Bourbon, specifically. Took a trip to Kentucky for my buddy's bachelor trip. Did tastings/tours at 5 distilleries and learned a bunch. Not a whole lot has changed in 200 years of making bourbon.

Started off at a distillery older than America. Buffalo Trace Distillery, founded 1775. Was there 2 mornings for their allocated drop and got a good tour of the place. Their production is booming. Managed to get Blanton's and EH Taylor for the two allocated drops we were there for. Really hit a home run




Next we went to Glenn's Creek and Castle and Key. More Taylor influence here. Castle and Key was a little liberal for me. Glenn's Creek was pretty neat. Their slogan is "Bourbon without the BS"




Ended at Woodford and Whiskey Thief. Woodford is neat but really corporate. If Glenns creek is Bourbon without the BS Woodford is Bourbon WITH the BS. Whiskey thief is neat because they serve it straight out of the barrels. No filtering or cutting the proof down. Cool place




Learned a lot and learned why I taste what I do when I drink different bourbons. Well on my way to becoming a bourbon snob, lol

I assume they sell it in glass bottles?

What is an "allocated drop" (for us non-snobs)?

If you liked Blantons give Ancient Age a sip. Lots cheaper and very good and similar to Blantons without paying 150 a bottle.

Yes sir run that's correct

Waggler, an allocated drop is when they drop the stuff that is hard to get. That distillery produces 18 different bourbons. A handful of them are the higher end ones that they don't produce as much of. An allocated amount is released each morning at the distillery. People line up each morning to get their bottle. You are only allowed one of each of the allocated bottles every 90 days.

Blantons is $60 a bottle at the distillery and retail. People mark it up because of the demand. I will give that a try though!

I built the back bar cabinet/secret door at castle and key’s tasting room. Doesn’t surprise me they are a lib bunch.

Interesting post - thank you!

To be able to thoroughly evaluate good Whiskey,you need to drink enough to be able to evaluate the hangover the next day.
Good Post CD!

I don't drink but would love to take that tour. White oak log buyer told me they only make one batch of burbon with the barrels then sell the barrels to the Jack Daniel's swill in TN for their use.

Pretty sure the distilleries sell the used barrels for what they originally paid for them.

That is really neat! It is a cool place and lots of history, but for some reason it seemed to be where every liberal in Western kentucky was gathered when I was there


That is correct. For it to be considered bourbon it has to have more than 51% corn and it has to be aged in a new barrel. Once they use them once you can no longer make bourbon in that barrel. But the barrels are good for 60-100 years

Maker's Mark

Didn't get a chance to tour that one, would have liked to have seen it

So if a guy was traveling through the area and could only stop at one, which would you recommend? We are going on a family trip that way this summer and want to see as much cool stuff as we can. Thanks and cool post

I'd stop at whichever one you could get a tour at. The one I liked the most was Buffalo Trace, but without a tour you don't really know what you are looking at.

The woodford reserve tour was great and you could see every step of the process. The tours can be kind of hard to get in so I would look on a few websites and see which one you could get in. I know the Buffalo Trace tours are impossible to get into. But woodford should be doable

A lot of Biden Bumpah stickahs ???

No sir, a lot of FUJOE hats though!