Kentucky Bourbon Trail - Day Two
No retreat, no surrender! Our second full day in Kentucky was a Sunday, so about half of the distilleries in the area were closed. However, we didn't have anything else to do -- and an unseasonable heat wave that pushed temperatures up well over 90 degrees foreclosed other forms of outdoor fun like a potential trip to the Bernheim Arboretum. We chose to visit two of the Bardstown-adjacent bourbon makers who operate seven days a week: Maker's Mark and the Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center.
Maker's Mark Tour
The iconic stained glass ceiling at Maker's Mark's gift shop
Maker's Mark basic tours are a little pricier than the average among the big distilleries ($14 a person), but they are worth every penny. The campus here probably was the most charming and idyllic setting imaginable, almost too much so. It felt at times like a Disneyland of whisky (unlike most American distilleries, they spell it in the Scottish style to honor the founding family's ancestry): rustic dark brown log cabins with red shutters and old-fashioned accents abounded, making it appear like a Wild West town devoted to bourbon.
Unfortunately, since we came on a Sunday, we weren't able to take some of the more elaborate and probably A+ tours that the distillery offers. A few times a month, it sounds like Bill Samuels himself, the family patriarch, takes visitors around the grounds, which would have been a sight to behold.
Nonetheless, the basic tour was one of the most picturesque and engaging on the bourbon trail. See for yourself:
A personal highlight for us was the chance to meet Whisky Jean Samuels, the adorable distillery cat who resides here year-round (@whiskyjeansamuels on Instagram, somehow she only has 423 followers!). We found Whisky Jean sunbathing in the mid-day heat close to a few rocking chairs, and snapped a surreptitious picture that hopefully didn't disrupt her rest.
The tour moved at a brisk pace and kept things interesting, while also providing some informative insight into what distinguished Maker's Mark's whisky. Small stills, its wheated mash bill, and the deliberately analog hand bottling were among the most notable distinctions. The tour concluded in the tasting rooms with a full lineup of every Maker's Mark product in the current lineup, including their white-dog (i.e., unaged grain alcohol), standard Maker's Mark, Maker's 46, Maker's Mark Cask Strength, and a Maker's Mark Private Selection available exclusively at the gift shop.
Maker's Mark Cask Strength (55.8% ABV) - This is exactly what it sounds like: Maker's Mark, undiluted with water. One of the unique features of Maker's Mark is that they barrel their whiskey at a relatively low ABV -- bourbon often goes into the barrel in the 60-plus percent range -- and so their "cask strength" juice is not going to blow your face open in quite the same way that an Elijah Craig Barrel Proof (regularly 65%+) will. Maker's Mark Cask Strength generally weighs in at a svelte 55% or so, which is a near-ideal proof point. Oddly enough, although I'm not the biggest fan of the baseline Maker's Mark because it sometimes has a strong ethanol aroma, that spirit-like character is less evident in this much more potent version. Instead, a pure hit of vanilla greets the nose, along with cherries. The latter is a signature wheated bourbon note, so it's unsurprisingly strong here. The palate is more of the same, along with a prickle of cinnamon spice that's partially from the bite of the higher proof. In a shocker of the year, this bourbon tastes a lot like Maker's Mark -- just better. The pricing on this bottle seems to vary widely from place to place, but it's a fair value anywhere in the $50-60 range. B+ Maker's Mark Private Select Tasting Panel (55.5%) - This expression represents the pinnacle of the distillery's quality and recent creativity. Without delving into a really long explanation, the Maker's Mark Private Select program is a cask-strength variant on its Maker's Mark 46 line. They make all of these whiskies by giving standard Maker's Mark an additional 9 months or so of aging in a second barrel that contains ten additional staves (think long wooden slats placed in the center of the barrel). Depending on the types of staves, different flavor combinations should emerge. Because there are five types of staves and ten staves per barrel, there are over 1,000 possible combinations. This one has a lot of staves that are supposed to add brown sugar, spice, and "dark coffee richness." Before reading the recipe, my first two notes on this were cappuccino and butterscotch, so I'm feeling my oats now! This is a really nice bourbon because of those atypical, creamy, or rich notes, which often don't show up in wheat-recipe bourbons. The signature Maker's Mark notes are all still here, like cinnamon, vanilla, and cherry, but they whisper in and out in harmony with other flavors. I'm really pleased with this one. A-
After the tour and a hearty lunch at Star Hill Provisions, the distillery's on-site restaurant, we returned to the gift shop to get a souvenir bottle. There are three available at the distillery. The first is the Tasting Panel selection. The second honors Bill Samuels and bears his name; the whiskey effectively is a barrel-proof version of Maker's 46, so sure to please fans of that expression. The final one was a bottle offered at Star Hill Provisions and also in the gift shop, that featured alluringly spicy notes, and which we chose to buy. One of the highlights of the Maker's Mark experience is that, if you buy a bottle at the shop, you get to hand-dip it yourself in the iconic red wax!
During our tour, we also happened to meet a friendly group of Louisianan bikers who we ran into several more times for the rest of the week while we ended up hitting up the same distilleries!
Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center
Heaven Hill currently is in the process of revamping their flagship visitor center, known as the Bourbon Heritage Center, just minutes outside of Bardstown. I cheated a little by including a picture from our trip in September 2018 above, when the whole place looked a lot prettier. Right now, it's more of a "pardon our dust" situation.
Heaven Hill is riding high right now because one of its bourbons, Henry McKenna 10 Single Barrel, just won a massive award: World Whiskey of the Year at the San Francisco Spirits Competition. Last year, before the big victory, it was a universally available bourbon that went for about $35 - $40 in most liquor stores. It also was part of the tasting at both Evan Williams and the Heritage Center. This year, it's rare to even get a glimpse of it, much less at a reasonable price. While the bars still seem to be pouring it for a very reasonable $10 or so, the two liquor stores I saw were trying to extract $85 and $60 for a bottle -- pretty stunning how the whiskey world can change in six to eight months. Surprise, surprise, it did not make it into the distillery's visitor's offerings.
That didn't diminish our enjoyment of the "connoisseur's tasting," however. Compared to the standard $10 tasting and a $15 bottled in bond flight, this $20 mini-splurge gives you a chance to try the most expensive bottle on sale at the center, the (just a little outrageous) $250 William Heavenhill.
Bernheim Original Wheat Whiskey (45%) - In a world where age statements are becoming increasingly scarce, Heaven Hill sticks to solid numbers for many of their whiskies. This one is a 7-year product. Notice how I haven't called it a bourbon? It's not. It's a whiskey composed largely of wheat, breaking the rule that bourbon must be 51% corn. To its credit, that big change in mash bill produces a dramatic difference in its flavors. It's incredibly sweet and filled with "high-register" flavors, if that makes any sense. It's almost icy in its profile, with a chilled citrus flavor that's reminiscent of orange popsicles and ice cream. The age comes through in a wood-cabinet varnish accent that helps give this some tannic grip. There aren't many dark, brooding bourbon flavors here, but it works pretty well. B Elijah Craig Barrel Proof A119 (67.6%) - Back in the day (to be fair, meaning just three or four years ago), there were a few batches of this seasonal release that weighed in very close to 70% ABV, which is so high it's almost unbearable. We tried one of these mashers, from 2016, and it was tough to chew through at times, although very rewarding on some (tiny) sips. This early 2019 release is the strongest Elijah Craig Barrel Proof to come out in years, but it's much better balanced and quite an accomplishment. If there are two immutable characteristics in every Elijah Craig, it's a heavy-metal chord of vanilla and a lumberyard worth of oak. That's exactly what we're dealing with here, along with bushels of black cherries, sweet tea, and sage. This is more of a dessert dram than recent releases, with a little less char and smoke, but these differences are marginal between batches at a certain point. Elijah Craig Barrel Proof is instantly recognizable, with a character possessed by no other bourbon that I've encountered. It's also my favorite bourbon, bar none, and this one just further confirms it. A William Heavenhill 7th Edition (67.2%) - This is one of those expressions that'd be very hard to explain to an outsider unfamiliar with the extravagant, skyrocketing prices of the hobby and increasingly byzantine distinctions between different bourbons from the same distillery. This costs $250. It's 12 years old. Yesterday, I complained about Evan Williams 12 costing $129, but this takes it to the next level. Again, compare it to the immediately preceding Elijah Craig Barrel Proof. Both have the same age statement, come from the same distillery stock, and these are separated by less than a single proof point. And the Elijah Craig Barrel Proof costs $75-80. With all that being said . . . I have to give some credit to these guys because Heavenhill is a stunning dram. On the nose: fresh florals, heady perfumes, ripe plums, and blackberry pie. Each sip combines those Elijah Craig flavors of cherry and dry oak, but there's also so much hazelnut and chocolate in its profile that the lawyers at Nutella need to think about suing. The tannins are so powerful that this bourbon almost glues my teeth to my lips. That extra Nutella note is what distinguishes this from the lesser expressions in Heaven Hill's lineup. Is that worth a $170 premium? Not for us, but to each their own. A-
Until tomorrow!