Over the weekend, my buddy and I decided to drive down to Kentucky to explore some of the distilleries in the area and get to try some good old bourbon. There are many distilleries out there (a lot of them were already packed with reservations), but we decided to make our home base Lexington and explore as many as we could from there; specifically, we stayed at the Elwood Hotel & Suites.
Woodford Reserve
Since we were a little ahead of schedule, along the way to the hotel, we stopped at the Woodford Reserve distillery. We didn’t have a reservation, but figured we could at least get a drink. The small drive through the property up to their visitor center was a rather scenic drive.
The visitor center itself was very inviting. It was a mix of retail, comfort, and bar vibes. There was a door that opened up to outdoor seating in the back, a fireplace indoors, and a full bar as well. Although we were tempted to get a flight of their bourborns, we really only had the time for 1 drink before we needed to start getting ready for our first tour. The drink of course was a delicious old fashion.
James E. Pepper
Once we arrived at the hotel, we quickly dropped off our stuff and started to get ready to visit the first tour on our list (since it was so close to the hotel and they had openings).
This was a great start the distilleries. Quick overview of how bourbon is made and what exactly is it, a small taste of the different stages (including the raw 130 proof white water bourbon). At the end of the tour, we got to sample a couple of their famous bourbon with a delicious piece of chocolate.
Wild Turkey
Wild Turkey was a pretty fantastic experience. Once again, the Wild Turkey property is beautiful and the facility is very well taken care off. As soon as we were in the tasting room and our distiller started talking to us, it was apparent that this guy really knew his stuff and could nerd out about bourborn all day.
Along with some great details on the production of some of their bourbon (and what makes theirs so special), we got to sample their bourbon, their rye, and a super secret bourbon that is not sold (which was actually top 2 bourbons we had on this trip). After a delicious sampling of various bottles, our tasting was coming to an end.
After the tasting, legendary master distiller Jimmy Russell was there, so I decided to pick up a bottle and have him sign in it!
Of course, at the end, we picked up an old fashion and headed outside to really enjoy this drink in the beautiful Wild Turkey property.
Registered Distillery One (RD1)
This next distillery was VERY different from Wild Turkey. First of all, it’s in the city (rather than the countryside). Also, it is the newest distillery of them all here, since it officially opened up earlier that week!
For this one, it was less of a tour and more of a “bottle your own experience”. We got to sample a couple of their more well known bourbors as well as 2 R&D ones they are testing out with their sister cities in France and Japan – all delicious! They have a pretty unique process of dipping different types of wood into their bourbon and letting it soak to naturally flavor their bourbon.
After sampling their goods, we got to pour the bourbon (or blend of them) into our bottle with our very own label on it!
Glenns Creek Distlling
The final official tour we had scheduled was for Glenns Creek, a distillery out in the countryside in the Old Crow Distillery. I think this one ended up being not just one of our favorite tours, but also top 2 bourbons we had – “Bourbon without the BS” as David might say. Apparently, there aren’t many tours and it’s usually not a thing (so we got pretty lucky with reservations). David, owner and master distiller, was the one to give us the tour of his property.
Long story short, there is a lot of great history here and David has great stories and a tremendous amount of knowledge about history, engineering, and of course distilling.
It was really great to see how distilleries architected their process and how that has evolved now.
At the end of the tour, we sat down with David in a makeshift bar he has in one of the warehouses and started giving us a few stories about his own history, history of some of his drinks, etc, while pouring us samples from his various bottles.
This was also a top 2 for me. I ended up getting a bottle of the OCD #5 since it’s something you can only get by visiting this distillery. Great experience to end the trip on.
Castle & Key
We did not have a reservation for Castle & Key, but we were able to simply tour their grounds on our own, grab a drink and a bite, and enjoy their also beautiful grounds. This one is right next door to Glenns Creek which was great, since it was no additional effort at all!
We just grabbed a sampler for their drinks, which was pretty refreshing.
Best of all, they had a food truck! Which was perfect since we needed some lunch for the drive back home!
After grabbing a couple of souvenirs, our trip had officially come to an end.
