Kentucky Bourbon Trail

April 17, 2023 – April 22, 2023

The Newbies – Mom and me

Let’s start with I don’t like bourbon but having been passed/to a couple of whisky distilleries when I lived in Nashville so I believed that bourbon distilleries are very beautiful sites. My husband and I were in Kentucky for a wedding at Buffalo Trace anyway so I invited my momma to meet me for her birthday and a girls trip on the bourbon trail. I thought she had always said she wanted to go but while we were there she mentioned she never really thought about going so I must have dreamed it and away we went.

I drew up a spreadsheet for her to do some research and pick the ones she wanted to see in our few days. We ended up adding a couple just because we had the time. We did not pick based on the bourbon, just on the easiest route and ones that looked interesting. Mainly, I wanted to go to Bardstown because it looked adorable and it was very haunted. We did a loop from Cincinnati as those were the easiest flights from Colorado. Tips for first timers, some we received from people that have been and some we collected while researching:

Distilleries all have dates they are closed and times that are unavailable. Book your tours and experiences ahead of time.

Don’t go on a tour of every place. Mainly, the bourbon making process is about the same but how they finish it is different. Find experiences at distilleries instead of just the tour.

I’ve included where we stayed at each town because I HIGHLY recommend both places. They were convenient, interesting, and budget-friendly. Stops included:
1. Versailles, KY
  Buffalo Trace
   Woodford Reserve
   Maker’s Mark
2. Bardstown, KY
  The Bardstown Bourbon Company
  Jim Beam

Let’s just dive in. Kentucky in April is rainy. Remember that if you plan to go in April. The good thing about April is that it wasn’t very busy anywhere so getting tours was relatively easy. A couple of things were already all booked up like The Old Talbott Tavern in Bardstown which has an amazing history BUT right next door is The Jailer’s Inn which was absolutely wonderful.

I will say, this was a loosely planned trip of let’s just do whatever we want, whenever we want so the first day didn’t actually have any plans. After waking up whenever we wanted, Momma said “let’s go to Buffalo Trace” because my brother did ask if we could find Pappy Van Winkle’s which we absolutely did not have luck in purchasing this rare bourbon. I had been to Buffalo Trace about 10 times over the wedding weekend but it is beautiful so I had no issue heading back. We walked right up to a tasting and could have spent hours in the gift shop. Buffalo Trace was the only distillery that offered heavily discounted items on site but does limit how much you can buy within a certain time period. The Bourbon Cream mixed with their root beer was absolutely delicious and we drank this at night for the rest of the trip!

After Buffalo Trace, we just drove around and decided we would check out Woodford Reserve just to do it. I do not recommend heading out here unless you actually like Woodford Reserve. The buildings, grounds, and staff were underwhelming at best. We were basically just told to head to their restaurant/bar so we did. We grabbed a mixed drink that cost a fortune but you get to keep the copper cup and a charcuterie box which was box of mainly packaged foods that were not particularly good other than the cheese spread. We sat out on the porch and watched the horses behind the building. We tried to drink the concoction but honestly, it was terrible so we dumped it, took the cups, and headed out.

Our second day was our first booked tour at Maker’s Mark on our way to Bardstown. This was by far the most interesting, most beautiful, and best experience. The grounds were stunning. The stories were riveting. And this is the only one I could actually drink! At the end, we purchased the most recent batch of staff’s private reserve and got to dip the bottle in wax to seal it! I cannot say enough about how wonderful the Maker’s Mark experience was. It’s everything you go on the Bourbon Trail to do. Historical buildings, stories filled with local lore, and you feel like you could be back in time to the birth of a bourbon.

After a wonderful experience, we headed into Bardstown to check in to The Jailer’s Inn and grab lunch at the Talbott Tavern to see if we could experience the paranormal throwing our silverware around and moving our glasses. Alas, that did not happen. We were warned by our host and owner at The Jailer’s Inn that they had been going through some staff turnover in the kitchen so we will forgive the fact that the Kentucky Hot Brown was not particularly good. The atmosphere is everything you would hope for in a place that has such a colorful history. I definitely recommend this place and hopefully the kitchen is back on track so you enjoy the food as much as the surroundings. After lunch, we did a little Main Street shopping – a lot of local artisans and a variety of old things and some actual antiques; A LOT of rhinestones and rivets. There was one shop in particular that my mother and I could have bought just about everything in there. Do not miss out on Shaq & Coco.

Day Three! The Bardstown Bourbon Company was a completely different experience than any of the things we had done so far. This distillery is so new that they did not have any fully Bardstown Bourbon Distillery bourbons as it wasn’t old enough to fully age so they blend with other distilleries. If you are going on the trail for the history of it, this isn’t your place. They thumb their noses at the local lore and opt for a very modern take on bourbon. The fun part was the experience! We did a Shaken and Stirred mixology class where we made two drinks in the private bar created for the owner. We got Momma pretty intoxicated as I don’t drink bourbon so she had her two and my two…all before we had any food. It was a beautiful day so we headed back to the restaurant, grabbed some food, enjoyed the weather outside before heading back into Bardstown.

Since we didn’t have anything planned, this afternoon was a “what do you want to do and see?” so we looked up everything we could drive by of historical significance. We basically found a bunch of things that were rebuilt or moved from somewhere else and everything was closed so we walked the Kentucky-version of the Appian Way, The Cobblestone Path.

Then we drove forever to who knows where to find the cabin where Abraham Lincoln was born but as we read more, it’s a symbolic cabin in the middle of field that they think was where he was born so we skipped it and tried to make it to a haunted battlefield in time…we did not so we found a little restaurant at the Beaumont Inn, Old Owl Tavern, that was fantastic before driving back to Bardstown. When we got back to The Jailer’s Inn, we decided to sneak into the original portion of the jail that is still intact to look for ghosts. I don’t know that we saw anything, we were too scared to actually walk down the pitch black corridor. However, that little light that I though was a reflection or a light outside…in the light of day, there is no window with glass there so I’ll let you decide. That night, I do think I had my first paranormal experience. The Garden Room is rumored, like most places in Bardstown, to be haunted. In the middle of the night, I woke to an overwhelming smell of smoke and sat bolt upright in bed. The room immediately got frigid. Then, everything just dissipated. No smoke smell. Normal temperature. There was no fire at The Jailer’s Inn in the past but there have been fires at The Old Talbott Tavern throughout the years. Our room directly faced The Old Talbott Tavern…

That was the last night of our Bourbon Trail vacation so it was time to get that tour of The Jailer’s Inn before we headed to Jim Beam on the way back to Cincinnati for our flight out the next morning. The owner of The Jailer’s Inn is clearly a passionate man who loves his ownership and job so much. He was very entertaining as he walked us through the small jail and took all the best photos. I really do recommend staying here and if not sleeping here, at the very least, get yourself a tour from this amazing man.

Jim Beam – this distillery is GIGANTIC, as you would expect. We did another tour here even though I said “one tour is enough.” I will say, if you are to do two, this would be the way to do it. Most of the information was the same but there were a few fun facts that we did not learn on the Maker’s Mark tour including why so many of the buildings are painted black and pointed out that the trees around a distillery are also black. There is a fungus that grows around distilleries due to the distilling process. This was also a telltale sign during prohibition, often giving away illegal stills. We were able to completely bottle our own bottle of Knob Hill from start to finish for an extra cost so of course we did it! Momma made a reservation at the restaurant onsite, The Kitchen Table, which was perfect timing since the skies opened up on walk over there and we were able to enjoy a fantastic lunch while waiting out the deluge. The food was fantastic as were the cocktails. It was a great end to a fun, and our first, Momma and daughter trip! We now have many bottles of fine bourbon, which no one in our family drinks other than my brother and my uncle so we are always ready for entertaining others!

If you have any questions about a Bourbon Trail trip you are planning, contact me and I can help a little bit or at the very least, below, I shared the list of all the distilleries, links, and dates/time they are closed (as of April 2023) that are on the smaller inner circle of the trail. Bourbon is a personal taste so you should make your tour your own but if you are like Momma and me, I can give some tips on why we chose the way we did it.

Name	Address	Website	Hours
Full Trip		https://goo.gl/maps/GbEry1DaJFV13Pjc7
WOODFORD RESERVE	7785 McCracken Pike, Versailles, KY 40383, USA	Tour Our Distillery – Woodford Reserve
WILD TURKEY	1417 Versailles Rd, Lawrenceburg, KY 40342	https://www.wildturkeybourbon.com/en-us/	Closed Sun-Tues
FOUR ROSES	1224 Bonds Mill Rd, Lawrenceburg, KY 40342	https://fourrosesbourbon.com/
BARDSTOWN BOURBON CO.	1500 Parkway Dr, Bardstown, KY 40004	https://www.bardstownbourbon.com/	Closed Monday and tuesday; 9:30-5:30
LUX ROW	1 Lux Row, Bardstown, KY, USA	https://www.facebook.com/LuxRowDistillers/about/?ref=page_internal	9:30AM-5:00PM
HEAVEN HILL	1311 Gilkey Run Rd, Bardstown, KY 40004	https://heavenhilldistillery.com/	11:00AM-5:00PM
BULLEIT	3464 Benson Pike, Shelbyville, KY, USA	https://www.bulleit.com/visit-us/	Closed Mon, Tues, Wed; 10:30AM-4PM
JAMES B. BEAM	568 Happy Hollow Rd, Clermont, KY 40110	https://www.beamdistilling.com/home	Closed Monday and tuesday; 9:30-5:30