Four Roses Tour - Excellent!

[CL]

I took my family to the Getz today. On the way back to L'ville, we stopped at Four Roses for a tour. In a word, it was excellent. It is a must stop.

At the Clermont location on SR 245 they began giving tours earlier this year. At this location, they bring two truck loads of bourbon from Lawrenceburg a day to be barrelled and aged. They also have a small bottling operation here.

Our guide, Cory, gave us a very informal tour, adapting it to our wants and needs. She drove us around the facilities in a minivan. We stopped first at the operations warehouse. We were walking in the middle of the operations (barrel filling, barrel dumping, single barrel chill filtering, bottling) while they were in production. It was very cool. We were stepping over pipes, they were opening up the railways to allow us through, and we were walking over low platforms in the chill filter room, inches from the equipment. It was very up front and personal. I was shocked that their insurance would allow them to do that.

All the employees were super nice and didn't mind us at all. They often stopped to let us through or to talk briefly. The barrel filler even offered and allowed me to bang in a bung on one his just filled barrels. I hope they can keep this informal and personal approach as word gets out and the tour gets busier.

After we left the operations warehouse, our guide called the rick house crew to see what building they were unloading. We went right into the rick house while they were rolling the barrels down the aisle. Of course, they stopped to let us come in. The guide showed us the list of barrels they were pulling for an order. It was very specific about the number of barrels and their location.

We then went to small house that contained an office, a display case of all their bourbons, and the gift shop out back. It was so informal, we walked right through the kitchen of the house right back to the gift shop.

The gift shop was small and quaint with the usual clothing items. The clothing had a very nice Four Roses emblem embroidered on them. I bought a highball glass and they tossed in some nick nacks - pins and ball point pens.

Earlier while we in the bottling room, they were bottling Four Roses Premium for the Japanese market. They gave us a couple defective (though I couldn't tell) silver colored metal Four Roses emblems that went on the bottles.

I asked about what products they would be adding to the US. They are relaunching the current yellow label with a new label in the fall in KY. At the end of this year, they are adding the single barrel to Japan. They hope to sell the single barrel in the US by late spring next year. I forgot to ask about any US plans for the black label and the Premium label.

I'd highly recommend that you take this tour. It is very unique in how you walk in the middle of the operations while they are underway. Cory was very personable, patient, and willing to adapt the tour to whatever we wanted.

We even showed up 40 minutes before they closed at 2 pm. Cory made no effort to rush us. We stopped about 2:10 pm.

[Paradox]

Thanks for the information about this tour Chuck. I went to their other location last year and thoroughly enjoyed it, I cannot wait to go this year and visit the gift shop as well. Though I am sad to hear about the information you were given about the single barrel bottling... I thought it was supposed to be out in the states by September, a far cry from late spring of next year. Also, they had the new labels made during last year’s festival for the new yellow label bottles, so even that took a while to get launched. Here you can see the current yellow label bottle, and here you can see the what the new label will look like in comparison. Oh well, I was hoping to see the Super Premium make it here soon, but I guess that is way off on the horizon...

[mike1]

can you give more specific directions as to where the four roses tour is. I have been to the distillery. I gather that this is at their ageing operation which is more centralized as at one time it served several plants. I will go to it in Sept during the bourbon festival.The four roses bourbon breakfast during the festival is a wonderful experience.

[bobbyc]

Very easy to find. Get in Bardstown, take state highway 245 toward Clermont, Jim Beam has one of their plants there. It is about 10 miles from Bardstown and 4 miles before Clermont. It is clearly marked , you turn off 245 and go a mile or so to the entrance. This tour is on my to do list, But since it is around the corner from me and will always be there............

[CL]

We picked up a couple of the new labels. When we passed through the kitchen to go to the gift shop, there was a large roll of labels on the kitchen table. We asked for a couple - they said sure - they were unusable because they were bubbling too easily on the bottles.

[CL]

Here is the display case with the current Four Roses bottlings.

[CL]

Four Roses Super Premium.

[CL]

Wallpaper for your PC. (You might want to use a graphics editor to rotate it 1 degree to the left to make it look a little better.)

[Barrel_Proof]

Great picks of the thorniest bourbon of them all!! Many thanks, CL. I'm headed to the bunker tonight to enjoy a pour from my 4R single barrel! Great stories (and pics) from the road--thanks!

[cowdery]

Very interesting. Glad to hear the Lotus tour is worthwhile.

Just in case anyone hasn't gotten this clear yet, the facility being discussed here is at a place called Lotus, near Bardstown. It consists of rickhouses, an entry (barreling) facility, and a dumping and bottling facility. It is about 40 miles from the distillery in Lawrenceburg.

A question for someone who has been there: are the barrels ricked or palletized? "Ricked" means they are on their side in a framework. "Palletized" means they are stacked upright on pallets (so they can be moved around with forklifts) and there is no rick structure. I know the buildings are unusual for being single-story, but I don't recall if they use ricks or not.

The whole set-up is strange in that Four Roses takes new whiskey to Lotus by tank truck. There it is barreled and warehoused and, apparently, dumped and bottled. Is everything bottled there? If not, is the aged whiskey dumped and shipped again in tankers or is it shipped in barrels to be dumped at the bottler?

I believe Lotus was developed in the days when Seagram's owned a dozen or more distilleries scattered across Kentucky including at least one, Henry McKenna, near Bardstown far from Lotus. Their biggest facility, in Louisville, was a complete operation with distillery, warehouses and bottling. It was a huge and very attractive complex south of town on 7th St. Road.

Under the present circumstances, Lotus seems a little goofy, separated by 40 miles from the only distillery it supports. Most people who visit the Lawrenceburg plant don't realize the warehouses they see right across the road from Four Roses actually belong to Wild Turkey.

[CL]

To answer your questions:

* The barrels are ricked. I saw no barrel on pallets. I will post some photos to show you what I saw.

* Not everything is bottled there. If I remember correctly, the barrels being pulled yesterday were destined for Lawrenceburg, IN to be put into Canadian whiskey.

[CL]

New Barrels

[CL]

Dumped Barrels

[CL]

This is when they were pulling barrels to be sent to IN to be put into Canadian whisky. When this picture was taken, they were done pulling the barrels.

[cornsqueezins]

That's a good shot Chuck. Thanks for all the info on your trip.

[CL]

No problem. Glad to help.

[cowdery]

According to my sources, the old Seagram's bottling plant in Lawrenceburg, IN was purchased by Bob Allison (and some other investors, presumbably), who was the last plant manager (not distiller) at Stitzel-Weller under UDL. He does contract bottling for Diageo and, apparently, also for Kirin/Four Roses.

[cowdery]

So what are we seeing in the foreground in this picture? What is that person doing?

[cowdery]

They wouldn't (unless the world has turned completely on it's head, heaven help us all, and dogs are laying down with cats, and all that) be sending bourbon to Indiana to be put into Canadian whiskey (although they do some very strange things in Indiana). More likely its going there to be used in an American Blended Whiskey, like Seagrams Seven Crown.

This is an interesting picture. It's a traditional warehouse except for the fact that it is only one story tall. How close together are the warehouses?

[CL]

Maybe I misunderstood the guide. I thought she said Canadian whiskey, but maybe she said blended whiskey (American).

The warehouses aren't very close together. The guide mentioned that when the warehouses were built, they had plenty of land, so they only made them one story high and spread them out. She said that the one story warehouses were better for aging, but I don't know if this was fact or marketing.

[CL]

The guide said that federal law requires that they rinse each barrel with a gallon of water. What you are seeing is the lady in the foreground is rinsing the barrels.

The background is the empty barrels.

[brendaj]

They wouldn't (unless the world has turned completely on it's head, heaven help us all, and dogs are laying down with cats, and all that) be sending bourbon to Indiana to be put into Canadian whiskey

The thought makes me shudder too.

But think about this...the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, and Germany didn't want to go to war...

[MurphyDawg]

Maybe I misunderstood the guide. I thought she said Canadian whiskey,

I dunno I remember distinctly someone at the 4Roses booth telling me they have put the stuff in Canadian Whiskey, and at the display where they showed all the whiskies that were at least partially distilled in KY in their line, there was a bottle of Crown Royal ( ). I remember that part distinctly because my Dad WAS a Crown royal drinker, and because of that display I found my entry point to sharing my love of Bourbon with him. I bought him a bottle of 4R, and thats how it all started. He is now almost exclusiveky a bourbon drinker and will be joining us in Bardstown in Sept.

TomC

[cowdery]

I need to pay better attention to my sources. John Allison bought the Schenley Old Quaker Distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, where he is doing contract bottling for Diageo. The former Seagram's plant is another facility there. Does anybody know that plant is now owned by Kirin too?

[cowdery]

I could be naive, but I think Canadian whisky is whisky made in Canada.