Kentucky Bourbon Tour

[HookEm 2432]

I originally posted this in the Bourbon thread, but I think this topic deserves a dedicated thread.  I'm headed to Kentucky with my wife in a couple of weeks to drive around and see some distilleries.

We driving up from Nashville early on a Saturday morning and spending 3 nights overall.  First night will be in Bardstown. We plan to hit Maker's Mark on the way and then probably Bardstown distilling.  

On Sunday, we will likely start the day at one of the Bardstown distilleries (probably Willett). Heaven Hill is another possibility.  Then we will make our way up to Lexington, with a detour at either Four Roses or Wild Turkey.  We are staying in downtown Lexington at the Hyatt Regency on Sunday and Monday nights.

On Monday, the plan is to take a day trip to Frankfort to hit Buffalo Trace.  We may also stop by Woodford Reserve on the way back if we are up for it.

On Tuesday, we are driving back to Nashville for a late flight out.  On the way there, we may stop by Abraham Lincoln's birthplace or Mammoth Caves National Park if we have enough time.  

Let me know if you have restaurant or distillery suggestions for Bardstown, Lexington or anywhere in between.  I'll post pics after the trip.

[4th&Five 41111]

I've done Buffalo Trace once and Woodford twice.  Both are really good and completely different. Jeff Ruby's is the place to be in Lexington.

[Rip76 4880]

Ok, this seems like a good idea.

[HookEm 2432]

After looking at tour availability, I went ahead and booked a Willett tour for 3:00 on Saturday.  We land in Nashville at 8:30 AM, so that gives us about four hours to kill on Saturday.  Unfortunately Makers Mark is out of tour availability on Saturday, so we may skip it altogether and just stick with the distilleries in Bardstown. 

Bardstown Distillery apparently has a nice bar/dining room. Might just go straight there for lunch and a cocktail and then on to the Willett tour at 3:00.  Willett also has a well regarded dining room / veranda where we could eat an early dinner.

We could also Uber around to all these places and not worry about getting smashed.

[deac_tracy 513]

With regards to Mammoth Cave, I recommend reserving your cave tickets online because they do sell out. Also, important to note that Mammoth Cave is in Central Time Zone while Lexington/Louisville are in Eastern so plan accordingly.

 

[T’Boo Ted Marshall 2719]

42 minutes ago, HookEm said:

After looking at tour availability, I went ahead and booked a Willett tour for 3:00 on Saturday.  We land in Nashville at 8:30 AM, so that gives us about four hours to kill on Saturday.  Unfortunately Makers Mark is out of tour availability on Saturday, so we may skip it altogether and just stick with the distilleries in Bardstown. 

Bardstown Distillery apparently has a nice bar/dining room. Might just go straight there for lunch and a cocktail and then on to the Willett tour at 3:00.  Willett also has a well regarded dining room / veranda where we could eat an early dinner.

We could also Uber around to all these places and not worry about getting smashed.

Uber might get pricey.  They are not close to each other.  

[HookEm 2432]

24 minutes ago, deac_tracy said:

With regards to Mammoth Cave, I recommend reserving your cave tickets online because they do sell out. Also, important to note that Mammoth Cave is in Central Time Zone while Lexington/Louisville are in Eastern so plan accordingly.

 

Oh shit. Good catch.  I thought Kentucky was all Central. 

 

12 minutes ago, T’Boo Ted Marshall said:

Uber might get pricey.  They are not close to each other.  

Cheaper than a DUI!  Honestly thought I have no idea if Bardstown even has Ubers. 

[HookEm 2432]

Just checked. Looks like Uber from Fairfield Inn (where we are staying) to Willett is $12.  And $10 from Willett to Bardstown Bourbon.  Not terrible.

[pantone159 710]

As far as Mammoth Cave NP goes: I liked the River Styx tour the best of the ones that I did. It had an interesting variety of terrain and things, including some slightly squeezy passages. After doing that tour, I hiked down the River Styx Spring trail (this is above ground), which goes down to where the underground River Styx comes out, then hiked up another trail, the Green River Bluffs trail. I thought these made a cool combination of stuff.

The day before I had done the Grand Avenue Tour. This was one of the longest tours through the cave system, but most of this was not all that interesting. (There are not many formations inside the dry cave.) The best part of it was the Frozen Niagara room, at the very end of this tour, which had by far the best cave formations. I think that you can see this one room from a much shorter tour than the Grand Avenue.

 

[Underdog 28120]

Try the fried chicken, hear it’s finger lickin’ good. 

[thrillhammer 680]

i would not recommend the uber.  if you fly into nashville, rent a car and you are free to design your own tour.   drinking too much is easy to avoid.  the roads are narrow and curvy and have lots of tourists on them.  just stay moderately sober/slightly inebriated, sample an oldfashioned here and there, sample some tastings, enjoy your time there.  i just like the freedom of having your own car and being able to hit an extra distillery if youre up for it, skipping one if youre not, etc.

the other option is you will see a ton of tourist shuttle vans in every distillery parking lot, dropping people off, picking people up, taking them to the next stop.  bourbon boys, bourbon bros, just google it and you will find plenty of options to shuttle you around.  those people seem to be having a good time. dont know anything about the cost, or the flexibiliity, but thats what the internet is for.

[Carl Spackler 3456]

2 hours ago, deac_tracy said:

Also, important to note that Mammoth Cave is in Central Time Zone while Lexington/Louisville are in Eastern so plan accordingly.

 

Reminded me of the Marvin Barnes (legendarily crazy ABA player) "I ain't gettin' in no time machine" story.  Google it.

For those of you who have been to Mammoth Cave, is one day sufficient to see the highlights?

 

[HookEm 2432]

i would not recommend the uber.  if you fly into nashville, rent a car and you are free to design your own tour.   

Yeah we are for sure renting a car. The only time I would use an Uber is within a town. We honestly love driving. I’m looking forward to hitting the road in Kentucky. I love being able to stop whenever and wherever I want.

[BigDHornfan 6508]

On 6/5/2024 at 11:43 AM, HookEm said:

I originally posted this in the Bourbon thread, but I think this topic deserves a dedicated thread.  I'm headed to Kentucky with my wife in a couple of weeks to drive around and see some distilleries.

We driving up from Nashville early on a Saturday morning and spending 3 nights overall.  First night will be in Bardstown. We plan to hit Maker's Mark on the way and then probably Bardstown distilling.  

On Sunday, we will likely start the day at one of the Bardstown distilleries (probably Willett). Heaven Hill is another possibility.  Then we will make our way up to Lexington, with a detour at either Four Roses or Wild Turkey.  We are staying in downtown Lexington at the Hyatt Regency on Sunday and Monday nights.

On Monday, the plan is to take a day trip to Frankfort to hit Buffalo Trace.  We may also stop by Woodford Reserve on the way back if we are up for it.

On Tuesday, we are driving back to Nashville for a late flight out.  On the way there, we may stop by Abraham Lincoln's birthplace or Mammoth Caves National Park if we have enough time.  

Let me know if you have restaurant or distillery suggestions for Bardstown, Lexington or anywhere in between.  I'll post pics after the trip.

Like I said in the bourbon thread:
Bardstown Bourbon Company is a must stop.  Have lunch there.  food is outstanding. fried chicken is next level. ask to see the library.
Buy a Discovery 11.  it's so damn good.
Lux Row is a good stop and only about 5 minutes from Bardstown Bourbon, just go to the gift shop and pickup a 12 yr double barreled bottle.
Heaven
Woodford should have a good distillery only release.  I think right now it's a toasted double oaked.  
Good choice on going to Willet for a later tour.  
Eat dinner there if possible.  Egg salad sandwich is life changing.  Their bar is outstanding as well.  Purple tops for days.

If you aren't doing a tour at Maker's, I would skip it unless you want to do the dip your own bottle thing.  

Whiskey Row in Louisville is a must.  
Hit Michter's and Old Forester for sure.

hit me up if you have any questions.
 

[Buzzrock 14779]

I know you said you are staying in Lexington but Louisville is 30 mins away and has Old Forester and Evan Willams tasting rooms as well as the Angels Envy and Rabbit Hole distilleries all pretty close to each other.

Of BT, MM, Willett, Woodford, and Heaven Hill I probably liked Willett the least. I just don’t like much of their stuff.

[HookEm 2432]

Just got back from the Kentucky trip. It was a great time.  I'll try to document what we did here...

Saturday - Got an early flight from Austin direct to Nashville.  We landed at 8:30 AM and drove up to Bardstown (~2 hour easy drive).

We stopped at Lincoln's birthplace, which is worth the 10 minute detour, but not much more than that.  Just stayed long enough to stretch our legs.

It was around lunchtime, so the first stop was Bardstown Bourbon Company. We got a spot on the patio and had lunch and a cocktail.  Unfortunately we didn't have time for much more than that.  The place is modern and beautiful. If I did it again, I would do a tour there and then one of the older places like Buffalo Trace to see the difference between old and new.  The main dining room was huge, open and beautiful.  I would make reservations, especially on a Saturday.

From there, we went to Willett and took a tour.  They were generous with the tastings and we were feeling good by the end.  They mainly focused on the distilling end of the operation.  After the tour we went upstairs to the Willett bar and had a couple of cocktails and apps. Got the Egg Salad sandwich of course. 

 

Luckily, in Bardstown they were having their ~20th annual street fair.  They had blocked off downtown and had a big stage with some very solid bands.  It was a great way to spend the evening. Bardstown downtown has a few nice bars that would have been a good choice otherwise.  If we ever go back, we will probably just stay the whole time at Bardstown and take day trips to the distilleries.  

Dinner was a couple of charcoal cooked hot dogs and cold beers at the street fair.  Nothing says "America" quite like a small town street festival.

[Aqua Buddha 14107]

Lexington is a nice but odd town.  If you're not there for bourbon or horses, there is literally nothing to do.  Cute town otherwise, though.

We were disappointed in the on campus talent, though.  While driving around, even my wife said "Damn.  I thought there were supposed to be SEC?"

Look forward to the road games there, though.

[4th&Five 41111]

We did Kentucky for our annual football trip last year and it wouldn't make the cut for a return trip even for a Texas game.

[HookEm 2432]

On Sunday we got up and went downtown.  We had breakfast at Pat's Place, which was a solid main street diner with typical eggs and hash browns type breakfast. 

Since it was a Sunday (and Father's Day), we didn't have a chance to get to Heaven's Hill (which opened late) or Lux Row (which was closed on Sundays).  We took a scenic route up HW 62 and got to Four Roses right as it was opening.

Four Roses has built a beautiful new visitors center. We stopped in and got a couple of drinks and also bought a bottle of Single Barrel and had it engraved for Father's Day.

It is a short drive from Four Roses to Wild Turkey, where we went next.  Wild Turkey has probably the prettiest visitors center with the best view of all the places we went.   It is really a stunning place.  The pictures don't do justice to the views.  

When we were there, Jimmy Russell (60+ year master distiller for Wild Turkey) was there talking to people and signing stuff at the entry.  In retrospect, I should have bought a Russel's Reserve Single Barrel Select or something and had him sign it.

It was a short, beautiful drive from there to Lexington. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency, mainly because it was only 8K Hyatt Points.  It is right next to Rupp Arena and the area is pretty meh.   

That night, we ate dinner at Carson's Food and Drink and it was tremendous.  We got out of there for ~$120 including a few cocktails, which were fantastic.  It was so good, we almost ate there again on Monday night.  Highly recommend.

[HookEm 2432]

On Monday, we got up early and went to Keeneland for a tour of the track and to watch the horses training.  The area is beautiful and it is really awesome to watch the horses train.  You can get some coffee and just go in and watch them for free from like 6-10 AM.  It is a great way to spend an hour in the morning.

From there we took the incredibly scenic route up Old Frankfort Pike (HW 1681) to Frankfort.  Along the way, we stopped at Wallace Station (which has been on Diners and Dives) for a fantastic grilled pimento cheese sandwich. Highly recommend.

 

From there we went to Buffalo Trace. We didn't have a reservation for a tour, but it was no problem on a Monday afternoon.  First, the scale of the place and history puts all the other distilleries we visited to shame.  The tour was awesome and really focused on the process from Barreling all the way to bottling.  We got to see them breaking open some Weller 12 bottles and also bottling some Blantons and it smelled like we were inside a whisky glass.  Just awesome.

Every day they rotate between allocated bottles available for purchase and Blanton's was on sale during our visit - but you are limited to one bottle. 

From there we drove over to Woodford Reserve, which is a beautiful property.  Castle and Key is on the way and also a really beautiful place, but it was closed on Mondays.

That night we ate at OBC Kitchen, which was really good and had probably the most extensive bourbon collection I have ever seen.  

 

[HookEm 2432]

On Tuesday, we made the fairly long trip back to Nashville.  We had a late flight, so it gave us a chance to stop at Mammoth Cave National Park.  We took the "Domes and Dripstones" tour, which takes you down a sinkhole into the cave system.  Unfortunately, the "Historic Tour" was sold out already by the time we booked on Monday.

If you go, you are able to do a "self guided" tour of the first 3 rooms via the original entrance. By the time we figured that out, we had to leave to go to the airport and missed out.

Mammoth Cave isn't a national park that I would set as a destination, but it is definitely worth spending a couple of hours if you are in the area. Plus it is ~55 degrees down in the caves and makes for a nice escape from the summer heat.

The trip overall was great.  I actually liked that we flew into Nashville since it was a cheap direct flight and you have to drive to get to the distilleries anyway. I don't know that I would stay in Lexington again, unless UT was playing UK in basketball or something.  It also might be fun to go back to Keeneland for the races in October/November.  But Lexington itself was kinda sketchy in places and was pretty underwhelming as a college town.  

I think you are better off staying in Bardstown or one of the other small towns in an Inn or AirBnB.

[Texas St. Armadillos 1368]

We mixed in a smaller distillery, Limestone.  Run by a Beam descendant.  They make the Yellowstone bourbon.  Cool little place.

Tip:  they also make a fantastic gin there.

[Underdog 28120]

Appreciate the pics, brings a bit of a tear to my eyes.  Lived down the road from WT and you could smell it on some mornings but this mofo was a white-knuckler to drive across come winter time...