After our hearty breakfast we were off for a day of bourbon trail touring. The day before we had called numerous distilleries to try and book a tour and every one we called was booked solid. And this was on a Tuesday! We decided we’d go to a few anyway and if we couldn’t sneak into a tour or a tasting, we’d just go to the gift shops.

Our first stop was Barton distillery which was right there in Bardstown. Barton has been around since 1879, closing only during prohibition. They’ve won many awards for best bourbon over the last 5 years. There was a tour getting ready to start when we got there and they ended up having an opening so we actually got on it! It was an interesting tour but not much different from many other wine, beer or whiskey tours we’ve been on. At the end of the tour we got a tasting which we really did enjoy. We learned more about the different types of bourbons and how best to taste them. One little fun bit of info I learned, I’ve always been told to sniff in the whiskey or bourbon before tasting. This was just too strong for me and kind of turned me off to it. Our taster told me to keep my mouth open during the sniffing and that diluted the strength of the sniff and was much more pleasant. We also got a piece of dark chocolate to taste with the bourbon which really made it more enjoyable. They had another bourbon called chocolate bourbon ball that was like an Irish Cream. We really liked that and went home with a bottle.

From there we went to Preservation distillery, a very small craft distillery that opened in the 1950’s and produces small amounts of bourbon compared to larger distilleries. They didn’t have any tours or tastings available so we looked through the gift shop and decided their bourbons were a bit more expensive than we wanted to pay. A fun fact here is the distillery is owned by the wife of Lou Palatella, a former San Francisco 49er football player.

Next stop was Willett distillery. This was a beautiful distillery opened in 1936. They didn’t have a tour available but they did have a tasting, which we did. The tasting room was very nice and our taster was great. We told him we were on our way to Buffalo Trace distillery and he recommended we stop at another one on the way. Which brings us to:

Glenns creek distillery. This was another small craft distillery and to say it was off the beaten path is an understatement. We drove quite a ways along a very long, windy, narrow road to arrive at a building that didn’t even look operating. We went inside and were greeted by one of the owners. They don’t have a staff like most other distilleries and usually there are only 2 people there to take care of tours, operations and the front desk so it was obvious he wasn’t going to spend a lot of time with us. There were no tours or tastings available but based on the uniqueness and our previous taster’s recommendations we decided to buy a bottle. He suggested one and even signed it for us. Finally, we were off to our final distillery:

Buffalo trace, who holds the Guinness book of world record for the oldest operating bourbon distillery. Although the distillery was first built in 1812, the guys that started the distillery began distilling on this property in 1775. Again, all their tours and tastings were booked so we visited the gift shop, bought a bottle, and after a long day, headed home.