Day13 - Just in time for the Bourbon Festival
Today is Bourbon Trail. Starting at 7.45 we get collected from the Hotel and taken straight to the Wild Turkey Distillery for a 9am Gift Shop perusal tour. We aren't doing the tour as it doesn't start until 10 (that's what we told....), but this is a good starting place for the day's tour.
There is also an unfortunate video of me attempting to mount this poor turkey... http://youtu.be/v1-NRUhvfPE.
At 10am we have arrived at Bulleit Bourbon Distillery. This is the regions newest distillery (it is reusing an old distillery that hasn't been used for many years. The newly renovated buildings only opened to the public 3 days ago. How lucky was that!!
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| The Coopers House as it was left 30 years earlier... |
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| Tom Bulleit shares his office with visitors and takes time to share his story if he's around during the tour... |
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| The newly renovated visitor centre |
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| This is the old distillery stack, before being taken over by Bulleit |
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| The original distillery on the new Bulleit site |
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| One of the small batch bourbons from the old distillery |
Of course, not going to KFC when in Kentucky would be sacrilege... So we went...
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| When in Rome... |
Jim Beam is actually home to many smaller name distillers in the region and including Bookers. They might be owned by Beam, but they are special and very different to white label Jim Beam that most people know. Did you know that Australia is the largest export destination for Jim Beam? Yep, it's true!!
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| Some of the small batch bourbons produced by Jim Beam Distilleries |
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| The two outside bourbons.... yum!!! Not your average bourbon... |
Our final destination for the day is Makers Mark; and my favourite. Check it out here... https://www.makersmark.com/sections/3-our-story. This place is a long way from anywhere. It's hidden away in a sleep hollow and it's easy to get lost finding it.
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| Low wine on the right, High wine on the left... the high wine is also known as the white dog - its the pure spirit with bite!! |
The tour provided by the Makers Mark distillery was the best by far. Courtney did a great job. It allows photos to be taken throughout the distillery and the tour guide was interesting, passionate and knowledgeable.
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| The barrel hold |
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| Hand dipping the bottles into the signature hot wax. |
For my birthday the boys got me a bottle of my choice which I was able to wax myself... Video link: http://youtu.be/_33Os9zHYnY
The tasting was a blast. It finished with tasting a cask strength version under the blown glass artwork shown below or on the video link: https://www.makersmark.com/sections/390-the-spirit-of-the-maker-an-installation-by-renowned-artist-dale-chihuly
One of the highlights of the tour was meeting the man himself, Bill Samuels. He introduced himself to us as he heard he had some Aussies on the tour (thanks to Michael our driver and another person we met inside prior to the tour).
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| From left: Gracey, Paul, Turtl, Bill Samuels, Andy in the Makers Mark Gift Shop |
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