October 27-29, 2009 The Smokey Mountains to the Bourbon Trail
Tuesday morning we drove through the most beautiful display of fall colors that either one of us have ever seen. This “leaf peeping” was what we had thought we might see up in New England, but we were there a bit early for their leaf display. It was nice surprise and wonderful drive. We stopped for the night in Corbin, Kentucky; this is the home of Colonel Harland Sanders of the “Kentucky Fried Chicken” fame.
Wednesday morning we headed to Lexington where we set ourselves out to travel the infamous “bourbon trail”. Our first stop was at the Buffalo Trace Distillery. We had a great tour of the plant with a very informative and entertaining tour guide, Freddie. He is a 3rd generation employee, his grandfather worked for 50+ years and his dad for 42 years. We learned a lot about whiskey making and bourbon in particular. The tour was followed by a tasting of the product – pretty darn good. To be a called a bourbon it must be: made of at least 51% corn (the rest rye or wheat and malted barley), aged for at least 2 years in a virgin charred white oak barrel, use no artificial ingredients to color or flavor the elixir and must be made in the USA. 95% of bourbon is made in this region of Kentucky because of the water that becomes just right for distilling by flowing through the ever- present limestone in this area.
We then had bourbon tour # 2 at Woodford Reserve. This was smaller distillery that was a bit more stogy, they charged (only $5.), wouldn’t allow photographs on the tour and were quite secretive about the process /recipe of their brew. The tasting was good, Karen thinks she really does like bourbon; Mike was already a big supporter.
Thursday morning we set out bright and early to get to the next 5 distilleries on our list. This was quite a long day as they are located quite a few miles apart. We covered at least 200 miles over the last two days of tastings. Stop number one was at the Four Roses Plant. This bourbon was produced by Seagram’s for many years, was not a very good one at that. In 1992 Kirin the Japanese Beer producer bought it and changed the recipe and emphasis to high quality bourbon. We had a very personal tour, just the two of us plus Katie our guide. We were able to walk all over this small plant, take pictures and really see the process. The tasting was great also; we were sipping bourbon at about 10:30am. The next stop was Wild Turkey; we missed the tour, so we visited the gift shop and purchased a glass and small bottle of their spirits. Tom Moore was next on the route; they were not able to work us in, because their tours are small. We moved on to Heaven Hill for another nice tour, with new and different information about the making of this magical tonic. We had a very informative tasting with information on how to smell, taste and compare their 8 year and 16 year old bourbon. The 16 year old was very smooth and GOOD. We ended the day at the Maker’s Mark Distillery. This was another great tour and good tasting. Their bourbon is made with red winter wheat instead of rye, so the taste is a bit different. Another interesting thing about M.M. is that they only make one type of bourbon, all small batches, all aged until the distillery master says it time to be bottle. Of course we got to watch them dip the bottles in the red wax. We also dipped a bottle of our own in the gift shop. Oh my, what a fun day. We were short one last distillery – Jim Beam. Tomorrow is another day.