Holiday trip to KY

[Young Blacksmith]

Guys,

I'm taking a trip up to the distilleries between Christmas and New Years.

The plan as of now is to:

Dec 27, Drive to Memphis, TN, stay overnight, check out Flight restaurant.

Dec 28, Drive to KY, stop in Heaven Hill and do the extended tour, with Barton as a secondary stop if we want to. Possibly do a cave on the way up. Lunch at the Talbot Tavern in Bardstown if things work out. Staying at the Brown in Louisville for the night and the following night.

Dec 29, hit Four Roses, Woodford, and Buffalo Trace if my wife can handle all 3. Head back to Louisville for dinner.

Dec 30 is still un-planned, but I have a few options, including 4 Roses Cox Creek warehouse, Fort Knox, and caves. Eventually ending up in either Memphis, Nashville, or Little Rock for the night.

Dec 31 we'll be back home!

If anyone has recommendations on caves to visit, or places to eat in Louisville, please let me know.

I know lots of guys have recommended the BT hard hat tour, but BT is lower on my list for this trip.

Any other thoughts or ideas?

[timd]

The 4Roses Warehouses are cool, but not that great.

The BT Hard Hat Tour is really something - it's pretty much a "must do" IMHO. The facilities are great, the hospitality is excellent and the history would be a shame to be missed... Quite often you will even see Elmer T. Lee in the shop signing bottles and chatting! Even if you don't love BT products, it's still an outstanding tour.

You have to hit the Party Source near Cincy when you go - it's a 90 minute drive from Frankfort, but for a serious bourbon lover, it's essentially mecca!

I'd also urge you to try to hit MB Roland - a little, single-guy shop, that makes some of the most amazing smoked whiskey going. He does tours and tastings, and Paul is a genuinely awesome guy - with some great offerings! I would NOT miss it if I was going back there this year (who knows, maybe I will!).

Jim Beam is an easy 45 minute stop, just to say you did - place is like a small town unto itself! Wild Turkey is an easy quick stop, too, if you just want to hit the gift shop and see the swanky new digs they just opened.

When in Bardstown, be sure to stop in to Toddie's Liquor (in Downtown off the square). Coolest hole-in-the-wall liquor store a Bourbon lover can ever visit.

Guys,

I'm taking a trip up to the distilleries between Christmas and New Years.

The plan as of now is to:

Dec 27, Drive to Memphis, TN, stay overnight, check out Flight restaurant.

Dec 28, Drive to KY, stop in Heaven Hill and do the extended tour, with Barton as a secondary stop if we want to. Possibly do a cave on the way up. Lunch at the Talbot Tavern in Bardstown if things work out. Staying at the Brown in Louisville for the night and the following night.

Dec 29, hit Four Roses, Woodford, and Buffalo Trace if my wife can handle all 3. Head back to Louisville for dinner.

Dec 30 is still un-planned, but I have a few options, including 4 Roses Cox Creek warehouse, Fort Knox, and caves. Eventually ending up in either Memphis, Nashville, or Little Rock for the night.

Dec 31 we'll be back home!

If anyone has recommendations on caves to visit, or places to eat in Louisville, please let me know.

I know lots of guys have recommended the BT hard hat tour, but BT is lower on my list for this trip.

Any other thoughts or ideas?

[IronHead]

Places to eat in Louisville:

Bourbon's Bistro

Proof on Main

Hammerhead's

The Blind Pig

Harvest

Garage Bar

Seviche

Corbett's

Steven's and Steven's Delicatessen

Palermo Viejo

Asiatique

610 Magnolia

Vincenzo's

Limestone

Napa River Grill

Equus

I could go on...we have a pretty nice restaurant scene here.

[Clavius]

The BT Hard Hat Tour is really something - it's pretty much a "must do" IMHO.

Agree 100%. The hard hat tour is great. I've been to BT several times this year. Had Freddie as a guide twice and he is awesome.

[Young Blacksmith]

Ok, youse guys talked me into changing my plans, I called today about doing the BT hard hat tour Thursday afternoon.

And part of the mellow moments club offers VIP Four Roses tours, which I called about doing Thursday morning.

Ironhead, what a list of restaurants! I'll be jotting down notes about each one to give us options, my wife and I have no problem sharing a plate at one place, and then moving on to another.

[Young Blacksmith]

Got Four Roses scheduled for 10am, now waiting for Buffalo Trace to call me back.

[cowdery]

Since you're into caves, Mammoth Cave is probably already on your list. It is, after all, mammoth. I mention this because Bowling Green is a nice town, home of Western Kentucky University, and may be a good place to overnight rather than pushing all the way to Nashville.

[IronHead]

Since you're into caves, Mammoth Cave is probably already on your list. It is, after all, mammoth. I mention this because Bowling Green is a nice town, home of Western Kentucky University, and may be a good place to overnight rather than pushing all the way to Nashville.

[Ejmharris]

Since you're into caves, Mammoth Cave is probably already on your list. It is, after all, mammoth. I mention this because Bowling Green is a nice town, home of Western Kentucky University, and may be a good place to overnight rather than pushing all the way to Nashville.

Bowling Green also has Corsair Artisan distillery. I can not give an official recommendation because i have not visited but I have liked their stuff do far, especially the triple smoke and experimental stout whiskey. Just a thought.

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[smokinjoe]

And, if you dig 'Vettes, the Corvette Museum is there. And, Chuck's Liquor Store(s).

[IronHead]

Ok, youse guys talked me into changing my plans, I called today about doing the BT hard hat tour Thursday afternoon.

And part of the mellow moments club offers VIP Four Roses tours, which I called about doing Thursday morning.

Ironhead, what a list of restaurants! I'll be jotting down notes about each one to give us options, my wife and I have no problem sharing a plate at one place, and then moving on to another.

Hammerheads doesn't necessarily look like anywhere you'd want to eat and they don't have a liquor license. But the food is damned good.

[fishnbowljoe]

Crystal Onyx Cave is another decent cave worth looking into. Small, but plenty of beautiful and interesting formations. Joe

[Young Blacksmith]

Made it to Louisville today, had time to drive by the Brown Foreman group office buildings with the Old Forester bottle on top, Didago's SW distillery, BF distillery, and Party Mart on Brownsboro road on the way to Mojito's tapas.

Picked up a bunch of great beers, including the Kentucky bourbon barrel ale. Not gonna pay $8 at the brown hotel bar for a single bottle! Also picked up an ETL which has a good BT family resemblance but without the earthyness I've had from BT before.

Drove by Fort Knox and saw the bullion depository, just sitting there by the road. Pretty cool!

Things are much closer together than what I'm used to in Texas.

[cowdery]

Did you just drive by SW or did you go to "The Bulleit Experience"?

[Young Blacksmith]

Just drove by, the gates were closed at 3:30. No signs up for any Bulleit experience or anything pointing you towards some sort of something.

[Young Blacksmith]

Did the Mellow Moments Club VIP tour of 4R. It was very nice! A one on one tour by a good guide, took us through every part of the distillery and process except the yeast lab. Ended up with tasting both exports, yellow, smb, and 1b. A great tasting, and for anyone wondering, the exports are no better than what we get. Picked up two bottles of the Jim Rutledge selected 1B, runners up to the 2011 LE 1B. They only had barrel 3 left, and a couple dozen of those were all. If you're able to, get there and get one before they're gone.

Trundled over to Wild Turkey to get the stamp and do the gift shop. Didn't want to spend the time to do the tour, so we left and went over to Woodford.

Woodford was a good tour, very detailed, and the small scale allowed you to really get a feel for the whole process without being overwhelmed by the size and scale.

Left there and drove down McCracken Pike to the ruins of Old Taylor and Old Crow distilleries. Old Taylor looks just like the realtor photos, and Old Crow is nothing great, but both are for sale.

Then it was 3 o'clock, and too late for BT or anything else, so we are back in Louisville, tired. Tomorrow will be a quick hit at one or two, then on towards home.

[Young Blacksmith]

Heading out of Louisville yesterday we did a drive by of Jim Beam, then on to 4R Cox Creek warehouse.

They hired a new full time tour guide in September, and she stated tours have been pretty non-stop since Thanksgiving. I really enjoyed this tour, they were dumping some 10 year old OESO for the yellow label, and she grabbed me a pour straight from the barrel. Made the 9am tour that much better! They were doing inventory, so the bottling lines were shut down, but that allowed us to see the filtering method they use much better. SB is filtered with 25, all others use 50 filters.

Seeing their ricking system really allowed me to understand the SB codes better too.

From there we went over to Heaven Hill's Bourbon Heritage Center. Did the extended tour and came in late on the movie, which was fine with me. Toured the rick house, good to see the difference between the big houses and 4R's houses. The tasting was really good, I think just about everyone would learn something new there.

It was getting about noon, so we decided to head towards home and visit the two Lincoln sites near by, and we hit Memphis about 6pm.

I'm glad I did not get to visit the other distilleries, as now I have more reasons to go back and visit! I would not do HH again unless they seriously changed something about the tour, 4R will probably be visited again, but after I have done all the others.

It was a really fast, packed trip, but it was fun!

[fishnbowljoe]

I'm glad you had a good time on your trip. Thanks for the running updates of your trip. I get a kick out of it when we have members take a trip and post about it along the way. It's fun and interesting. Cheers! Joe

[ethangsmith]

My wife and I have intentions of doing something similar this spring. Not sure how my work schedule is going to work out, but if it does, I'll try to do something similar. This thread has helped me plan my trip. Thanks!

[Young Blacksmith]

One thing about 4R Cox Creek, they don't always dump older barrels! The day before they were dumping some 3 year stuff for the Yellow Label, and the tasters were not that impressed.

Also the tasting glasses we got from 4R were a real glass round highball type, with the four roses etched on the bottom. Woodford was a heavy plastic shot glass. Didn't do a tasting at Wild Turkey so have no clue about that one. Heaven Hill didn't let you take anything but your memories.

[StraightNoChaser]

Ended up with tasting both exports, yellow, smb, and 1b.

Was the "Super Premium" in that tasting?

[Young Blacksmith]

yup, sure was. tasted just like small batch. black label export tasted just like yellow label domestic.

I liked the black or yellow labels more than the super premium or small batch.

[cowdery]

Have any memorable meals while there? Where did you stay and did you like it? Any tips for people who haven't been yet?

[Young Blacksmith]

I stayed at The Brown, downtown Louisville. I'd stay there again in a heartbeat, especially if you book through hotwire. I paid half price for a great room with a nice view of downtown.

It's not going to be your new, almost suite style, room, as the bedroom is right off the hallway, but it lets you know you're in a historic hotel. The bathroom was phenomenal, as was the lobby. The whole place just oozes history in a good way.

There is a bakery off of Hearstborne parkway and 64, Great Harvest Bread, they supplied the best cheddar garlic bread for our distillery tour. The carrot cake bread is pretty amazing too. And Starbucks (my wife's addiction) is just down the street.

Also ate at Tapas and The Brown bar, neither was amazing, but both were good places to eat. After a day of traveling the burger and millionaire bourbon flight hit the spot at The Brown.

If anyone gets to Memphis, try a little Mexican place, Las Delicias. They had pretty decent Mexican food, not TexMex, and 25 oz fresh margaritas.

My tip for anyone who has not been yet, take your time, enjoy the scenery, have a list of things to do and do what you feel like, not what you have to squeeze into your fantasy trip. I only did the 4 distilleries in 2 days, but saw so much more just driving around. Make sure to visit the Old Taylor distillery site, while it's still standing. It's just down the road from Woodford, take a left out of the parking lot.

And make a right out of the WT distillery, go across the river, my wife and I are still talking about that!

[Young Blacksmith]

Here are just a few of the many pictures we took along the way:

1. Four Roses mash tubs

2. Four Roses tasting

3. Woodford's pot stills

4. Old Taylor distillery

5. 4R1B labels in the tub, waiting for bottles

I have many more, rickhouses, bottling lines, 4R barrel filling and dumping, the filter used for small batch, the SW distillery (not great), etc. Just let me know if you want to see more.