Kentucky Road Trip

[OscarV]

I got home last night from a short road trip to KY.

Got some things not on my list and did not get a few that were on my list.

I was a week or two early for the Thomas Handy Rye and the other BT Antique Collection.

I did get a couple of Four Roses Single Barrels and Sazerac Ryes 6y.o. for friends and relatives for Christmas, and a Four Roses Small Batch for me.

I went to Toddy's Liquers in Bardstown Monday, and I got a Booker's 10th Anniversary, it came out in 1998. Real cool packaging, like the other Booker's, but the wood box is stained/varnished and the inside is lined with a velvet/suede material, bottle is a different label with a gold seal. When I paid the man at Toddy's he walked out from behind the counter and got a Toddy's t-shirt from the bin and gave it to me!! (my size to!).

Feeling good, I drove around the block to The Tavern, what a pleasure it was to sit at the bar and order a Pappy 20. It was rainy and cool and it did me so good I had another, and looked into the back bar mirror and thought to myself, "No Toto, were not in Michigan anymore."

The next morning I went to Four Roses Distillery. I was in the visitors lounge, they had pictures and the different bottles that have came out over the years. They had a FRSB that was released in the 1990's when Segrams owned it. I told the tour guide I had one,(got it earlier this year via ebay). She too had a couple. Then I saw they had a FRSB that is exported to Europe, different than the FRSB that is in KY and exported to Japan. That would be nice to have, I told her, she then informed me that she still had one from when they gave the employees a bottle.

Well can you guess what my next question to her was?

Q. Is it still in the box?

A. Yes.

Q. Would you like to part ways with it?

A. Well, I guess I could.

What a sweetheart! I got her phone number, called her after she got off work, she found it and told me to come over. She lives just down the road from the distillery.

When I got there she had a few other bottles that I looked at.

I got a bottle of Kentucky Mist, it was distilled at the Hoffman Distillery, "and sold to this outfit to bottle and label it as Kentucky Mist from when I was at Hoffman Distillery."

Her name is Lucille White, she is a gem, she said she may retire next year, if you go to Four Roses before then you may get her as a guide.

I also went to Buffalo Trace, I was the only person for the tour so me and the guide got to talking and after the standard tour, he went inside and told them to get someone else for the next tour because he wanted to take me "out back." So we got in a golf cart and I got an extened look for another hour and a half. The most memorable part for me was the old rickhouse that got the roof blown off last spring. Very,very impressive. I kept taking in deep breaths, it smelled great. I saw 4 small wine size barrels, and two others that were a little larger, that were marked with, among other things with "Experimental Collection". I asked about the availability of the BTEC and he said they were hard to get and there was a big uproar about the whole thing and most never saw a store shelf. I told him I had a set, but my wife doesn't know what I paid for them, he laughed and said he had a couple of shotguns his wife didn't know the price of either.

Also got to taste some White Dog, a short mash taste at first, easy to drink, unlike White Lighting, with the kerosene smell.

Ooppps, looks like I went a little long,.....

.....check y'all later

[Pappy's Friend]

What an awesome trip! I'm particularly jealous about the BT tour (not to mention the Pappy 20!). BT is my favorite distillery. I haven't been to Four Roses, yet, but hope to on my next Kentucky trip.

Sounds like you had a blast - enjoy the finds!

[smokinjoe]

Sounds lik you had a great trip Oscar. That Lucille is a real charmer, ain't she? Troyce and I had the pleasure of having her as our tour guide during our trip to FR during KBF. A real sweetheart. It's folks like her that make this whole Bourbon thing so dang cool.:cool:

JOE