and they’re hoping it’ll get better with age so they can use it in a mix. This particular barrel she said has been aging for 21 years and had 14 testing pegs in it. I like to believe that it is going to be a killer barrel with excellent 21 year bourbon!
Details like these are what made Four Roses my favorite places to visit by far. If you’re planning a Kentucky Bourbon Trail Distilleries Tour, I highly recommend making it to both the Four Roses Distillery in Lawrenceburg which is about 30 minutes west of Lexington as well as the Four Roses Bottling Plant in Cox’s Creek which is about 40 minutes south of Louisville.
Jim Beam Distillery Tour
Right on our way back to Louisville was the actual Jim Beam Distillery. This is where all the distilling, barreling, and bottling is done for Jim Beam. We didn’t have much time to do the full tour here because they said it’d take an hour and a half, so we just stopped in to see the location and my friend bought a nice bottle of Knob Creek for his brother. It seemed a lot more corporatized selling t-shirts and other memorabilia, but I’m sure the tour would have been pretty solid judging by the layout and setup we saw of their buildings.
Rabbit Hole Distillery Tour & Tasting
The final distillery we stopped at was a smaller local distillery called Rabbit Hole. The last scheduled tour was at 9 pm and we arrived at 8:50 but they said the final tour was full and they couldn’t fit us in. We found this to be kind of lame and told them we’d be fine just doing the tour part and not the tasting, but no luck.
They did however lead us upstairs to their bar where we could pay for each of the drinks and yet still had no option for a tasting flight. We decided it was worth at least trying one of each so I bought 4 shots and each of us shared them to taste. None of us were really a fan of any of their bourbons or their gin. They were more on the Rye side than we prefer, but we were still glad we managed to squeeze another distillery into our trip.
Their location and interior was very well designed and quite fancy. I would have enjoyed to have gotten the tour and see a little more detail about the place, but oh well. Maybe next trip. They did also have a sweet sign out front that changed pattern depending on which angle you looked at it from.
Overall, we had an amazing trip through Kentucky for the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. I hope this helps you if you are looking to plan a trip yourself and I would highly recommend taking the time to visit all of these distilleries. Not only did I enjoy tasting all the excellent bourbons, but I actually learned a lot of things that I will carry with me for the rest of my life as I taste more and more Whiskeys!
For me, this was the perfect trip to re-united with two of my friends from high school. I will leave you with a few final photos, a list of my favorite Kentucky Bourbon Trail Distillery Tours, and photos of all the bottles I purchased for myself.
The Best Kentucky Bourbon Trail Distilleries & Tours
Here’s is my quick list of must-visit Kentucky Bourbon Trail Distillery Tours and Tastings. If you’re planning a Kentucky Bourbon Trail Distillery Tour, definitely have these on your list!
-
Four Roses Distillery Tour and Tasting
-
Four Roses Bottling Plant & Barrel Warehouse Tour and Tasting
-
Bulleit Frontier Whiskey Experience – Distillery Tour and Tasting
-
Wild Turkey Distillery Tour and Tasting
-
Buffalo Trace Distillery Tour and Tasting
-
Jim Beam Urban Stillhouse Tasting
My Top 4 Bourbon Whiskey's From Our Kentucky Bourbon Trail Tastings
All of the bourbon’s we tasted on the tours were good, but the four above were the very best bourbons we found. Below are the rest that I really enjoyed and decided to purchase a bottle of. I could have easily come home with 30 bottles, so these are the ones I narrowed the list down to.
The Buffalo Trace Creamed Bourbon was absolutely delicious and while I don’t know exactly when or what I will drink it with, I did really enjoy it and will save this bottle for a night with a group since it needs refrigerated once opened.
New Riff Single Barrel is a bourbon I found at the local liquor store. I was looking for a bottle of Eagle Rare since Buffalo Trace wouldn’t sell us one and when I asked the guy at the store, he said New Riff Single Barrel is his absolute favorite bourbon and he found it similar to Eagle Rare. Once I took a closer look at the bottle, I noticed that New Riff Single Barrel was also non-chill filtered so I was sold! I’m very glad I purchased this bottle because of all the bourbons I tasted on the tour, this one is definitely in my top 5. One of these days, I’ll have to visit the New Riff distillery which is located in Cincinnati and pick up a few more bottles.
