Kentucky Bourbon Trail - Day One
For some reason, whenever we take a road trip through Kentucky, I become obsessed with playing John Denver's "Country Roads" on repeat in the car. Yes, it's about West Virginia. But it's just a damn good country song.
My wife and I had a three-day, ten-distillery blitz through Kentucky last week. We actually took a similar road trip through the state last year, but I never got around to writing it up. I'm trying to make amends by doing full travel diaries this time, along with remembering the dozens of bourbons and whiskies that we tried along the way!
Evan Williams Bourbon Experience - Speakeasy Tour
For $20 a person, this is one of the quickest and most entertaining beginnings to a trip on the bourbon trail. A guide takes you down to the basement, where a member of the party receives a special "code word" and then knocks on a bank-vault-esque door to enter the "secret" bar.
Once inside, an old-timey bartender recites tall tales from the olden days of bourbon, mixing in some education about the origins of the whiskey and its famous founding fathers (Evan Williams, Elijah Craig, etc.) with some pours of whiskey. The entire tasting takes about half an hour and showcases four whiskies: Pikesville Rye (review forthcoming since we got a bottle), Evan Williams Bottled in Bond, Evan Williams 12-Year Old, and Elijah Craig Barrel Proof.
Evan Williams Bottled in Bond (50% ABV) - This bottle is one of the best value picks or bottom-shelf standouts in the market. That being said, it's still a $15 bottle so, at the end of the day, punching above its weight class means that it drinks more like a $20-30 bottle rather than Kentucky's finest. Evan Williams releases are good "teaching bourbons" in the sense that they can introduce newcomers into some of the basic bourbon flavors. This one features a light, creamy vanilla, a small helping of caramel, and some light honey and spice reminiscent of Four Roses Small Batch. For a 50% ABV whiskey, it has a lickety-split finish. To be honest, if I'd known about this in college, I would have had it all the time. But, happily, I can extend the liquor budget a little further nowadays. B-
Evan Williams 12-Year Old (50.5%) - The flavor notes on this one are pretty simple because it is a classic exemplar of the sweet side of the bourbon spectrum: vanilla, Hershey's chocolate sauce, spice, and cherry cola. It's pleasurable, if not overly complex. Its profile feels younger than expected, with relatively little oak. But, holy crap, they sell this bourbon for $125 (or was it $129?). That is a lot of money for a bourbon that isn't a limited annual release or special edition. Actually, that's a lot of money for any bourbon. Spoiler: I don't think it's worth it. It's a very solid bourbon, but the price just blows my mind. This same distillery, Heaven Hill, releases its powerhouse Elijah Craig Barrel Proof, also with a 12-year age statement, for about $70 to $80. It's stellar. Until a few months ago, its 10-year Henry McKenna Single Barrel was widely available for $40 (then it won Whiskey of the Year and became impossible to find). McKenna's not quite in my wheelhouse, but it's an impressive and award-winning bottle. What makes this one worth the premium, aside from the artificial scarcity produced by selling it only at the Evan Williams Experience? To add some bizarre insult to injury, Heaven Hill apparently exports this to Japan and sells it for $30 over there. Go figure. B-
Old Forester Distillery - George's Bar
No time to waste, on to distillery No. 2. Old Forester has a gorgeous state-of-the-art visitor's center and distillery facility right in the heart of downtown Louisville, about a 10-minute walk from the Evan Williams space. We chose not to take a tour ($20 a person) due to time constraints, but we wanted to grab a flight at their brand-new bar on site. There, the distillery sold drink tickets for $14 apiece, which entitled us to either a cocktail or a three-pour flight selected from seven or eight available Old Forester expressions. We chose to go for a flight of two bourbons that we've had before (the spectacular Old Forester 1920 and the solid Old Forester Statesman), along with one of the most affordable options in the distillery's lineup. Great value for a flight. Oh, and did I mention free caramel popcorn?
Old Forester 100 Proof (50%) - This was one of the most pleasant surprises of our entire trip. Old Forester 100 Proof is a very affordable bourbon, going for as little as $20 in some places and widely available for under $25 -- right around, if not slightly under, the price point of Wild Turkey 101. To be honest, it may have supplanted Wild Turkey 101 as my favorite bourbon at this price point. Although Old Forester bottles its bourbons at a younger age than most distilleries (even its more expensive expressions may be 5 or 6 years old), they taste almost double that age, with loads of brown sugar, rich, slightly oily cornbread, sweet buttered corn, and a healthy dollop of spice. B+
Old Forester Statesman (47.5%) - I wrote a review that barely counted as a review the last time I tasted this bourbon, at the end of a long night of New Year's Eve revelry in 2018. At the distillery, I managed to make a few more notes on its character, which is fairly unique among the darker, richer, chocolate-leaning bourbons of the Old Forester lineup. In contrast, Statesman emphasizes the high-rye mash bill with loads of toasted grain, spice, and citrus fruit tartness. On the sweeter end of the spectrum, marshmallow and sheet cake frosting lent this bourbon a childhood nostalgia quality. I could see this being a great bourbon for cocktail drinkers, as it almost has some Old Fashioned character in it without mixing. B
Bulleit Frontier Whiskey Experience
Our penultimate stop on our first full day was a trek out to Shelbyville to check out the new kid on the block -- literally opened that week -- Bulleit Frontier Experience. This new tourist center will supplement their existing Stitzel-Weller site that's closer to Louisville, but it seems like they're aspiring to make this the bigger draw in the long term.
Unfortunately for us, we ran into two bits of bad luck. First, we got lost on the way there (the sign is tiny, and it's on a relatively desolate country road, so the entrance is easy to miss and we drove by it two or three times before finding it). Since we arrived 15 minutes late, we literally "missed the bus" -- the tour buses guests to the distillery for the main event. Second, since it was their first week, they didn't have their full tasting bar available yet. The hype is that, once it's fully up and running, the tasting will feature a "multi-sensory" experience including "olfactory balls" (what the . . . ?) and a light and sound show. This seems way over the top for bourbon, but I'd be lying if I said we weren't going to return and see this slightly silly production when it's ready.
Despite our ill fortune, one should never underestimate Midwest hospitality. Although our late arrival was our fault, Bulleit refunded us almost the entire cost of our $20 tickets (less a small convenience fee) and even threw in drink certificates for both of us! Since we missed the tour, I can't comment on it, but this is one of the most beautiful visitor spaces on the bourbon trail, along with one of the largest and most Disney-like gift shops. Again, it seemed a little over the top for my tastes, but it's clearly going to be a big draw. With our drink tickets, we had two drinks at the cocktail bar, including a pour of Bulleit Barrel Strength.
Bulleit Barrel Strength (62.7%) - This is the bourbon to have someone try if they want to understand what bourbon obsessives mean when they endlessly cite "rye spice" as a note. Bulleit sources high-rye bourbons for its entire lineup, and this uncut, undiluted version is the spiciest yet, as if infused with anise, cardamom, fennel, and black pepper. It's also decadently sweet with some good acidity for balance, like an orange marmalade or spiced honey. This is not a particularly old bourbon, so it doesn't feature many oak or wood notes, but it's a winner. Let it sit for a few minutes before sipping, as that heavy alcohol punch needs some time to dissipate. $52 in the gift shop is a great price nowadays for a cask-strength bourbon, so the extra value premium bumps this bottle up in my ratings. A-
Bardstown Bourbon Company
After Bulleit, we immediately carried onward to our fourth consecutive distillery for the day . . . just kidding. Drink in moderation, have lots of water, and take long breaks in between every stop! After taking a detour to grab some dinner and settle into our next hotel, we ended the night by visiting Bardstown Bourbon Co.'s outstanding bar-restaurant, Bottle + Bond. See what they did there?
Along with having a massive skillet of cornbread for dessert, we said "yes" to a few last drams, including my wife insisting on having a pour of Henry McKenna 10 in recognition of its recent Whiskey of the Year award win (still $10 here and widely available in Kentucky bars). The highlight, in addition to the great food, is a small but sleek gift shop that looks like it belongs in the Met or a high-end contemporary art museum rather than on the bourbon trail. While there, check out all the vintage or antique bottles of ancient whiskey on display, including some 80- to 100-year old bottles from the bygone days.
Bardstown Bourbon Fusion Series #1 (49.4%) - The gift shop was providing free samples of the distillery's brand-new "Fusion" release, which melds together some of their first barrels of two-year-old juice (60%) with a much older, sourced 11-year, 7-month old bourbon (40%). The detail level of my notes drops off late in the day, particularly after trying so many excellent whiskies, but I did note that this new release exhibited a surprisingly creamy texture with mature, rich flavors, and a mule kick's worth of rye spice at the tail end. The older bourbon in this release melded beautifully with the youthful, vibrant, barely-there bourbon that makes up the majority of the blend. I liked it a lot! At $60, the price is a little steep, but it offers a chance to try one of the first efforts from one of bourbon country's most promising newcomers. B
New Riff Bottled in Bond (50%) - I may have saved the best for last today. I hadn't heard of New Riff until this year and then, all of a sudden, it was everywhere. Dedicated bourbon fan groups were making sojourns to this northern Kentucky-Cincinnati area distillery to do single barrel picks. These guys have not been around for long and finally reached the critical 4-year age point where they could start releasing their product as a bottled-in-bond bottle. To their tremendous credit, they waited that long to do it and insisted on their basic release being bottled-in-bond. It really pays off. If this is what a 4-year old New Riff tastes like . . . these guys are the Kilchoman of the American whiskey world. There's nothing unusual about it yet, but it's just really good bourbon, with all of the expected caramel, heavy hitting vanilla, and mellow spice that one would expect from their high-rye mash bill. I'm already a fan and looking forward with tremendous excitement to what this distillery can accomplish in the next decade. B+
Thus concludes a whirlwind day on the bourbon tour. I'll be back soon with more tips and reviews!