Kentucky Bourbon Trail - Day Three
By day three, we really started hitting our stride. The journey began with a quick 10-minute stop at Barton's 1792 Distillery, which I won't cover in detail since we just dropped by to grab a few boxes of bourbon balls. The real destination, however, was a series of towns outside of Lexington that are home to some of our favorite bourbons.
Four Roses Distillery
On our September 2018 bourbon trail trip, we visited Four Roses' warehouse and bottling facility near Bardstown. This time around, we chose to go to the actual distillery, which is a beautiful, Spanish mission-style complex located in the picturesque country near in Lawrenceburg.
The tour here is $10, but it's free for veterans and law enforcement personnel. Four Roses' tours start off in the gift shop, which is one of the prettiest and largest shops on the trail. We bought a few gifts for family here, including a lovely silk scarf with the distinctive red-roses logo -- undoubtedly the most elegant of all Kentucky distilleries.
The tour itself was quite informative, although the plant is not the most attractive to behold. Even given the industrial-chemical nature of the distillation process, Four Roses was particularly heavy industry in appearance. The stills are surrounded by dozens of pipes and tubes of varying sizes, so it looks more like a 1960s nuclear reactor or science-fiction light speed engine than the stills we saw at our distilleries. Part of the reason for its antiquated appearance is that the distillery is about 100 years old and features some ancient equipment.
The coolest part of the visit was hearing more about the history of Four Roses, some of which I already knew. After being a major brand for much of the 20th century and enjoying its heyday in the mid-century, Four Roses experienced a disastrous decline starting in the 1960s and 1970s when cocktail culture killed off traditional whiskey drinking in the States. The distillery focused on exports during the lean years and only released a bottom-shelf bourbon in America. However, everything transformed when its owner, Seagram's, sold it to the Japanese mega-brewer Kirin. In one of the strange coincidences of fate, the Japanese retained a healthy respect for Four Roses because of the high quality of its exports, and Kirin revived the brand as a high-quality bourbon producer around the turn of the new century. Thanks to Kirin, the distillery has come roaring back in the last 20 years and now produces some of the most delicious and coveted juice in the country.
The tour concluded with a vertical tasting of all four current Four Roses expressions, which I've reviewed before (including earlier this week when I checked off the "fourth rose," Small Batch Select). Rather than reiterating my reviews of those guys, I'll skip ahead a tiny bit and offer my thoughts on three potent Four Roses Private Selections from Beaumont Inn's Old Owl Tavern (bar review forthcoming).
Four Roses Private Selection, OESQ (Unknown ABV) - We tried this Four Roses as part of a four-pour, $18 flight later that night. For whatever reason, Four Roses' bourbons just were not hitting my sweet spot on this entire trip, and this was no exception. It was incredibly dry on the nose, which reminded me of dried parchment, dusty library books, and soil longing for some rain. There were some lightly sweet or creamy dairy notes as well. Its flavors were classic Four Roses, without much surprise: fruit, caramel, butterscotch, and vanilla. The finish was challenging, loaded with spice and intense tip-of-tongue heat, which I described as a "chest warmer" in my notes. B
Four Roses Private Selection, OESO (Unknown) - When I first tried to smell this pour, I thought my nose was broken because so little wafted out of the glass. Everything's faint, oddly so for a well-aged and barrel-proof bourbon. After sitting for 15 minutes or so, I coaxed a few notes of light caramel, oak, almond, and coffee from this reticent dram. The palate was similarly light, with delicate florals, pear or peach, a dilute citrus, and a medicinal lean. Cayenne, paprika, almond, and cognac lingered for some time. B-
Four Roses Private Selection, OESV (Unknown) - This was the final pour of this flight, and shone in comparison to its two oddball siblings. The nose immediately asserted itself with the confidence of age: musk, almost verging on mustiness, rich oak, and butter. Each sip redounded with oily caramel and brown sugar balanced with that oak backbone, and that pleasantly firm oak was also the highlight of the finish. This bottle reminded me a bit of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof with less vanilla. B+
Wild Turkey Distillery
After Four Roses, we made a quick pit stop in Lawrenceburg's Heavens to Betsy! Bakery for lunch. Their reuben sandwich nailed it, and the quirky decor (London phone booth in the middle of the dining room) was highly entertaining as well.
Our next destination was Wild Turkey, where we opted out of taking another tour -- five or six stills in three days is enough for anyone, even a die-hard whiskey lover. Instead, we headed over to their small tasting bar for a chance to try a few of their rarer expressions without being forced to march around for an hour first. They offered a pretty great deal: pours were between $10 and $14, but each one came with the rocks glass. I'd recommend this option rather than going through a tour, unless you haven't had any Wild Turkey before or this is your first stop on the bourbon trail.
We opted for a $12 pour of Russell's Reserve -- which would be that much in almost all bars, without the souvenir glass -- and a $14 pour of W.B. Saffeld, a special edition that I'd never seen before.
W.B. Saffeld (53.5%) - Right off the bat, I adored the artistry of this half-bottle. Contrary to the recent trend of going minimalist and modern in design, the Saffeld label looks more like something from the late 19th century. Saffeld is part of the distillery's "Whiskey Barons" series, which seems to be Wild Turkey's effort to create a limited edition series of bourbons to excite the public in much the same way that Buffalo Trace's accessible products have gotten a halo effect based on coming from the same distillery that releases Pappy Van Winkle. Saffeld is a 2019 release in the line and costs $50 for a 375 ml (i.e., half) bottle, which is an ambitious price point. I'm not sure if it's worth it, and we didn't end up buying a bottle, but it's very different. Some bourbons have a medicinal twinge, but this one was medicinal in the extreme, with scents of heavy barrel char and oak that give way gradually to green tea, caramel, and honey. It tastes similarly unrelenting, with insistently intense caramel, scorched oak, dark fruit, and medicinal strangeness interlacing into unique and sometimes perplexing combinations. I can see why these barrels didn't become Russell's Reserve, the same way some singers are better-suited to be solo acts rather than part of a group. A-
Woodford Reserve
Our final stop on day three was Woodford Reserve, which had one truly unique and memorable feature: a lovely herd of horses!
The current setup at Woodford's campus is a bit odd. They now have two visitor centers, one on each side of the road. The newer one, closer to those gorgeous horses, is the place to go to sign up for tours. However, visitors hop on a shuttle to take them across the street to the other center because it's on the side that houses the distillery and rackhouses. That older visitor center is also the site of the gift shop and the outdoor tasting space. I would expect that the old visitor center would be a little rundown if the distillery built a new one across the street, but the old visitor center actually looks sparkling new. Anyways, we concluded the day with a quick tasting of Woodford Reserve's current lineup and a pecan bourbon chocolate.
Woodford Reserve Double Oaked (45.2%) - Would you believe it, a spirit aged in two different fresh oak barrels picks up a ton of charred wood and dry flavors? This second standard lineup product forms an ideal contrast with Woodford Reserve, which is one of the most fruit-forward bourbons (along with Buffalo Trace) that I've encountered. This is one of the most universally available bourbons in the country, so I bet anyone who's a fan of whiskey or drinking in general has had a pour or two of this one. In all three phases, it's slightly smoky, dry, and leathery, with some of those more delicate Woodford Reserve peach and vanillas lurking in the background. It's a really well-balanced bourbon, but not the best value in that $55 range. B
Woodford Reserve Rye (45.2%) - The third and most recent edition to the standard lineup, this is also the distillery's first wide release of rye whiskey. They promote it as a "sipping" rather than mixing rye, but I was quite disappointed in it. Perhaps it was just because my senses were exhausted at the end of a long day, but I got very little out of this expression. Its nose is faint and demure, with a young bourbon character rather than the bold, spicy rye impact I'd expect. The palate is more of the same, with light simple syrup and honey flavors with just a bit of rye. This is a kiddie-pool or training-wheels rye, inoffensive but not close to worth the $40 sticker price. Go for Old Overholt any day of the week, even as a "sipping" whiskey. C
Woodford Reserve was the last distillery that we visited, although it wasn't our final bourbon tasting of the day. I'll pick up in a few days with a review of Beaumont Inn's Old Owl Tavern, which is a great classic American restaurant and a well-stocked whiskey bar, and has the benefit (especially for us drivers) of being connected to the best old-school country hotel in bourbon country!