Kentucky, Day 6: Louisville

Having just visited a series of small towns, I was startled to find that Louisville is an actual city city. And I love cities, especially those wherein I can find parking so that I may walk and drink and walk and drink and so on. Louisville offered me that very opportunity. My hotel was one block south of Main Street downtown, and everything was accessible by foot, including...

Phallus much?

...the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory. Yep, that's where they make the actual bats!

So much good wood

That's what she said

MLB players go to the factory to customize their game bats for the season.

Big hands, I know you're the one.

It was all very geeky and smelled wonderful. Good news: this bat company plants multiple trees for every one they cut down, much like Beam and Heaven Hill. It's relatively sustainable, and may also keep us all alive a little longer.

After the tour, I handled Dick Allen's immense bat.  *Pause for effect*  I also got to swing Ronald Acuña Junior's model in the batting cage, and neither embarrassed myself nor re-injured either rotator cuff. At the gift shop, I customized my own bat, which turned out to be so large that it looks like I'm trying compensate for something.

Next up, the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience, a snug spot that masterfully utilizes a wee bit of city real estate to create a full-on bourbon tour. Before my official experience, I went upstairs to the bar for last call, downing one batch of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof and one batch of Bernheim Barrel Proof (which I discovered existed only at that very moment) much too quickly.

A young whippersnapper named Jacob led the tour, his final one of the day, and imparted way more Louisville history than I'd expected. Some random booze facts:

• Heaven Hill Distillers makes Hpnotiq!?!
• The big Louisville distillery uses the same yeast as the Bernheim facility.
• Evan Williams 23 year old comes from only the bottom two rows of the warehouses.
• They have their own mini distillery onsite that produces the Square 6 brand.

The tour concluded properly with a tasting...

...with Evan Williams 12yo 101 Proof winning everyone over. In case you don't recall, I've been to London and to France, but only Tokyo has the queen's damned undies 12yo 101 Proof for one-fifth of the price that this Louisville gift shop slings it for (when in stock). It's good bourbon, though!

Around 5pm, I floated out of The Experience over-whiskied, looking for a walk and some food. After strolling for an hour I entered Garage Bar, which had many positive online reviews. Unfortunately after weathering burnt dry pizza, an extra syrupy old fashioned, disinterested service, and a very musty odor, I wondered if there was another Garage Bar somewhere else in town. There doesn't appear to be.

My city-wandering continued until after sundown. After peeking into some live music bars and finding only contemporary country awaiting me everywhere, I found my way back to the hotel room, wrapped myself up in Hilton's very fluffy duvet, and fell asleep without setting an alarm.

Kentucky, Day 5: Clermont

So did I wake up early enough to get to Bernheim Forest before my lone distillery tour? NOPE. I was a 46-year-old man drinking unwise amounts of oak extract for four days in a row. The fact that I woke up at all is a testament to the existence of an intact liver.

Perhaps I should qualify and quantify "unwise amounts". Some of you excellent readers burn through 1/4 or 1/3 of a bourbon bottle on a Wednesday night. I cannot. Usually I'll make 30mL of bourbon disappear without much struggle, but then the sweetness and tannins lead me to a low-abv lager to wash it all down. On this Kentucky trip, I was trying 8-12 whiskies a day, some 15mL, some not.

Thus when I woke up on Day Five after 11 hours of sleep [Ed. Attention parents, this is a thing you can do when vacationing without children.], my priority was hydration and finding an easy breakfast, rather than sticking to a silly schedule.

Nonetheless, I made it to James B. Beam Distillery on time. And I was the only one in my tour group. That made for a great visit, especially since my guide didn't toe the entire company line about all of their products. In this person's professional defense, I will say they provided all the production facts and history at a perfect pace. And they also didn't disagree when I stated my feelings about the Basil Hayden range, and the company's Canadian brown spirits.

Triple sploosh

The thing is, I really like Beam's bourbon (aside from BH). Despite the company being another soulless conglomerate, they've honed a certain type of figurative wheel that cannot be reinvented by any of the new startups, unless those baby companies are still around in 100 years. (If anything is still around in 100 years.) Knob Creek bourbon just hits right, as does the new Jim Beam 7yo Black Label. OGD 114 still works, as does the latest version of Baker's. I'll never forgive them for disposing of Old Taylor and degrading Old Crow, but that doesn't mean Beam can't maintain a good product or two.

As you may see above, the product ranges aren't just about picking barrels in the rickhouse, though Booker's does come from the center rows, furthest from the windows. There are different spirit cuts, and varying fermentation times (3-5 days) depending on the mash's starting temperature.

Their 65'x6' column still easily measures up in any size contest. They continue to source their corn (yellow #2) from within Kentucky. Bernheim Forest provides their water. And they're transparent about batch sizes. Beam White Label = 1000 barrels. And "small batches" are around 250 barrels.

The company now has a trio of distilleries: the one I visited; another in Boston, KY (where White Label is made); and a little crafty one that was completed four years ago.

At the conclusion of the tour, I got to put my thumbprint on my own bottle of Knob Creek Single (1 of 1, baby! It's worth a fortune!), and then I went upstairs to the bar, because of course.

Clermont Steep, Beam's single malt, works for my palate because it is very barley-forward, and not gussied up with extra-extra-charred barrels. Baker's High Rye 7yo, is good enough to buy......once I whittle down the bottles that came back to OH from KY. The OGD 16yo with the excellent label was probably the best of the four, with KC18 just behind it. Not a single complaint from me about their qualities.

Then FINALLY, Bernheim Forest.

Is this heaven? No, it's a Bob Ross painting.

Yes, a day with sunlight! I highly recommend a visit to Bernheim Forest, especially since it's just across the road from Beam, and the perfect place to indulge one's buzz and then walk it off on a clear day.

Happy little trees, flooded

Me posing with Ardbeg's latest cask experiment.

Upon returning to the hotel, I got changed and headed out for another long stroll, this time to downtown Bardstown. After an early dinner, I went to Evergreen Liquors to explore their bar.

After trying two of Evergreen's sold out exclusive single barrels (see above), I ventured to the nearby Volstead Bourbon Lounge. Why there? Because:

With a visual setup reminiscent of my favorite Tokyo whisky bars, Volstead provides the patron with just a few beverage choices. Luckily, I sat down right in front of an 11yo single barrel of MGP rye. Was it delicious? I'm going to say......yes. Only upon finishing my pour did I realize the bar was closing.

I exited the bar and walked 45 minutes through dark neighborhoods, back to the hotel. Was that wise? Probably not. Was I sober? I'll let you guess. The evening air was calm and cool, and I didn't have to pee. Equal pluses in my book.

Under the covers I went, moments after returning to my room. I slept the sleep of an organism processing ethanol. Louisville would beckon me in the morning.

Kentucky, Day 4: Bardstown

I started writing this post a few days ago, and now I'm completing it on a day when many of my coworkers and friends were laid off. And I'm doing so without a drink in hand. The optimism of the first half of the post is genuine, but no promises about the second half.

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Downtown Bardstown won me over instantly. It's so cute! A bunch of restaurants, independent shops, coffee houses, bars, and at least one good liquor store. It all closes up very early though.

Thousands of acres of bright green not-quite-bluegrass surrounds the town. And upon that land stands a number of distilleries and their warehouses. Thus I booked two nights in Bardstown.

My original goal was to wake up early and walk a few miles of Bernheim Forest. I did neither. And in a rare moment of insanity, I arrived at my first facility early.

Though I have no pictures of the Heaven Hill Bourbon Experience, there are plenty of notes staring back at me right now. Heaven Hill's actual distillery operates in Louisville, but their offsite Experience offers more whiskey stuff than Evan Williams in River City (more on that in a few days). At the Experience I chose the "Grain to Glass Tasting Experience" experience.

That Heaven Hill had partnered with independent farmers to make spirit-forward whiskies I had known, but not much more than that. The Grain to Glass range offers a bourbon, wheated bourbon, and rye. With the corn (strain Becks 6198) and wheat grown at Peterson Farms. The event lets tourists try each of the three, get all the supply chain details, and receive a Heaven Hill history lesson.

While the wheated bourbon and rye rumble in at barrel strength, the rye-d bourbon is bottled at a lower strength, 52%abv. Each has a 6-year age statement. And, yes, they are spirit-forward, but in a calmer fashion than Craft whiskey. For what it's worth, I enjoyed all three, but the straight rye won (surprise!), it also took to water much better than American whiskey usually does.

Heaven Hill stats: The founding family, the Shapiras, still owns the company with Kate Shapira running the show. (Yes you read that correctly, a woman of Jewish lineage oversees a massive American whiskey company. 🩷)  Within their 83 warehouses, in seven different locations, Heaven Hill has the second-highest volume of aging whiskey in the country; 2.6 million barrels, with Beam edging them out at 2.8 million. The current distillery produces 450K barrels per year, while a new smaller distillery in the works.

If you have not seen any of the footage of the 1996 Heaven Hill fire, I strongly recommend you do so. The images may be triggering for some of my California readers, specifically the size and intensity of the conflagration's flames. As the company rebuilt its facilities in the late '90s, many of the other major distilleries provided whisky for Heaven Hill to bottle so that business wouldn't stop completely. One wonders if the industry would be so united today.

On a final note, I may have discovered why I find HH's whiskies so much more palatable than most of the other distilleries' products. The majority of major bourbon distilleries use a #4 or #5 char inside their barrels, while Heaven Hill uses #3 char. Could that lead more graceful aging, more spirit notes, and less bitterness? I think so.

And then I went to Willett...

I'll start with the positives. The tour guide, Ila, was EXCELLENT. The distillery has three cats, which gets three thumbs up from me. And there's a large black rooster that appeared on their grounds one day and then never left.

So that's pretty cool. The two guys behind me on the tour making B.B.C. jokes about it were not very cool.

On the tour I tried nine of their whiskies (all of them distilled on site), and liked none of them. The rye, of all things, was the most difficult to drink. The bourbons were all very bitter and acidic. The rye was such a shock because, after all the years of gorgeous MGP-sourced single barrels, the product with the same bottles and labels now contain unbalanced Craft rye. Expensive unbalanced Craft rye. Maybe it gets better after 4 years?

Here's the rundown of Willett info: They have seven five-story rickhouses, none of which are temperature controlled. They do not rotate their barrels (similar to Four Roses but with very different results). Their mash gets 2-3 days of fermentation (in their seven 10K fermenters) until the beer is 8-10%abv. Each whiskey comes from a small batch, 18-24 barrels (#4 char).

After buying a bottle of Noah's Mill — Why? I don't know. — I drove to downtown Bardstown for dinner at the Talbott Inn bar. Then I walked around until the sun set. This old body started feeling beaten up by all the booze. Weather reports said there'd be no rain the next day. So I tumbled into bed, setting my alarm so that I'd wake up early enough to get to Bernheim Forest before my lone distillery tour...

Kentucky, Day 3: Lawrenceburg

Day 3 loomed large on my schedule and, sure enough, it did not disappoint. A lot of alcohol was consumed.

Before Austin, Nichols & Co. changed the distillery's name to match the brand, Wild Turkey Distillery was known as Old Ripy, Old Moore, Old Hickory Springs, Ripy Brothers, Anderson County, and J. T. S. Brown & Sons Distillery. Master Distiller Jimmy Russell has been there since the Ripy family broke ground on the original facility in 1850. Just kidding, a little bit. Jimmy Russell has been working at the distillery for a mere 71 years.

Wild Turkey and its warehouses sit on a gorgeous piece of land bursting with greenery on the day of my visit, thanks to all the downpours.

Here's a pro amateur tip: Go to the toilet before any distillery tour starts, but also leave time to do so. Three times during this Kentucky trip, I ran out of the bathroom, chasing after my tour group, struggling to zip up my fly on at least one occasion.

Wild Turkey grows their yeast on site, from a batch started over 70 years ago, though the Mother is kept in a lab in San Diego, as a precaution. They source their corn from Kentucky, rye from Poland, and barley from Montana (where it's malted). Their mash gets a 72-80 hour fermentation until the distiller's beer reaches 10-12%abv. This cloudy sweet stuff then gets fed into the 52-foot Vendome column still for the low wines, then to the doubler pot still for the high wines. The spirit (which often reaches 65%abv) is reduced to 57.5%abv before barreling. 850,000 of these barrels are currently turning the spirit brown in the company's warehouses.

Warehouse A was built in 1894, and it looks all of its 131 years,
in a good way.

Here's a random bit of trivia: Nearly all of Wild Turkey's emptied barrels are used by Midleton Distillery for Jameson whiskey, out Ireland-way. This practice started back when Wild Turkey and Jameson were both owned by Pernod Ricard, and despite WT's sale to Campari Group in 2009, this part of the supply chain continues.

According to Dwight, the tour leader who balanced loads of information with an excellent sense of humor, the company's current 101 bourbon is 6-8 years old, while the 101 rye is from 4-6 year old lower rack barrels. Their Rare Breed bourbon contains 6, 8, and 12 year old whiskies, while the Russell's Reserve barrels (150 per batch) come from the center of the Nelson & Tyrone rickhouses.

As the tour and its tasting concluded, the smell of smoky pulled pork crept into the room. I followed my nose to the second floor bar and kitchen, whereat I consumed multiple sliders filled with said salty goodness, chasing it down with the rich Russell's Reserve 13 year old.

And that's how my day began. I needed two hours to simultaneously dry out and hydrate up. Then it was off to...

🌹 🌹 🌹 🌹 

When asked what my favorite bourbon brand is, I often say Four Roses. And I don't think I'm lying about it. Aside from the transparency about 10 different bourbon recipes, they also make some reliably very good whiskey under $50. Also, OBSK rules.

I'm looking at my mess of Four Roses notes, and the memories are kinda blurry, except when the reflux (esophageal, not still-related) kicked in at the end of the tasting, probably because I had a freaking cocktail before the tour began. So, I'm just going to list the information and skip any commentary.

Oh look, more rain.

Similar to Wild Turkey, Four Roses sources their corn from Kentucky, rye from Eastern Europe, and barley from Montana. They also grow their two yeast strains on site. Combining those elements with water from the adjacent limestone-rich Salt River, they give the mash an 84-hour fermentation to produce an 8%abv distiller's beer. They use two 45x4 column stills for the first distillation, and a pot still doubler for the second, creating a high wine of 69%-70%abv. This is then reduced to 60%abv for (#4 char) barreling. Four Roses uses single story rickhouses, with barrels stacked six high, in order to maintain control.

The Spanish Mission style facility was known as Old Prentice Distillery back when it was built in 1910. It was owned by Seagram from 1943 to 1999 after which it bounced between Vivendi Universal, Pernod Ricard, Diageo, and finally Kirin across less than three years. Current owners, Kirin, put an end to Four Roses Blended Whiskey to focus on the distillery's bourbon.

Their standard Four Roses bourbon comes from a mix of all 10 recipes, using 5-7 year old barrels. The Small Batch is "a little older" and contains just the K and O recipes. Their newer Small Batch Select is non-chillfiltered, and is fashioned from six of the recipes.

To my great surprise, the gift shop had a single barrel of high-powered OBSK on offer. So I took them up on a bottle, in exchange for money.

Yes, I got back to the hotel safely, after which I watched Manos, Hands of Fate (MST3K style). As I drifted to sleep, I promised myself I would never visit more than two distilleries in one day. I'm a promise-keeper, so I toured no more than two distilleries the following day...

Kentucky, Day 2: Frankfort

I drove southeast from Cincinnati toward Frankfort, KY, through a heavy rainstorm. Three accidents on the freeway put me one hour behind. Luckily I was able to reschedule my next distillery tour to later in the day.

The Castle & Key grounds were saturated so large muddy pools of water were forming everywhere as I arrived. But the dark sky formed the perfect background to one of the most beautiful distilleries I have ever seen.

Formerly the Castle Distillery, founded by EH Taylor, this facility once produced my favorite bourbons (y'all can keep yer Stitzel-Wellers) under its National Distillers ownership. The distillery closed in 1972 and was left to rust and rot by the landowners for three decades.

The limestone aquifer

In 2012, the property was bought up by developers who had big eyes for the real estate boom. And though they never got around to building anything, they did tear down some of the buildings. They sold the property to a consortium led by Will Arvin and Wesley Murry in 2014. This new group went to work refurbishing what they could, and reviving the production facilities with all new gear, and began distillation in 2016.

The imposing Warehouse E, built by World War II veterans, continues to serve as a home for the distillery's barrels, looming heavily over the inner courtyard, impenetrable, looking more ancient than Kentucky itself.

Castle & Key sources all of its white corn for its 73/10/17 (wheated) mashbill from Kentucky farmers. Their rye (63/20/17) spirit is used for their gin, and bourbon spirit for their vodka. They have no master distiller, and the gentleman who worked at a desk next to column still did not know how tall the still was, nor did he know what I meant by "a thumper".

At the tour's tasting, I didn't care for their rye or bourbon at all, finding the gin cocktail and chocolate bourbon ball much more pleasurable. I'm so grateful for the company's preservation of such a stunning piece of American whiskey history, so I don't mind that their Craft-work can't match the next distillery's products.

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Buffalo Trace Distillery has had a rough 2025. Flooding knocked one of their cargo containers and a temporary office into the Kentucky River in February. April brought even heavier floods that closed many of BT's building, and covered some vehicles on the property.

Though they reopened the gift shop, tours were cancelled through at least May. One had to book a reservation to go into the shop to buy their goodies, probably to keep the customer flow under control. The shop had very little of note, unless you get excited about EH Taylor Small Batch and 375mL Blanton's.

Tastings were held on the second floor and, again, the standards were all that were on hand. The lineup: Sazerac Rye, Buffalo Trace, EH Taylor Small Batch, a vodka, and another bourbon ball. Buffalo Trace registered better than the EHTSB as it always does for my face. But the bourbon ball was the highlight again. Downstairs they were selling a 12-pack for $40. I instead chose to visit the chocolatier herself (well, one of her stores), Rebecca Ruth, and filled a bag up with treats. For my kids, of course.

Sorry, I didn't take any pictures while I was there. The grounds were a soggy sight, and I have no need for Gift Shop photos. All the shoppers around me wished the distillery workers well, hoping for a quick recovery. And those same shoppers left muttering to each other about a future "EH Taylor Flood Batch", and how cynical the price would be. My kind of people.

Kentucky, Day 1: Cincinnati

Firstly, you will be shocked, shocked to discover that drinking of alcoholic products occurred during this trip. My sober memory isn't worth a dime, so pardon the lack of meticulous detail in these posts.

Secondly, I've lived long enough in the state of Ohio to feel comfortable with saying that, "Cincinnati is basically Kentucky." That is not an insult to that city nor either state. As one drives south of Columbus, The American South reveals itself quickly. It can be heard in the accents and trucks, tasted in the food, and seen on the fire-and-brimstone billboards. And of course, Cincy is right on the border of the Bluegrass State. Now, on to the adventure!

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It is raining in Kentucky as you read this. Parts of the state have been flooding for most of 2025, as the downpour does not stop. And, much like last year's Paris adventure, I did not pack appropriately for the weather.

Luckily the sun held off the dark clouds for the first few hours of day one, as I sped (read: drove incredibly safely) to Covington, KY, because I left my house an hour later than I'd intended. One minute before the tour was to begin, I parked at New Riff Distillery, right across the bridge from Cincinnati.

Kentucky is happy to see me

In 2014, Ken Lewis sold his ownership stake in The Party Source to the employees so that he could build a distillery in their parking lot. He brought on Larry Ebersol, the retired master distiller of the late great Old Seagrams Distillery to consult, and hired Brian Sprance of Sam Adams to run the 60' x 2' massive column still. In 2024, Ken retired, leaving ownership in the hands of his daughter Mollie Lewis and Hannah Lowen.

New Riff Distillery gets its water from a natural aquifer beneath the building, the corn from Indiana, and rye from Germany. Their bourbon comes from a 65/30/5 mash bill, while the rye goes with the MGP-like 95/5 mash. Those mashes undergo a 4-day open fermentation until they've become a ~7%abv distiller's beer. The first distillation goes through that huge 18-plated column still, then the low wines are further distilled in their thumper pot still to get the desired high wines. Their #4 char barrels come from two Kentucky coopers, and each final bottled batch is fashioned from 30-35 of those barrels. They have one bonded warehouse on site, and another off-site.

The tour guide (whose name I did not record, sadly) did an excellent job handling all of my pestering very well. The group tried a bunch of their products during the tour, and I found their Bottled-In-Bond bourbon to be my favorite thanks to its unique tobacco and dark chocolate notes. Afterwards, I went upstairs to their great bar and tried three of their single malts — the 2023, 2024, and 2025 releases — and liked all of them, though the long-gone 2023 was my favorite.

New Riff was a very pleasant surprise. Their whisky feels neither rushed nor raw nor over-oaked. I'd be happy to buy a bottle of that BIB, and the 2023 single malt if I ever find it in the wild.

Afterwards, I went to The Party Source and bought one liter of 190-proof Everclear, as one does.

As soon as I got to my hotel in Cincinnati, the thunder and lightning began, which was fabulous because I had very good tickets to the Reds vs. Nationals game. Though I did not pack a jacket, nor even a sweatshirt, I did have a good umbrella. So after I walked to the stadium, I sat down in my seat, watched the storm, and waited.

Okay, I didn't sit for the full two-hour wait. I ate ballpark pizza and forced down a Yuengling tall boy. And then the rain stopped! And a great ballgame commenced, with Hunter Greene striking out 12 Nationals in six innings, leading the Reds to a 6-1 win.

The rain started again during the eighth inning and did not stop for three days.

That one time I went to Kentucky

My goal has been to take one international trip each spring, but I could tell that 2025 was going to be a bit different, even before the year began. Issues with time, money, geopolitics, and personal life converged and I was left without a plan or a plane ticket. Then, several weeks ago, a little impulsive brainstorm blossomed: Go. To. Kentucky.

By car, the Cincinnati border is less than two hours from my house, and yet after nearly nine years in Ohio, I've never made a trek farther than The Party Source. Not with my daughters' mother, nor the four women with whom I've had (limited) relationships, nor any of my whisk(e)y buddies. So my 2025 Spring Vacation would take me to Bourbon Country.

Despite nearly three decades' worth of attempts, my palate has never fully embraced bourbon. I've always found contemporary bourbon's scope of complexity to be far narrower than Scotch whisky's (and Irish whisky's and Japanese whisky's), due to the dependence on the bourbon spirit's intensive oak extraction. In fact, I find white dog and distiller's beer to be more interesting than the resulting brown oak juice.

But I have also lost my way when it comes to American whiskies. At some point I lost interest in seeking out a better bourbon, and cringed at every new Craft creation. As of early 2025, other than Indiana's MGP 95/5 ryes, I didn't know what American whiskies actually work for my taste buds. So, I wanted to find out.

Due to the nutty internal and external life I'm navigating, the one that barely leaves me time to post on this blog, I didn't plan much of this trip. There did need to be baseball games, long walks in the woods, barbecue, and, yes, bourbon distillery tours, the normal ones that anyone else can sign up for, no special behind-the-scenes treatment.

That 9-day trip concluded last weekend. I will now attempt to recap it in less than a handful of posts, and then return to my regularly(?) scheduled(?) whisky reviews. Thank you for your patience.