My Recent Bardstown Weekend - My Son's First Trip

[DPPSmoker]

Hi folks!  Outside of a few small posts recently, it has been a few years since I've been on sb.com.  I'm having a great time getting reacquainted with some of the folks on here.

 

I just got back from a quick three night stay in Bardstown with my son.  He is 21 years old now.  He tends to keep his bourbon drinking to mixed drinks with 80 proof Four Roses.  He likes how easy it is to drink and its affordability.

 

I thought I would just share some random thoughts/experiences with this group.  My last time in Bardstown was in the fall of 2020.  Most everything was shut down due to Covid.  I was able to tour the Barton Distillery then.  I'm glad I did - it was great going through that old distillery.  And now they have closed it to visitors so I'm glad I got the chance to go.  I can't remember much else about that visit.  There just wasn't much open then.

 

Before that, I think it was 2016 when I last visited.  I share all of this because I'm astounded by how much has changed in the last nine years around Bardstown and the distilleries.  BBC wasn't even there and now look at what they have going on!  I was surprised at how many new restaurants there are.  And all of the distilleries have really expanded and improved their tour experiences and gift shops in order to meet tourist expectations (and to keep up with their competitors!).  I'm quite impressed!

 

Our first stop on Thursday morning was Four Roses Bottling and Warehousing.  Four Roses is my favorite bourbon distiller.  It was a real honor to listen to Jim Rutledge on three different occasions while he was still the Master Distiller.  I could listen to him talk about bourbon all day long.  Back on track - my son and I joined another couple for a tour of the facility.  Our guide, Michael, gave us the best tour of a distillery that I have ever attended.  As a Four Roses superfan, I was already aware of about 90% of what Michael shared and he was spot on accurate with everything.  And it was great to learn from him the other 10% that I did not know.  But he also shared his info in a way that he entertained and educated my son.  And the other couple who was with us were fully engaged as well.  I really enjoyed this tour with a small group.  The facility was on their annual shutdown so they did not have their regular operations going on.  It made it much easier to listen to Michael without the loud noises.  One of the things that kept their staff busy that day was they were handwriting the bottle numbers on the 2025 LE Small Batch bottles.

 

One change that I experienced this trip compared to my prior visits is that they thieved some bourbon from a barrel to share with tour attendees.  I had never experienced that before.  Michael thieved from a barrel sitting in one of their warehouses.  He shared that the contents of this barrel was a combination of Four Roses single barrel barrel strength bourbons that were not enough to fill up a six bottle case.  I'm telling you right now.  That bourbon thieved from that barrel was probably the best damn bourbon I've ever had in my life!  My son looked at me and told me the same thing.  Wow!!! That bourbon was that damn good.  It makes me want to sign up for another tour just so I can get that tiny little plastic cup half filled again.

 

We concluded our Four Roses visit with the purchase of four gift shop bottles and some swag for the missus.  We were able to get three of the different mashbill recipes that Four Roses offers so I was pretty happy.  I've been there before when there were no gift shop bottles available so I know what it's like to strikeout.  My son thought it was pretty cool walking out of there with that much bourbon.  Little did he know.

 

We had a 1:00 tour at Bardstown Bourbon Company so we had time to stop by Toddy's to see what they had.  I have no desire to pay the high prices of the bottle behind the counter.  But I've never been disappointed with their store picks.  I will never forget that the creamiest bourbon I have ever had was a Wilderness Trail store pick from Toddy's.  I still kick myself for not getting more of those bottles.  They were only $35!  My son thought it was pretty cool that a liquor store had a drive thru window.  We purchased a Knob Creek store pick and Elijah Craig store pick and we were on our way.

 

I wish we had lunch at BBC (my son wanted lunch at the mobile ChickFilA setup in the parking lot at Lowe's).  This was my first visit at the BBC and I had no idea what to expect.  Wow!!!  What a facility!  We attended the Core Four Tour at 1:00 and it was very nice.  My son and I were both very impressed with their Origin Series bourbon proofed at 96.  Their other tasting samples were quite good but not as good as that first one.  We concluded this tour in one of their rickhouses.  As they theived us a sample from their rye barrel, they led my son and I to a separate speakeasy-type room they had in that rickhouse.  My son and I had signed up for a 2:00 Shaken and Stirred experience and this session was held in this separate room.  This room was beautifully setup with a wonderful bar and a big glass wall that allowed us to see out into the rickhouse.

 

We joined another couple for this session.  Our barkeeper/presenter/guide did a wonderful job guiding us through making our two drinks.  My son really enjoyed this as he prefers to mix his bourbon and he now has some new ideas for drinks he would like to try in the future.  But one thing was clear when we were done with this session - my son and I both were experiencing bourbon fatigue and we were ready to call it a day.  But not before we stopped by the gift shop and walked out with seven different bottles.  I was really happy that one of those bottles was a commemorative bottle from Green River celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States Army.  I will gift this Army bottle to a very good friend who flew Chinook helicopters in the Army for 22 years.  He is very proud of his service and I know he will be thrilled to receive this bottle.

 

We went to our hotel room to rest afterward.  I needed the nap.  We were going to dine at Old Talbot Tavern but they had an hour wait.  We went to Simply Seafood Market and Cajun Dinner out of the west side of Bardstown for our dinner.  We both love cajun food and this place didn't disappoint.  I had a shrimp boil and the seafood gumbo.  My son had a catfish dinner.  We both loved our meals.  So much so that we went back the following night.  My son had the crawfish boil with some red beans and rice.  I had a shrimp po-boy and fries.  Again, everything was great!  If these dinners sound good to you, I highly recommend.

 

Friday morning we drove to the Four Roses distillery.  Our tour group was about 20 people.  The summer shutdown at Four Roses meant they were not operating and so the tour was different than what they would usually present.  But it was great to take a walk around as it had been years.  I was pretty stoked to see that the distillery was offering two gift shop single barrel barrel strength bottles that were different than the bottles we purchased the day before.  We purchased one of each so we came back home with six Four Roses gift shop bottles and five different mashbill recipes. 

 

We left the Four Roses distillery and circled back west to attend our 2:00 tour at Maker's Mark.  I can't remember what road we got off the Parkway but the last seven miles to Maker's Mark was on the tightest and steepest roads I've ever been on.  We took our time and really enjoyed the drive.  Boy, there is some really pretty country around there.

 

I had forgot just how pretty the grounds are at Maker's Mark.  And to top it off, the grounds had approximately six Chihuly glass exhibits peppered throughout.  It was just a very pleasing visual experience that day.  We had our final tour with another 20 guests.  A few of them must have done some pregaming because they got rather mouthy during the tour.  They thought they were being funny and I suppose there were to themselves.  The rest of us were rather unimpressed.

 

I was really hoping to find a special bottle in the gift shop.  My daughter recently became engaged to a fine young man.  He is a Maker's Mark superfan so I wanted to get him something special that he couldn't find elsewhere.  Unfortunately, Maker's doesn't do this.  I didn't want to purchase him a bottle that he could get just about anywhere else.  So I got him a sweatshirt that I know he will enjoy.  But I was really hoping they would have single barrel barrel strength gift shop bottles similar to Four Roses.  But I get it.  Maker's was selling so many bottle that day so the purchasers could then dip their own bottles.  I guess there is no need to sell a special gift shop bottle when they have such strong sales due to that wax dipping.

 

Whew!  I guess that's a lot.  Not much to share after that.  We had our dinner on Friday night, got a great night's rest and then returned home first thing on Saturday.  15 bottles.  I only like to drink bourbon with company so I don't drink bourbon too much.  I will most likely die before half of these bottles are opened.  And that is just fine.  I purchased these bottles as much for my son, my daughers and my future son-in-law as much as I did for myself.  Thank you for reading my post.