Kentucky Bourbon Trail, Kentucky

We picked up our passports and we were off and running.

In this display case is an original prohibition prescription along with the unopened bottle.  This unopened bottle is the only one known to exist.

Not officially on the tour but close by

Four Roses Distillery was built in 1910 and features a unique Spanish Mission–style architecture rarely seen in Kentucky, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Dave tasting the sour mash

This tanker truck hauls the bourbon to an off site bottling facility all day long.

Neighborhood surrounding the Four Roses Distillery

Look who we found wandering around, Jimmy Russell himself.
Just a "Good ol' Boy"

Look at all the vats in the background holding 30,000 gallons each

View from the tasting room

You have to eat sometime - Heavens to Betsy's Deli.
Had our 1st Hot Brown sandwich,

Not officially on the trail but we visited anyway.

Beautiful grounds

Small Distillery.  Seemed more like a rich mans hobby.  They also make beer.

Dinner recommendations from Jimmy Russell

Famous for quality since 1937

Celebrating our 31st wedding anniversary

Hard to find. Not even google knew where it was.


Beautiful grounds

Special Edition bottles.  The lower right is one that was done for the Boy Scouts!

Wax dippers

One of Kentucky’s oldest and smallest distilleries, the present day Woodford Reserve Distillery is built on history, sitting on Kentucky’s oldest distilling site where Elijah Pepper began crafting whiskey in 1812.

Beautiful grounds

Rusty


Distillery - Circa 1890

Empty barrels being rolled in one door, filled one at a time and sent out the side door.

Full barrels coming out the side door and onto the 500-foot-long gravity-fed barrel run.

Waiting to be put up on the racks in the Rick House for aging

They were so busy with it being Derby weekend our tasting was set up in the Rick House where all the bourbon is stored.  No that's not a real candle with a flame. Fire and Bourbon don't mix.

Woodford Reserve is nestled amid the rolling hills of bluegrass and thoroughbred farms.

Looks like even Canadian Geese like Jim Beam

Beautiful grounds

The original staircase was salvaged from the fire of 1934 and reused.

These grounds are now used by Bulleit Distillery

Perry greets you at the gate.  He has been there for over 40 years. He has some great stories to tell.  He should be the tour guide. He is great!

Sunglasses made out of old Bourbon barrels

Bulleit had some of favorite samples

Evan Williams, founded Kentucky’s first commercial distillery along the banks of the Ohio River in 1783. Today, Evan Williams is the second largest selling Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey in the US and the world, distilled just a few blocks from the site where Evan himself built his distillery. 

Original prohibition prescription form

Evan Williams was our last stop on the tour.  When getting our passports stamped they informed us that instead of mailing our passports in we could go just 5 blocks from their location and pick up our "Free" t-shirts.

I added up the costs for our "Free" t-shirts.  They only cost us $81.00 each.  Not to mention the money spent at the gift shops.

And this concludes our tour