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Good bourbon

Who has done the Bourbon Trail?

My Maker's Mark Ambassador Club barrel is ready, so I'm probably going to throw together a family trip for me to get drunk across Kentucky. Where else are must-see distilleries? I'm assuming I can piece together visits/tours rather than booking some official Bourbon Trail tour?
 
dot com said:
Who has done the Bourbon Trail?

My Maker's Mark Ambassador Club barrel is ready, so I'm probably going to throw together a family trip for me to get drunk across Kentucky. Where else are must-see distilleries? I'm assuming I can piece together visits/tours rather than booking some official Bourbon Trail tour?
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Went last summer. My favorites were Beam (to see the scale; also the best tour), Willett (best small distillery), and Makers. Did Buffalo Trace a few years back and that is also a great one. Most disappointing was Wild Turkey, the tour flat-out sucked. Four Roses was under construction so not a real tour. Heaven Hill was cool for a quick stop, did not do a tour (they don't distill on-site anyway). Woodford had the prettiest drive to get to; we didn't do the tour. It is the snootiest of all of them based on cars in parking lot (lot of BMWs) so fits right in from a Wake perspective.

Be sure to plan and reserve well ahead of time as best tours sell out well in advance (esp Buffalo Trace). We did 3 tours + one stop (non-tour) per day,
 
Dillon Fence said:
Went last summer. My favorites were Beam (to see the scale; also the best tour), Willett (best small distillery), and Makers. Did Buffalo Trace a few years back and that is also a great one. Most disappointing was Wild Turkey, the tour flat-out sucked. Four Roses was under construction so not a real tour. Heaven Hill was cool for a quick stop, did not do a tour (they don't distill on-site anyway). Woodford had the prettiest drive to get to; we didn't do the tour. It is the snootiest of all of them based on cars in parking lot (lot of BMWs) so fits right in from a Wake perspective.

Be sure to plan and reserve well ahead of time as best tours sell out well in advance (esp Buffalo Trace). We did 3 tours + one stop (non-tour) per day,
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I did a similar experience and would agree that this is a great way to proceed. We did schedule a tasting/seminar at Heaven Hill which was cool because they broke out some of the high end bottles which were fantastic and it was a blast to enjoy those. We had the last tasting of the day so our group stayed behind a bit to shoot the shit with the guy that led it and got a few extra pours which was awesome. Dipping your own bottle at Makers is cool, so make time to do that.

I did the Woodford tour; the main guest building reminded me more of being in Napa than Kentucky, but the tour was nice enough. Absolutely stunning grounds - maybe the most scenic of all the places listed.
 
I did it a few years back and we were able to do Makers, Jim Beam, Heaven Hill and Bulleit in one day with time to spare. I liked the tour at Makers and the tasting experience there was pretty good. Heaven Hill, as someone else mentioned, is cool because for a relatively small price (I think it was around $25) you could taste some very rare, very expensive bottles that you won't ever even see on the shelves in NC.
 
Did a tasting at High West in Park City on Monday before flying out. Their American Prairie Bourbon is solid. I guess their flagship is their Rendezvous Rye which I really enjoyed, and I'm not usually that much of a Rye guy. Didn't like the Double Rye as much.

And they claim their Campfire is the only blend of scotch, bourbon, and rye out there. Super smoky and does indeed taste like a campfire, but I liked it more than I thought I would. It's weird they won't tell you how old their whiskeys are.
 
I bet there is so much cheating with regard to aging and additives in bourbon, given the crazy demand. I wonder who the worst culprit is. Probably something I love lol.
 
dot com said:
Who has done the Bourbon Trail?

My Maker's Mark Ambassador Club barrel is ready, so I'm probably going to throw together a family trip for me to get drunk across Kentucky. Where else are must-see distilleries? I'm assuming I can piece together visits/tours rather than booking some official Bourbon Trail tour?
Click to expand...


Did the Bourbon Trail for my bachelors party back in 2011. Granted I didn't go with family, but we paid to have someone drive us around in a small bus. That made it so much easier and we all got to see the beautiful countryside on the way between the distilleries.

Our bottles are also ready, and we're going to have to get up there before the end of March. We're thinking about flying into Louisville or Lexington, picking up the bottles and hitting Mammoth Cave National Park while we're up there.
 
tigerswood said:
Did a tasting at High West in Park City on Monday before flying out. Their American Prairie Bourbon is solid. I guess their flagship is their Rendezvous Rye which I really enjoyed, and I'm not usually that much of a Rye guy. Didn't like the Double Rye as much.

And they claim their Campfire is the only blend of scotch, bourbon, and rye out there. Super smoky and does indeed taste like a campfire, but I liked it more than I thought I would. It's weird they won't tell you how old their whiskeys are.
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Isn't most of their product sourced from MGD? I thought they were just sourcing and maybe blending a little bit of their own rye into things.
 
Their rendezvous and double rye labels stated their components at least the last time I looked at a label. Something like 2 year old MGP and 16 year old Barton in the double rye and 6 yr MGP/16 yr Barton in the rendezvous. I remember reading somewhere that the founder got a great deal on that aged rye back before the bourbon/rye boom kicked in because no one really wanted the stuff at the time.
 
Yeah templeton had a lawsuit or something for their shadiness. I think any of the brands from the real distilleries are fine. Those small brands who are supposedly cooking up great grandpappy’s top secret family recipe of 95% rye mash, or are magically selling 10 year old bourbon from a company just invented? Yeah no they’re buying from MGP.
 
I don’t care if high west is blending their whiskey if it tastes good. When I leave for work tomorrow the temp with wind chill will be -51. A midwinter night dram feels appropriate tonight.
 
Good news - bad news. Good news is my local wine/liquor/food place told me they just lucked into 4 cases of Old Weller Antique 107. Bad news is they are asking $90 a bottle. I think I would rather spend $90 on a Scotch or something like Red Breast cask strength. Or on two and a half bottles of something like Four Roses Single Barrel.
 
Yuck that’s absurd. If I had to spend $90 it’d be on two FRSB cask strength store picks.
 
Bubble Boy said:
Good news - bad news. Good news is my local wine/liquor/food place told me they just lucked into 4 cases of Old Weller Antique 107. Bad news is they are asking $90 a bottle. I think I would rather spend $90 on a Scotch or something like Red Breast cask strength. Or on two and a half bottles of something like Four Roses Single Barrel.
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i dont blame them for charging them what the market will bear...but I sure as hell wouldn't buy it at even half that. only nice thing about NC, if they get it, you will pay MSRP.
 
Dillon Fence said:
i dont blame them for charging them what the market will bear...but I sure as hell wouldn't buy it at even half that. only nice thing about NC, if they get it, you will pay MSRP.
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What is MSRP? Somewhere between 25-30?
 
06deacon said:
Yuck that’s absurd. If I had to spend $90 it’d be on two FRSB cask strength store picks.
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Fo sho

Russell's reserve barrel picks might be my favorite buy in bourbon right now
 
After having little kids and moving farther away from the SC border stores my bourbon shopping/hunting is basically nonexistent. So since I no longer have the patience or ability, on my semi annual trips there I’m getting store single barrel picks and relying on the N.C. ABCs for standby BIBs like McKenna or EW white label that are guaranteed to be in stock. Ain’t nobody got time for this.
 
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