Anyone ever done the Whiskey trail?

Post I made on the food board in the bourbon thread from earlier this year....


My buddies and I spent a long weekend in Louisville and Friday one day was spent on hunting down bourbon. LSUcdro recommended Mint Julep Tours and John was recommended as our driver if he was available. I talked with Jeannie who books the tours and she was able to put together a custom package for the day. It was explained that we wanted something unique. We knew good pours were not something commonly handed out for tastings so we worked with that we were delt.

We started the day at Buffalo Trace, had about an hour tour of basic bourbon stuff and the history of the distillery. We wanted the hard hat tour, but it had sold out prior to us even picking the date of our trip. The tastings was Eagle Rare and Buffalo trace with some white dog thrown in for good measure. John was able to walk us around a little of the property that the tour did visit. It was a good tour to start the day.

Second stop was 4 Rose for just a tasting and to hit the gift shop. All they had was OBSK at the gift shop, it was nothing special and the tasting wasn't much better. The tour guide was not good and John agreed that it was lacking the day we visited.

The next stop was 3 Boys Farm Distillery. They are laying up around 60-80 barrels a year. We didn't make it in the gift shop, only the barn with the operation. The owner is orignally from Lousiana, but he was not in when we visited. They have been around 4-5 years and everything they have is young but pretty tasty. We sampled 4 barrels, some bourbon, some whiskey, all were 119-121 proof and all of them were pretty good. More for the experience I bought a bottle straight from the barrel. It isn't manicured lawns the tasting was great like some of the large distilleries, this place isn't winning any beauty pageants, but I would take this stop over 4 rose.

The last bourbon stop was Jeptha Creed. This is a very new operation, with a lot of attention to detail. Everything here is young juice. They are using an heirloom red butchers corn grown onsite. The owners are a husband/ wife daughter and they were all there. We had a private tasting in the rickhouse. They are laying up 500 barrels a year and making a bunch of vodkas and moonshine to cover expenses till the bourbon has enough time to age. They pulled a corn/rye batch from the barrel. This stuff is young and around 122 proof, drank pretty damn well. We had a blast here and it was a great experience.

I will probably get poo pooed on this board for saying it but I really enjoyed the Makers Mark tour. It’s more of a corporate / big industry affair than the small spots but it has a ton of history and was very well organized. I also enjoyed being able to buy a case at the end and dip my own bottles in the wax. Made for good Xmas gifts.

Did it a few years ago. We found a VRBO out in the middle of nowhere and it was awesome. We drove ourselves so we could be on our own schedule. The distilleries don't really give you big enough samples to get drunk on, and laws dont allow them to sell open drinks on their premises, so unless you pack a cooler to drink in the car between stops, drunk driving isn't really a concern.

Plan on 3 to 4 stops per day. They're all kind of spread out, though they are a bit closer together near Lexington.

And I cant recommend going in the fall enough. The weather and scenery was gorgeous while we were there.