Wild Turkey - new tour

[tehbeardman]

...In the gift shop you can buy custom inscribed bottles - I thought this one was good:

Ha thats good. Had a good chuckle

[Bourbon Boiler]

Just hit WT yesterday, and saw the new facility. My only real objection is that the old facility blocks the view of the river and hills from the new operation. I think that the views were one of the highlights of that facility, paticularly to those who aren't bourbon-obsessed.

Otherwise, the tour was excellent, and the guide was very well-informed.

[cowdery]

Does the new tour include bottling? Did they move bottling back from Arkansas?

[Josh]

Does the new tour include bottling? Did they move bottling back from Arkansas?

No, our tourguide said that there are no plans to bring bottling back to Lawenceburg in the near future, but he did say that Jimmy is still pressing Campari on the matter.

[cowdery]

A few years ago I was in the bottling hall at Brown-Forman and they were contract-bottling Skyy Vodka, so I guess Campari doesn't feel any need to have its own U.S. bottling facility. You would think they would at least try to get closer than Fort Smith, Arkansas. Why not bring it back to LDI?

Perhaps part of the sale deal with Pernod included a long-term contract on the bottling.

[Bourbon Boiler]

Our tour guide also mentioned that it will "someday" be back in Kentucky.

[dbk]

I drove down from Hamilton, Ontario to Frankfort and Lawrenceburg area this past weekend with a microbrewer friend to pick up some used Buffalo Trace barrels, so that he can age some beer in them. We toured Wild Turkey and Four Roses on Sunday, and Buffalo Trace on Monday. I'll post about the latter two tours separately; here, I'll just focus on WT.

Wild Turkey's new facility is indeed "factory-like," though it is at least bright and clean. If that gives the feeling of sterility, so be it. I'd rather that than the factories I'm more familiar with around Hamilton.

We had good access to three aspects of the process: the fermenters, the testing lab, and the rickhouses. The fermenters were working something fierce, and there was a fair amount of variability from tank to tank, so that you got a sense of (i) how the yeast worked its magic and (ii) what the byproducts of that process are, namely some interesting (and varied) odors and a considerable amount of heat coming off the surface. One tank gave off some especially powerful fumes.

The testing lab was, well, a lab and therefore "sterile," but it was nice to see all those sample bottles arranged in a big circle around the main table, and the equipment used to test them.

The bonded rickhouse was the most visceral aspect of the tour, and presented a nice contrast. It was dark, dusty, and full of sweet smelling barrels. It was a beautiful sight; I've attached a few relevant pictures.

Our tour guide was friendly enough, though he seemed to expect only a superficial level of interest and knowledge amongst the customers, so we felt a bit condescended to at times. When we asked a serious question, it usually had to be repeated a few times for him to understand it correctly. Also disappointingly, everything else that would have been interesting about the tour (e.g., the yeast tub and stills) was behind glass and placed well away from us.

In all, the Wild Turkey tour was worthwhile, and the rickhouse was definitely the highlight, but it did feel a lot more impersonal and rote than the other two tours.

[Moretorque05]

My wife and I did 7 tours last month. The new facility was impressive, but it was our least favorite tour. Long video, lots of looking through windows, talking about their tech, etc...