Anwalt Bourbon Trail Trip in August

[Anwalt]

So.

 

Trip to Chile/Argentina cancelled due to absurd Covid entry requirements on the part of Chile.

 

Attempt to rebook for just Argentina unsuccessful because flight prices have gone way, way up since we booked the original trip.

 

Ditto plans for Spain, etc.

 

So the Boy and and I revaluated the trip.  The idea was to celebrate his successes.  He decided that the same money allocated to foreign travel would be better spent in KY for a week seeking bourbon and related experiences in distilleries & stores.  Translation:  Given how little we'd spend in KY (Low flight costs, lots of friends in that area to see & crash with, lots of Hilton Honors points to spend, etc.), there'd be plenty of money left over (based on prior foreign travel budget) to eat very well and buy bourbon in excess.  All while driving and just talking, being father & son, and celebrating hard work, gratitude, & la dolce vita.  Then another week driving north through Ohio visiting family & friends, eating more, and sharing whatever it is we found in Kentucky.

 

So, August 6 to 14, no exact dates for each leg as of yet:  We'll start in Louisville early am on 6th.  Will make our way down towards Bardstown.  Then to Lebanon & Danville & stay with a friend in the latter.  Then up to Lexington.  Then up to Covington.  Cross into Ohio on 15th.

 

I will be reviewing past posts (especially the more recent ones) as to distilleries, restaurants, and shopping opportunities.  I do not expect people to give away their favorite super-secret fishing holes on the shopping, though that'd surely be nice.  Responses, links to relevant posts, and PM's all quite welcome.

 

Thanks!

 

 

[hughewil]

I really lied the Old Pepper distillery.   Their single barrel rye is excellent but on top of that they have entire complex with a pretty nice pizza joint modeled after New york style with giant slices and a bar that had pours I never see around here like weller full proof and 12 year.  they also have a ice cream shop.

 

While coming through Ohio we will have to meet up, I should have your case of the private barrel pick by then.

[Anwalt]

1 hour ago, hughewil said:

While coming through Ohio we will have to meet up, I should have your case of the private barrel pick by then.

 

Sweet.  Will be in touch as the schedule becomes clearer.

[geclbxf]

11 hours ago, Anwalt said:

 

Sweet.  Will be in touch as the schedule becomes clearer.

Louisville

• Seems Old Forster has been allowing tours to buy a premium bottle - and its the best tour to learn the most, IMHO.
• Love the craftiness of the Peerless tour .
• Eats, Garage Bar, restaurant in 21C, and the Biscuit Belly place.
• Food Network chef Darnell Ferguson has a restaurant, Super Chefs - that is AWESOME breakfast.

 

Bardstown

• Thieving from the barrel tour at BBC is awesome.   I love the restaurant too!
• Willet has great small plates to eat
• Heaven Hill has a bottle your own experience, and you get to leave with something great!
• Mammy's Kitchen of course
• Jim Beam has done a great job with the tour of the new distillery.   Restaurant is awesome.

 

Other places

• You have to dip your own bottle at Makers.   While in that neck of the woods, stop at Limestone Branch.   Awesome craft tour and cocktails.  
• Castle and Key for the history and cocktail by the river.
• Agree on the pizza assessment and Old Pepper in Lexington.
• Four Roses usually does a Barrel Strength release on Thursday.

Hope this helps - feel free to PM to talk further.   Just one man's opinion.

 

 

[Anwalt]

28 minutes ago, geclbxf said:

Hope this helps - feel free to PM to talk further.   Just one man's opinion.

 

That was enormously helpful- Thank You!  I will post and likely PM as things develop.

 

[geclbxf]

2 hours ago, Anwalt said:

 

That was enormously helpful- Thank You!  I will post and likely PM as things develop.

 

Welcome!

[Anwalt]

A few notes I picked up on:

-  Try the Egg Sandwich at the Willett distillery restaurant

-  Restaurant at BBC is good

-  Try Hell or Highwater

[PhantomLamb]

2 hours ago, Anwalt said:

A few notes I picked up on:

-  Try the Egg Sandwich at the Willett distillery restaurant

-  Restaurant at BBC is good

-  Try Hell or Highwater

Yes to all of these.

[flahute]

14 hours ago, Anwalt said:

A few notes I picked up on:

-  Try the Egg Sandwich at the Willett distillery restaurant

-  Restaurant at BBC is good

-  Try Hell or Highwater

Yes.

[smokinjoe]

My recs will be Bardstown-centric, mostly:

 

Take time to tour the Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History.  

-Don’t miss touring Maker’s Mark (Very close to Bardstown). It’s my favorite tour.  It’s beautiful, well done and informative, nice tasting afterwards, it’s beautiful, and it’s gorgeous.  And, it really is pretty…
- Yessir, the restaurant at BBC is wonderful.  
-Hit Toddy’s in Bardstown.  Guthrie takes some heat around here, but he is quite a character. and generally a friendly guy.  Very nice selection, though prices are a touch pricy on some items.  Look on the shelf behind the counter for rare and limiteds.  They’ll be expensive, but if you want something rare and have the dough, it might be there.  While it’s possible that the chain of custody of some of those bottles may not be fully documented, I personally would put a fair amount of trust in their authenticity seeing Guthrie’s standing in that community.  
-If you’re Catholic (or even if not), take a peek inside the Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral in downtown Bardstown.  It’s over 200 years old, and has lots of history.  It gives context to all of the lawn grottos you see in the area.  
-Mammy’s has solid food for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and has a good whiskey selection.

-Very good fried chicken at Kurtz restaurant.  
-Take a walk along the main drag downtown (3rd St.) There are some interesting shops that carry bourbon paraphernalia.  A good one I’ve been in is “The Blind Pig Bourbon Market” has a lot of cool stuff, along with a good selection of bourbon.  At least it did last time I was there before Covid.  


 

 

[Phil T]

39 minutes ago, smokinjoe said:

My recs will be Bardstown-centric, mostly:

 

Take time to tour the Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History.  

-Don’t miss touring Maker’s Mark (Very close to Bardstown). It’s my favorite tour.  It’s beautiful, well done and informative, nice tasting afterwards, it’s beautiful, and it’s gorgeous.  And, it really is pretty…
- Yessir, the restaurant at BBC is wonderful.  
-Hit Toddy’s in Bardstown.  Guthrie takes some heat around here, but he is quite a character. and generally a friendly guy.  Very nice selection, though prices are a touch pricy on some items.  Look on the shelf behind the counter for rare and limiteds.  They’ll be expensive, but if you want something rare and have the dough, it might be there.  While it’s possible that the chain of custody of some of those bottles may not be fully documented, I personally would put a fair amount of trust in their authenticity seeing Guthrie’s standing in that community.  
-If you’re Catholic (or even if not), take a peek inside the Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral in downtown Bardstown.  It’s over 200 years old, and has lots of history.  It gives context to all of the lawn grottos you see in the area.  
-Mammy’s has solid food for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and has a good whiskey selection.

-Very good fried chicken at Kurtz restaurant.  
-Take a walk along the main drag downtown (3rd St.) There are some interesting shops that carry bourbon paraphernalia.  A good one I’ve been in is “The Blind Pig Bourbon Market” has a lot of cool stuff, along with a good selection of bourbon.  At least it did last time I was there before Covid.  


 

 

Unfortunately,  the Kurtz has closed. Adam and I went there in April to no avail. A new owner bought the restaurant and the motel. Neither one had reopened as of then.

[Anwalt]

43 minutes ago, smokinjoe said:

My recs will be Bardstown-centric, mostly

 

2 minutes ago, Phil T said:

Unfortunately,  the Kurtz has closed. Adam and I went there in April to no avail. A new owner bought the restaurant and the motel. Neither one had reopened as of then.

 

Joe & Phil, thanks!  Having a bunch of fun planning this out with The Boy.

[smokinjoe]

Bummer to hear about Kurtz.  Had bang good times and meals there with SBers.  

[fishnbowljoe]

3 hours ago, Phil T said:

Unfortunately,  the Kurtz has closed. Adam and I went there in April to no avail. A new owner bought the restaurant and the motel. Neither one had reopened as of then.

 

3 hours ago, smokinjoe said:

Bummer to hear about Kurtz.  Had bang good times and meals there with SBers.  

That really sucks. Meals at Kurtz were always good. We’d usually be blessed with the appearance of “Toogie”. Her daughter ran Kurtz, and her grand daughters worked there. We also saw Fred Noe there a couple of times. Once on our way out, a couple of us were discussing the  bottle of Booker’s Toogies Batch sitting on a cabinet there, and wondering who Toogie was. It just so happened that Fred was leaving at the same time. He looked at us and smiled. He pointed towards grandma and said, “You just met her.” Toogie grinned, and we all had a good laugh. Fun stuff. I’ll miss Kurtz. We always had to eat there at least once on our trips to Bardstown.

 

Biba! Joe

[mbroo5880i]

You making your way to Carmel during your trip?

[mbroo5880i]

Stores a plenty.  You are familiar with WWW.  However, I imagine you will be more than content with what you find at the distilleries.  If for no other reason, those purchases include not only whiskey but memories.  Have a great time!

[Anwalt]

On 7/4/2022 at 9:21 PM, mbroo5880i said:

You making your way to Carmel during your trip?

 

Mbroo, didn't see your replies until now.  Been very spacy this week.  Caught Covid, utterly out of it Monday & Tuesday.  Semi-lucid Wednesday.  Doing way better now.

 

I will not be hitting Carmel for the August trip.  I will be there for dinner on July 25th and most of the day 26th.

 

On 7/4/2022 at 9:24 PM, mbroo5880i said:

Stores a plenty.  You are familiar with WWW.  However, I imagine you will be more than content with what you find at the distilleries.  If for no other reason, those purchases include not only whiskey but memories.  Have a great time!

 

The Boy is stoked.  Me too.  He's a really good kid who nearly went splat in classic teenage male "no frontal cortex I am invincible" mode.  We've gone from "Dad is the Fascist Enemy" to "The older I get, the smarter Dad gets".  He's really turned his feces around, hardcore.  And we talk about all sorts of things - women, politics, philosophy, owning a business, jobs, friends, shotguns, working out, etc.  He's been reading a lot more and listening to quality content; it's nice when he brings up something I did not know about.  I think we'll both remember this celebration.

 

Given how excessive I've been on buying (and having fun slowly trying everything without picking up 5o pounds, that's a neat trick), my US to PR mule train is a little clogged up.  About 1/3 of what I've bought is still Stateside in about 7 different cities.  It'll slowly make it's way down to PR.  The anticipated (even budgeted for) excess we are about to commit shall surely complicate my own personal supply chain.  I am looking forward to the distillery buys.  I still remember the several bottles of Makers that The Boy picked up at the distillery for me 18 months or so ago.  They were very nice.

 

Memories on the way, thanks for the well wishes.

 

[Anwalt]

Father & Son Bourbon Trail Trip

 

Saturday, August 6^th Old Forester

7^th Jim Beam

8^th Willett

9^th Heaven Hill

10^th BBC & Wilderness Trail

11^th Four Roses

12^th Makers

13^th James E. Pepper

14^th Up to Ohio to visit family for a week

 

Most of the tours are late morning.  Gives us time to eat, chill, work out, snoop for purchases, etc.

 

I suspect that, with August still being a big travel month and lots of people making the pilgrimage, many of the local stores will be well-picked over. 

 

I wonder…. perhaps driving into the sticks would result in less picked-over selections?  I normally would not take the time to do that; it's too scarce for me.  But in this case The Boy and I will be talking life, women, jobs, investing, history, philosophy, etc. the entire time, whether over a drink, over a meal, or in the car.  So, it’d not be time lost.  Any thoughts on shopping?  Feel free to PM if public posting seems TMI.  Could be MBroo has the right of it, the distilleries will more than satiate buying lust/empty pocket books.

 

The Boy will have one heck of a start on his collection once the trip’s over!  Not to mention fun, family time, and memories.

 

He’s been enjoying WSR (I gave him several bottles as a "thank you" for his finding some A107 and lots WSR in OH; he keeps his eyes open for me), RR10, 4RSiB Select, and Stellum.

[smokinjoe]

Are you making tour reservations for your tours/tastings?  I think at least some of them “sell out” for walk ups, and may even require a reservation.  

[Anwalt]

24 minutes ago, smokinjoe said:

Are you making tour reservations for your tours/tastings?  I think at least some of them “sell out” for walk ups, and may even require a reservation.  

 

Yup.  All done & paid for.  Buffalo Trace was of course sold out months & months ahead of time.  Everything else was pretty available.  Appreciate your mentioning it.

[Kjbarth]

While in Lawrenceburg for 4R, might want to stop in at Wild Turkey at around 10am for opening to see if they have any RR13 (if interested in that). I picked up some in their gift shop last August and their stock lasted until about 20 mins after opening.

[Anwalt]

12 hours ago, Kjbarth said:

While in Lawrenceburg for 4R, might want to stop in at Wild Turkey at around 10am for opening to see if they have any RR13 (if interested in that). I picked up some in their gift shop last August and their stock lasted until about 20 mins after opening.

Thanks, will do.

[Phil T]

If you don't mind me asking, what area of Ohio will you be?

[Anwalt]

 

18 minutes ago, Phil T said:

If you don't mind me asking, what area of Ohio will you be?

 

Cinci, Monroe County, Youngstown, Columbus.

 

Everything but that NW quadrant!  

 

I lived in Findlay for 5 years back in the late 90's/early 2000's.  Very pleasant part of the state.  Don't get up that way much anymore though.  Family is in the aforementioned areas, sans Cinci.  Friends there though, ones who like to drink & eat.

[hughewil]

3 hours ago, Anwalt said:

 

 

Cinci, Monroe County, Youngstown, Columbus.

 

Everything but that NW quadrant!  

 

I lived in Findlay for 5 years back in the late 90's/early 2000's.  Very pleasant part of the state.  Don't get up that way much anymore though.  Family is in the aforementioned areas, sans Cinci.  Friends there though, ones who like to drink & eat.

you need to jump across the bridge into newport and hit up New Riff distillery.  Pick yourself up a bottle of their 6 year malted rye.