Kentucky Bourbon Trail. pt. 2
Day 2: Today’s Itinerary started at Heaven Hill, a quick stop at Willett, Makers Mark and Jim Beam.
I should say, when planning these tours please know that some rules come along with them. They do not allow you to do back-to-back tours or even two in a day. If there are different experiences you would like to do, maybe do some research and see what people have said about them, or just plan to do them on different days.
Heaven Hill was a new facility that we didn’t get to the last time and doing their experience was high on my list. Heaven Hill is the largest family-owned and operated distillery in the United States, and the third generation is now in place make ensure the family-run company’s future. Currently, there are more Heaven Hill rickhouses than states, 58 of which hold 1.6 million barrels. Over the last couple of decades, they have invested a lot of money into rebranding their Bourbon Heritage Center, as well as new barrel warehouses and equipment. in 1996, they had a horrible fire that destroyed their plant, 7 warehouses, and 90,000 barrels of bourbon! Alight, enough of their backstory. Their tasting is a 75-minute experience where we tasted 4 of their top bourbons and then were able to choose one that we would like to bottle. Jeff and I chose each to do a bottle of Heaven Hill Select Stock, a bottle you can only get at the facility It was so fun to bottle it ourselves as well as put all the appropriate labels. After we were done our experience they had a great bar and soon-to-be restaurant upstairs. We grabbed a quick drink and planned our next distillery.
We were supposed to do a tour at Woodford Reserve but that tour is an outside tour and it was raining buckets! We headed to Willett just to check out the gift shop and to see what bourbon they had, there wasn’t anything that was on our list so off to the next one we went.
Makers Mark! Unlike any other distillery, this one only produces 1 bourbon and you can’t miss it with the red dipper bottle top. Same thing as Buffalo Trace where you can walk the grounds for free but not enter into the buildings. Makers Mark I would recommend you do a tour and be able to go into the buildings. In the still house, you will get to experience the incredible smells of a distillery, you will be able to see the mash ferment in century-old cypress vats. After that, you will be entering the aging warehouse ground floor. The one warehouse is built into the mountain, when you go inside the natural limestone is the back wall. Limestone water is what makes bourbon so good! The next stop on your tour will be the tasting where you get to taste 4 of their bourbons and learn about what makes them unique and a staple on any liquor store shelf. As you know Makers Mark hand dips their bottle in a bright red wax, and if you are an ambassador whose barrel is ready to be bottled, you get to dip them. Last time we were in Kentucky, my dad’s barrel was ready to be bottled so we were able to dip some bottles. This time around, I became an ambassador and have my name on a barrel, and even though I am going to have a love-hate relationship with the countdown of getting bottles out of my barrel it’s going to be a great experience. When the time my barrel is ready, Maci will just be turning 21, and I will be able to bring her down and hopefully be able to convince her to become an ambassador and be the third generation to do so. I wonder if I can put my name on another one in 3 years so I can have the same experience with Easton. On a side note, Makers Mark has an incredible restaurant on the property! You will smell it heading to the gift shop and I highly recommend you go to it. You would think that their priority would be making great bourbon, but their food is equally as delicious and paired with their bourbon is perfect.
Our last stop of the day was Jim Beam. The rain lightened up but the wind picked up so we were looking just for indoor places. We didn’t plan a tour here but it will be added to our next trip. You will hear really from every distillery what makes them special is the generations behind it, Jim beam though has the highest number of generations behind it. 8 to be exact, but when you look at the family history you see the name change from Beam to Noe. Jeramiham Beam was the last beam, but probably one of the most important. He helped guide the company through prohibition and two world wars, he traveled to Europe despite the wars overseas. Those trips help Jim Beam become the world’s #1 bourbon. Sadly he had no children to pass the company onto and he decided to bring on his nephew, Frederick Booker Noe. Booker loved to experiment with the distilling equipment and started bottling his “test”, sharing them first with friends, family, and eventually the world. We would soon get to experience Booker’s small batch, which included Basil Hayden, Knob Creek, Bookers and Bakers. The grounds look beautiful, their gift shop is fun and interactive with TVs on the wall that tell you about their history, and photobooths. Upstairs they have a tasting bar, a spot to purchase limited edition bottles and have them engraved. Our next trip will a tour of the grounds as well as a formal tasting.
