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April 24, 2009 – GotBourbon.com Bourbon Tour 2009

It was a crisp, beautiful Saturday morning in April. The Derby Festival had begun the week before with Thunder Over Louisville, and many other Derby events had occurred or were happening that weekend. The GotBourbon.com team had been planning this Saturday ever since Christmas Day when each of us opened up the envelope containing a full day Bourbon Tour. Our wives had planned together to get each of us this special gift. So needless to say since that winter day, a lot of planning and thought had gone into this very day and making sure it was a success. It had been a long winter, with the ice storm and many cold days of no sun. Derby, spring and a Bourbon Tour was just what the doctor ordered.  We spent the Friday night before, packing our coolers and gathering our clothes and items for the day. For the rendezvous was a 8:00 am sharp the next morning at one of our houses. There we were on the porch of a house in St. Matthews, on an already sunny Saturday morning, waiting like excited school kids for the bus to come pick us up. Everyone was going over their checklists - sunglasses, cell phones, chap stick, cameras, and of course Bourbon. Each of us had planned to bring one bottle of Bourbon that we had been wanting to try, so that we could have a drink or two in between distilleries.  Our wives had each purchased us a full day Bourbon Tour of three distilleries on the Bourbon Trail, through Mint Julep Tours, a local startup company specializing in Tours of the Bluegrass (Bourbon, Horse Farms, Wine, etc). We had read about them in the paper, so when we found out the tour was through Mint Julep Tours we were excited and anxious to see how it was going to go.  Our particular tour included three full distillery tours and lunch, and obviously transportation. We chose the “East” track and were headed to Buffalo Trace, Four Roses, and Wild Turkey.

9:00 am - Before we knew it a large conversion van pulled into the driveway just as planned. It was perfect, very comfortable with plenty of room and all the necessities of a day long Bourbon Tour. We loaded up our coolers and other belongings and headed out to the Watterson Expressway. Our Tour guide and driver, was none other than the owner of Mint Julep Tours, Sean Higgins. Right away we could tell he was excited as us about Bourbon and loved Bourbon as much as we did. Sean was very knowledgeable of the Bourbon industry, and the 50 minute drive down I-64 went by in no time.  We introduced ourselves and learned some interested Bourbon facts from Sean during the drive. Of course the first flight of Bourbon tasting commenced before we even got out of Jefferson Country.
 
10:00 am – Our first stop was historic Buffalo Trace Distillery, on the banks of the Kentucky River in Frankfort, Kentucky.  A beautiful and expansive campus, right away we were welcomed at the gate and ushered into the gift shop and museum.  Our tour consisted of a walk through the campus, a short movie on Bourbon, a visit inside a rick house, and a visit inside a bottling house.  The tour was led by Freddie , a very friendly and knowledgeable employee of Buffalo Trace.  What impressed us most about this distillery was it’s history and culture, and what it means to the Commonwealth of Kentucky as the oldest continually operating distillery in the country.  Our tour ended with several small tastings at the tasting bar off the side of the gift shop.  Excellent Bourbons to start the morning off.  Then it was off to the van for our next stop. 
 
11:30 am - We set off Southeast from Frankfort on Old Frankfort Pike to have lunch, which was included in the tour, at Wallace Station.   A quaint, old-fashioned deli/eatery tucked away in between the stone fences and horse farms of central Kentucky.   It was one of the best lunches that I have ever had.  I dined on a grilled Kentucky country ham and pimento cheese sandwich.  It hit the spot, on a mild, sunny Kentucky Saturday, in the heart of horse country while on our Bourbon Tour.  We wrapped up lunch and headed to our second distillery of the day, Four Roses. 

 
1:00 pm – Nestled in the rolling hills south of Lawrenceburg, KY, Four Roses Distillery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and has been distilling Bourbon since the 1860s and grew to become the top-selling Bourbon in the U.S. throughout the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s.  Produced at a historic Spanish-mission style distillery in McBrayer, KY.    Our tour was crowded and included some of the same people we met on our Buffalo Trace tour.   Our guide was a petite, gentle, soft-spoken young lady, in her late 60’s or early 70’s.   With her distinct Kentucky accent she greeted the group and started the tour with a short video on Four Roses Bourbon.  Then she led us through the distillery itself, and allowed us to taste the “White Dog” – the clear distilled spirit before it enters the barrel.   What stood out about this distillery was that everything from the buildings to the bottles were very unique and intriguing.  The tour ended with tastings of several Four Rose’s brands.    The sun was high in the sky, the day still beautiful, and we were feeling pretty good at this point.   After some photos, Sean ushered us back to the van where we gathered our thoughts and cooled off with some A/C and Bourbon on the rocks.  Off we went to our next destination. 

 
3:00 pm - We arrived in Tyrone, KY (southeast of Lawrenceburg) from the west to get a spectacular view of the Wild Turkey Distillery, across the Kentucky River.   The distillery sits atop a bluff overlooking the Versailles Rd. bridge and the six floored rick houses seem mammoth on the hillside, compared to the passing cars on the bridge below.    What struck us the most about this distillery was that for the most part not much of the buildings or the facilities have changed since Bourbon was originally distilled on this site by the Ripey family.   What stood out, literally, were the massive six story rick houses dotting the countryside, 23 total with 3 under construction.  That is a lot of Bourbon, and the scale of the whole operation was impressive.  Yet it only takes a handful of people to operate on a day-to-day basis.   Again, we started our tour in the simple, but comfortable gift store, with a short video on Wild Turkey and Bourbon in general.   The tour was somewhat brief because it was a Saturday and much of the operations were not open, but nonetheless very interesting and informative.   We actually had a canine companion that followed us the whole way, and the entire tour seemed very laid back but business as usual.   There were no tasting this day at Wild Turkey, so after the tour ended we retreated to the comfort of the A/C in the Mint Julep Tour van and enjoyed a cocktail as we wrapped up our tour. 
 
5:00 pm – The day ended perfectly, Sean dropped us off at the Galthouse, which is a complementary part of the tour, and we all four had a nice steak dinner (with Bourbon cocktails of course) at Jeff Ruby’s (not part of the tour) but very appropriate given the days events.  We dined and reminisced of our Bourbon Tour ‘09, which was not even a few hours old, and we already were making plans for Bourbon Tour 2010. 
 
Much thanks to Sean and Mint Julep Tours!!  We had a wonderful time and look forward to our next tour with him. 
 
For more information on Mint Julep Tours visit them at www.mintjuleptours.com.