For my birthday this year, my dad and I decided to take a trip to Kentucky to visit a bunch of distilleries.
My dad is relatively new to whiskey so I was excited for him to see everything that goes into making whiskey and to visit some distillery tours and tastings.
He’s a fan of wines and knows a lot about wine, so this was a great chance to introduce him to some of the better bourbon whiskeys in the capital of American whiskey – Kentucky.
Since we did so much and this became such a long blog post, I have linked some of our top moments of the trip so you can click and be directed directly to them.
Best Moments of our Kentucky Bourbon Trail 2023
- Meeting and having Drinks with Fred and Freddie Noe at Jim Beam Distillery
- Making our own bottle of Knob Creek Whiskey
- Tasting Old Forester Birthday Bourbon and President’s Choice
- Driving through the countryside on the way to Woodford Reserve
- Eating the best BBQ I’ve ever had in my life at Doc Crow’s
- Having “Two Jacks on the Rocks” at the Jack Daniel’s Distillery Tour
- Staying overnight in a historical house built in 1780 in Bardstown Kentucky
- Dipping our own Maker’s Mark Bottles into Wax at the Maker’s Mark Distillery
- Tasting Four Roses Special Limited Release at the Four Roses Distillery
Also, I was able to taste so many amazing whiskeys during this trip so I have linked to each of the best pours of the trip. Most are pretty rare pours and very difficult to get, but others can be found relatively easily.
These top tastes were just mine and my dad’s favorites overall.
Top 10 Best Whiskey Tastings, Tours and Pours of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail 2023
- Russell’s Reserve 13-Year
- Old Forester Birthday Bourbon
- Old Forester President’s Choice Bourbon
- Four Roses – 2021 Special Limited Release
- Maker’s Mark 2023 Special Release – BEP Wood Finishing Series
- Maker’s Mark 2021 Special Release – FAE-02 Wood Finishing Series
- Jim Beam – Distiller’s Choice #1
- Jim Beam Clermont Steep
- Peerless Single Barrel Rye – 2023 Honey Roasted Cherries
- Weller Antique 107
Day 1
We live in Pennsylvania, so the drive to Kentucky is about 6 hours. We drove straight through and arrived in Louisville on my birthday, Tuesday, May 23rd.
I had planned some distillery tours based on some of my favorite whiskeys and for the most part, I didn’t go to many distilleries that I had already visited.
So not only were the distilleries new to my dad, but they were also new to me.
The first distillery we visited was Old Forester.
Old Forester Distillery Tour and Tasting
Old Forester is located right in downtown Louisville, Kentucky so it’s an easy place to visit and has a nice tour facility.
When we started the tour, they gave us a nice history of the distillery and we learned that Old Forester was the very first “American Bottled Bourbon”.
Before Old Forester, there was no standard for what bourbon would be sold in and many people would just come to the distillery with their own growler-style jugs and get their bottles filled.
Many of these bottles were not clear, so bootleggers and racketeers were adding unsafe components to their whiskey like gunpowder, tobacco, and gasoline to give it a color similar to bourbon.
So in 1871, Old Forester Whiskey was the first distillery to put its product into a clear glass sealed bottle that was quality guaranteed safe every time.
This was the beginning of whiskey bottles being one-time use and really sparked the need to have creative bottle labels to this day.
Jack Daniel’s is a label that has been nearly the same from the very beginning and is another tour we visited on this trip.
In addition to the long history of the Old Forester Distillery, it was really cool to see how their whiskey is made, how they make their own barrels, and they even charred a barrel right in front of us so we could see how the process works.
They took us through their distilling process and where they store some of their barrels on-site.
We then arrived at the tasting room where we got to taste some of their standard offerings.
The lineup included Old Forester 1870, Old Forester 1897, Old Forester 1910, and Old Forester 1920.
If you’ve ever had Old Forester, you know that they are pretty reliable all around. All of their whiskeys offer excellent value at their price points.
Old Forester is one of my go-to whiskeys for making old-fashioneds if I want a bourbon old fashioned and is affordable and tasty.
The Old Forester 1910 and Old Forester 1920 are excellent whiskeys to drink neat or on the rocks.
The Old Forester 1910 offers a nice smooth flavor profile that is incredibly easy to sip on.
The Old Forester 1920 offers a bolder flavor profile that has a little more heat and flavor to it.
They’re both excellent options and it was a very nice tasting experience.
All around, Old Forester was an excellent experience for my dad to have as his first distillery tour.
But the true Old Forester was still to come!
George’s Bar at Old Forester
After we finished the Old Forester distillery tour, we saw that I couldn’t purchase many of the rarer Old Forester bourbons.
This was kind of expected and they said that sometimes they have the rare bottles and other times they don’t.
But they DO have all of their rare bourbons at George’s Bar which is just inside the distilleries main doors.
Since it was my birthday, my dad certainly wanted me to have the chance to try the Old Forester Birthday Bourbon when I told him about it.
I checked the menu and it was $50 for a one-ounce pour which isn’t bad seeing as how the bottle goes for $1200 on the secondary market.
But when I looked down the bar, I saw another group that had a tasting flight of three different whiskeys.
I asked them what they had and they said they got the bartender’s choice flight which consisted of Old Forester Birthday Bourbon, Old Forester President’s Choice, and Old Forester 117 Series.
I asked them how much it was and it was also just $50! I quickly knew what I was ordering.
This tasting gave me a lesson I’ll always remember.
When taking distillery tours, always be sure to either:
- Scheduling the tour with the high-end expensive whiskey tastings
- Visit the distillery bar and pay for a tasting of their high-end whiskeys
This tasting made the stop at Old Forester really stand out as a highlight of my entire trip.
As I tasted their top-tier offerings, I got to share the difference in quality between the standard whiskeys you can always find on the shelves versus their high-end rare products.
As we tasted each of the whiskeys, it was clear that these were much better.
And don’t get me wrong, I love Old Forester 1910 and 1920. They’re two of my top-recommended whiskeys to a lot of people.
But when I tasted the Old Forester Birthday Bourbon, it was just spectacular.
I quickly understood why so many people spent so much on a bottle of this stuff.
The Old Forester Birthday Bourbon was my favorite of the tasting and easily worth the cost of entry for the flight.
My dad’s favorite was the President’s Choice. He felt it had a bit more flavor and power behind it which I could agree with. He like the bigger and bolder flavors whereas I enjoyed the smooth refinement of the Birthday Bourbon.
Neither of us was wrong and the fact that both of these bottles generally cost over $1000 on the secondary market is a testament to that.
Now I’m not a big fan of paying much more than retail for all of my bottles of whiskey, but if I saw a bottle of Birthday Bourbon for less then $300-350 dollars, I would probably buy that up in an instant (MSRP is $150).
Is the bottle worth over $1,000? Not to me, no. I’ll get a pour of it every now and then if I ever see it out, but it’s hard for me to justify spending that much over MSRP.
I’ll just keep entering my Pennsylvania state lottery and hoping for the best!
The Old Forester 117 series was also quite delicious, but neither of us thought it help up against the Birthday Bourbon and President’s Choice.
All-in-all, whether you spring for the high-end tasting flight, Old Forester is an excellent distillery to visit anytime you are in Kentucky.
Peerless Distillery Tour and Tasting
The next distillery tour we visited was Peerless Distillery.
I’ve been a big fan of Peerless Rye whiskey ever since my friend Chuck and I bought a bottle in Ohio (since we can never find it in PA).
My friend Chuck said, “This is supposed to be an excellent Rye, we should pick it up”.
And we did!
Generally, I prefer bourbons more than Rye whiskey, but when I tasted the Peerless Rye I was seriously impressed.
The thing I like most about their rye whiskey is that they do an excellent job of extracting all the rye spices and flavors without making a whiskey with too much heat on the palate.
Peerless Rye whiskey is one of those whiskeys you can sip on anytime and offer to anyone and know that they will enjoy it.
I missed out on the distillery tour the last time I was in Kentucky, so this time I made it a priority to visit and do a tasting.
Right when we walked in the door, we were greeted with a smiling face and quickly instructed to have a look around and the tour would be ready soon.
Once the tour started, we were able to learn of the history of the Peerless distillery which has roots back to 1889 but was shut down in 1917 and finally re-opened in 2015.
The Lever Act was in force in 1917 and with the talk of national prohibition, Henry Kraver decided to shut down the distillery and continued to sell off his whiskey inventory as well as all of the machinery used in production.
Interestingly enough, the person that he sold all of his stills to in 1925 was Elmore Sherman, Sr – the founder of Vendome Copper & Brass Works who still produced the majority of the stills used in Distilleries across the United States today.
Nearly 100 years later, Henry Kraver’s great-grandson Corky Taylor sold his financial services company and decided to re-open the distillery.
He petitioned for the same distillery number as his great-grandfather had and was successful. You will see this number on all bottles of Peerless Distillery whiskey: DSP-KY-50.
As we toured around the distillery, it was cool to see a smaller distillery really making its mark on the industry.
Being relatively new, have a lot of hurdles and competition to cut through and so far, they are doing an excellent job.
We got to see their entire process from start to finish including the fermentation vats, the still, and doubler, they were filling the barrels with a hose similar to a gas-tank hose which was cool to see, and they went over the amount of char they put on their barrels.
I thought it was really cool that they let us smell their white dog or raw distillate.
You would think it would smell extremely strong and alcoholic, but it actually smelled quite sweet and of corn.
As we were experiencing the tour, we were lucky enough to have the owner of the Distillery, Corky Taylor drop in and hang out with us.
He was extremely nice and told us stories about himself being roommates with the Allman Brothers in college and how he used to dip toothpicks in cinnamon and sell them to make some extra cash.
I didn’t have any bottles purchased yet or I would have had him sign them.
He did pop back in during our tasting where we got to try 4 core Peerless products including a bonus pour of the Peerless Rye Whiskey finished in Absinthe Barrels.
My personal favorite of the tasting was the Peerless Rye Single Barrel – 2023 Honey Roasted Cherries which I purchased after the tasting and reviewed here on the site.
As my bonus tasting, we got to vote and we went with the Peerless Rye Whiskey finished in Absinthe Barrels which I also reviewed.
It was such an interesting combination of flavors that I just had to pick up a bottle (my dad purchased these for me as a gift).
I’m a fan of absinthe rinse cocktails and have always enjoyed Sambuca, so imagine having those herbal and anise notes of those blended with the sweet caramel, oak, vanilla, and rye spices of a whiskey.
It’s certainly an interesting combination and it is an excellent talking point that I will share with people when they visit for whiskey tastings at my place.
Overall, I really enjoyed the Peerless Distillery tour and it was an especially nice touch that Corky stopped in to say hi and hung around and talked with us for a while.
My dad and him actually discussed some football and Corky spent some time with others on the tour and really seemed to enjoy interacting with all of us.
If you have a chance to visit Peerless Distillery, I would definitely recommend stopping there on your next trip.
And if you haven’t had Peerless Rye Whiskey, definitely pick yourself up a bottle if you see it on the shelf.
Michter’s Bar at Fort Nelson
Michter’s makes some incredibly good whiskeys. I especially like their Sour Mash and have been trying to get a bottle of their toasted Bourbon and Sour Mash but it’s so hard to get here in Pennsylvania.
It sells out on the website in a matter of minutes and even during the minutes it is live, the website crashes, and orders don’t go through.
But last time I was in Kentucky with my friends, we visited the Michter’s Bar at Fort Nelson and we had the best cocktail.
So this time, I went to take my dad so we could do a tasting of their higher-end whiskeys.
The first flight we got was the Michter’s Bourbon Flight which cost us $35.
This tasting included the following bourbons:
- Michter’s US *1 Kentucky Straight Bourbon
- Michter’s 10 Year Kentucky Straight Bourbon
- Michter’s US *1 Barrel Strength Bourbon
- Bomber’s Declaration Kentucky Straight Bourbon
The second flight we got was the Michter’s Rye Flight which also cost $35.
This tasting included the following Rye Whiskeys:
- Michter’s US *1 Kentucky Straight Rye
- Michter’s 10 Year Kentucky Straight Rye
- Michter’s US *1 Barrel Strength Rye
- Michter’s US *1 Toasted Barrel Finish Rye
I think both of these flights were absolutely worth the price tag.
I got the chance to try both Michter’s 10-Year Bourbon, the Michter’s 10-Year Rye, as well as Bomberger’s Declaration and Michter’s Toasted Finished Rye.
My dad and I really enjoyed tasting all of these whiskeys and my favorite was definitely the Michter’s 10-Year Bourbon, but the Michter’s 10-Year Rye, Bomberger’s, and Toasted Finish Rye were all also excellent.
After our tasting, we decided to get some dinner.
Doc Crows BBQ and Raw Bar
For dinner, we visited one of my favorite spots in Louisville, Doc Crow’s.
Doc Crow’s is an excellent BBQ restaurant right in downtown Louisville and they also have a selection of over 2,000 whiskeys to get pours of.
While the prices are a little high, you can get a pour of nearly anything you can image.
It’s amazing to have so many whiskeys in one place and just flipping through the menu is like taking a trip through the history of whiskey.
But this trip, the highlight of our Doc Crow’s visit wasn’t the whiskey, it was their food.
I was deciding between ordering a few items and when I asked our server which was best, she immediately said, “The Bone-In Short Rib” without hesitation.
I trusted her judgment and ordered the bone-in short rib and my dad ordered a shrimp Po-Boy.
When the food arrived, I took one bite and said, “I think this is the best BBQ I’ve ever had in my entire life!”
After a few more bites, I am convinced that it IS the best BBQ I’ve ever had in my life.
If you’re ever in Louisville, Doc Crows is an absolutely must-visit for both food and whiskey.
All-in-all, we really got a lot done and had some excellent food and whiskey.
I’m still not 100% sure what my favorite whiskey of the trip was, but the Old Forester Birthday Bourbon is certainly in the top 3.
Day 2
Jim Beam Distillery Tour and Tasting
Next up was the Jim Beam Distillery tour.
I didn’t originally have this tour scheduled, but my dad mentioned Jim Beam since they’re one of the biggest bourbon distilleries in the world and I decided to check and see what tours they had available.
When I looked it up, I saw that they had a special one-day event for a new product launch.
They didn’t list what the product launch was, but they said it would be hosted by Fred and Freddie Noe – the master distillers behind the Booker’s Bourbon and Little Book bourbons.
I’m a huge fan of Booker’s and also managed to get my hands on the Little Book – Chapter 6 which was the final edition in Freddie Noe’s series of whiskeys.
I immediately booked the tasting and thought if we were going to the tasting, we might as well take a tour of the distillery beforehand so I also booked the Jim Beam distillery tour.
Little did I know that it would be the #1 tour I’ve ever been on and would be able to bottle my own bottle.
So far, my dad had been to smaller distilleries (Old Forester is fairly big, but not like Jim Beam).
We started the tour and they gave us the history of Jim Beam starting with a fancy initial introduction with a 1939 Cadillac right there to start their tour.
I remember growing up, my dad always had Cadillacs so I had to get a photo of him in front of this one.
What a way to start out a distillery tour!
They told us the stories about how Jim Beam has always had a proprietary yeast strain and that same yeast strain has been carried on over the years and is still the same exact strain they use today.
They had a jug in the passenger seat of the Cadillac that represented the kind of jug they would transfer the yeast in hundred of years ago.
They then took us through the distillery where we could learn how they make their whiskey and they showed us the fermentation process, barrel creation, and bottling process.
As we experienced the tour, everything was very hands-on and they taught us the full process that they follow as they produce their whiskeys which include Jim Beam products like Knob Creek, Booker’s, Old Tub, Basil Hayden, Legent, Hardin’s Creek, and more.
What was especially fun and something I didn’t expect on the tour is that they would let us be a part of the entire whiskey-making process.
When showing us the barrel pouring process, my tour guide Rocky (who was amazing by the way) asked everyone if we were celebrating anything.
Since it was my birthday (and a few others) he asked me and another tour guest to come up and set my hands on a Knob Creek barrel.
He then had us do a chant (ohmmmmmm) and then we got to pour the barrel over to pour the whiskey straight from the barrel.
It was a really fun experience and as you can see in the photo, everyone in the tour was leaning over to see the whiskey pour out of the barrel.
It was a great experience that I was glad I raised my hand for.
During the tour, we got to experience the rick houses where they store all of the barrels.
The rick houses at Jim Beam are absolutely massive and they hold thousands of barrels.
I think they said that they have 96 different rick houses holding multiple thousands of barrels each. And they have hundreds of others at different locations around Kentucky.
As we continued the tour, they took us up to the bottling portion of the tour and we saw some empty bottles on the conveyor belt.
There were a bunch of markers and stickers on the counter and the tour guide said that anyone who wanted to bottle their own bottle could just mark their initials on the sticker and pick up an empty bottle.
Even though I had scheduled the tour, it was kind of last minute so I didn’t even realize that the description said we would have the opportunity to see our own bottle of Knob Creek created from start to finish.
So my dad and I marked our initials on the sticker, picked up an empty bottle, and joined the process.
The first step was for us to clean out our bottles with alcohol.
Since they didn’t want to tarnish the flavor with anything other than whiskey, the alcohol that was used was Knob Creek itself.
After we had cleaned our bottles, we got to place them on the assembly line and watch our own bottles go through the process of getting filled, labeled, and wax dipped.
Once the bottles were dipped in wax, we got to place our thumbprints in the wax and personalize the bottle.
Once we finished up the tour, we were able to grab our bottles and take them home with us.
This was a really cool experience especially since I didn’t expect us to be able to customize our own bottles.
I’ve always been a fan of Knob Creek so my dad and I will probably open these bottles and have a drink from them every year on my birthday to remember and celebrate the trip we had together.
At the end of the tour, we got to taste some whiskey which included the following bottles:
- Jim Beam White Label
- Knob Creek 9 Year
- Basil Hayden
- Basil Hayden – Red Wine Cask Finish
I’m a fan of all of those whiskeys so it was a good tasting. I’ve already had all of these whiskeys so it wasn’t anything new to me, but I think my favorite of the tasting was either Knob Creek or the Basil Hayden Red Wine Cask Finish.
I’ve already reviewed all of the Basil Hayden whiskey lineup and the Basil Hayden Red Wine Cask Finish was my favorite other than the most expensive Basil Hayden 10-year.
Jim Beam – Pizza and Whiskey at The Kitchen
After we finished our basic Jim Beam Distillery Tour (which was amazing) we had a 2-hour break before our New Product Release Tasting with Fred and Freddie Noe.
While we waited, my dad took some work calls and then we got some lunch at the new Jim Beam Kitchen restaurant where they served pizza using the same proprietary yeast strain as they use in their whiskey.
When I went into the restaurant, I noticed they had a whole lineup of Booker’s whiskeys, Little Book, Knob Creek 18-year, and plenty more.
Since I was going to be doing a tasting with Fred and Freddie Noe next, I wanted to get tastings of the whiskeys they had created so I decided to go with Booker’s Kentucky Tea Batch and Little Book – Chapter 6.
Both were delicious and I was excited to have my own bottle of Little Book Chapter 6 signed by the guy who created it.
After a short wait, our pizza arrived and I was able to sip on my whiskey while eating a delicious Jim Beam Pizza made with the same yeast as the whiskey I was drinking.
Jim Beam – New Product Release Tasting
After we finished eating, we got ready for our new product release tasting.
The description of this tasting didn’t really give a ton of information, it just said that we’d be tasting whiskey with Fred and Freddie Noe for their new product release.
It was a one-day event and we just lucked into being there at the right time on the right day.
When we arrived at the tasting, we were shown the whiskeys we would be trying and they consisted of the following:
- Clemont Steep
- Distiller’s Share #1
- Hardin’s Creek
- Little Book – Chapter 6 – The Finish
As we went through the tasting, it was fascinating to hear about the whiskeys from the master distillers’ mindset.
Freddie Noe explained how he had the freedom to explore all kinds of new whiskey ideas and the one we were able to taste was called Jim Beam Distiller’s Share #1.
Instead of rye, it was made with brown rice, which I had never heard of being done before in a whiskey.
When we took a sip, it tasted really good and had a slightly different flavor profile than you would expect from brown rice.
It was a bit sweeter and had a smooth flavor that really complemented the whiskey.
They explained how when they do their tests on whiskey, they couldn’t just “pour the whiskey down the drain” because the government didn’t want it all to go to waste, so they decided to release them as a “Distiller’s share” series release at the distillery only.
We were pretty lucky to be there during their new product release so we got to purchase a bottle of the product.
The new product that they were releasing was called Clermont Steep.
It is a 100% American Single Malt which is a new product they have been experimenting with and just went public the day we visited.
There aren’t many American Single Malt whiskeys currently and I know that Jack Daniel’s 2023 Special Release was a twice-barreled American single malt.
I was interested in seeing how their single malt stacked up to the Jack Daniel’s product and I must say, I was quite impressed.
The flavor was smooth, easy to drink, and was certainly on par with Jack Daniel’s single malt but not nearly the price.
A bottle of Clermont Steep costs about $60 whereas Jack Daniel’s single malt runs $300+ on the secondary market.
I was pretty happy to see Jim Beam getting into the single malt market and it is a product I think will do quite well.
The next whiskey we tasted was Hardin’s Creek.
This is a whiskey we don’t have available in Pennsylvania and is pretty hard to find in general.
Hardin’s Creek is a limited edition bourbon series produced by Fred and Freddie that features some of the rarest and most unique liquids from James B. Beam distilling.
There have only been two bottles released so far one low-aged and one high-aged bourbon.
After tasting the bourbon, it was very smooth and an excellently balanced whiskey that I wish I could have tasted more of.
Unfortunately, the bottles are limited and weren’t available for purchase at the time of our tasting.
Maybe one day I will find a bottle of Hardin’s Creek so I can really sit down and spend some time with this whiskey.
The next bottle that we got to try was the Little Book – Chapter 6 which is Freddie Noe’s own series. It was named after the nickname Freddie’s grandad Booker gave him and features unique blends.
Little Book Chapter 6 is a pleasant surprise. I look forward to finding more editions of the Little Book series to try and compare.
I brought my own bottles of Little Book – Chapter 6 and Booker’s “The Lumberyard Batch” to have Fred and Freddie Noe sign.
The coolest part of the entire tasting and experience was hearing the precision and expertise both Fred and Freddie conveyed as they spoke about their whiskeys.
They weren’t just making whiskeys to make money, you could really feel that they enjoyed the process of experimenting and learning new ways to improve their products.
I will certainly start looking into more personalized experiences like this the next time I come back to Jim Beam. I may never get to be there for a new product release again, but as I was looking at other event options I saw that they do have unique events that you can schedule.
I felt like it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience that my dad and I were able to share with Freddie and his father.
As a souvenir (on top of the other bottles I bought), I decided to purchase a bottle of Jim Beam Lineage which is a tribute to the Jim Beam lineage and this was the first time Fred and Freddie Noe partnered up to make a commemorative bottle.
Later I realized that this bottle is a travel-retail-only bottle aside from purchasing it from the Jim Beam Distillery itself.
Having this bottle signed by Fred and Freddie Noe is a special addition to my whiskey collection and will always remind me of spending time with my dad at the Jim Beam Distillery.
All-in-all, Jim Beam was the best distillery tour I have ever been on.
We got to watch our Knob Creek bottle be made from start to finish with my thumbprint placed in the wax, I got to pour the whiskey directly out of a barrel, we got to eat pizza made with the same yeast as the whiskey, and we got to taste Little Book and Clermont Steep with its creators on its day one release.
What more could you ask for?
If you’re planning a trip to Kentucky, be sure to not miss Jim Beam Distillery.
Waterfront Wines & Whiskey Tasting
After our full day of Jim Beam, we went to a whiskey-tasting shop where multiple people recommended getting a few pours. The place was called Waterfront Wine & Spirits.
This place had all the rare whiskeys you could imagine.
However, many of them were full secondary prices which meant that I wasn’t going to buy much.
But even though I wasn’t willing to pay secondary prices for bottles, they had some amazing prices on pours at the bar.
I will just drop images of all the pours I was able to taste for under $90 (half ounce pours).
Merle’s Whiskey Kitchen
After tasting these whiskeys, we grabbed dinner at Merle’s Whiskey Kitchen.
My dad really enjoyed the Chicken and Waffles.
Day 3
Jack Daniel’s Distillery Tour and Tasting
The next day, we decided to make the trip to drive down to visit the Jack Daniel’s distillery.
Jack Daniel’s is one of the whiskeys that I have reviewed nearly their entire lineup and never realized how good a lot of their products are.
Of course, we all know about Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 and I’ve had my share of Jack and Coke’s over the years.
It’s a tried and true cocktail but Jack Daniel’s wasn’t really a whiskey you’d catch me drinking neat.
But what really turned me on to Jack Daniel’s was when I tasted the Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Select and the Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel – Barrel Proof Bourbon.
The amount of flavors in this whiskey is such a surprise and I feel like Jack Daniel’s sneaks under many people’s radar because they just assume Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 is the only product Jack Daniel’s produces (and maybe Gentleman Jack).
But let me tell you, Jack Daniel’s can really pump out some excellent whiskeys.
So after reviewing all of these whiskeys and having my dad taste a few, we both decided that it was a distillery we wanted to make sure and visit.
When we arrived, the main building was like a mini museum that shared the history of the distillery.
Once it was time for our distillery tour, we were escorted outside and were guided through a tour of the Jack Daniel’s whiskey campus where the whiskey is made.
The tour started with where the charcoal is made for their charcoal mellowing process.
They walked us through the process of how they burn all the wood to create the charcoal that we would later be able to watch and smell how the whiskey was filtered through 10 feet of charcoal to produce the classic Tennessee Whiskey we all know and love.
One of the coolest parts of the entire tour was when our tour guide lifted the charcoal-mellowing tank lids and out wafted a massive amount of charcoal and whiskey smells.
It truly is a spectacular smell that only Jack Daniel’s has.
The smell was so strong and powerful and really gave you a true sense of exactly where a ton of Jack Daniel’s flavor comes from.
Unfortunately, they didn’t let us take photos inside the charcoal-mellowing building (no clue why) but I wish I had a shot of that as a memory of how great that smell was. The following photo was outside the charcoal-mellowing building and you can see all the whiskey fungus on the sides of the building.
I really enjoyed walking around outside the buildings and just smelling all of the whiskey in the air.
We were guided from building to building learning about the entire process of what goes into making whiskey and given some of the reasons why Jack Daniel’s whiskey tastes different – from yeast strains to charcoal mellowing to the history behind the whiskey dating back to 1866.
The tour continued to guide us through the beautiful scenery of the Jack Daniel’s Distillery and we found that most of these big distilleries had one thing in common – they were located near water sources.
Jack Daniel’s was no different.
The distillery was built in this particular spot because there was a stream of clean water that ran through lots of limestone rock.
As we left the area with all the water, there was a statue of Jack Daniels standing on the rocks.
As we passed it, the tour guide cracked the joke that that was “Jack on the Rocks” and pointed to the plaque that actually said “Jack on the Rocks”.
I found this quite funny and since my dad’s name is also Jack, I had him get up there so I could get a photo of “Two Jacks on the Rocks”.
At the end of the tour, we were guided into a beautiful tasting room full of whiskey barrels and fancy tasting tables.
Unfortunately, the tasting glasses were cheap plastic and there was barely even a quarter-ounce taste in each glass.
Having just been to Jim Beam distillery the day before and how excellent their tasting experience was, my dad and I both couldn’t help but be a bit disappointed in the tasting experience.
Granted, I have tasted all of the whiskeys on the tasting except for the Jack Daniel’s Sinatra Select, but my dad could barely even compare them because there just wasn’t enough to even sip twice in the glass.
If I were to return to the Jack Daniel’s distillery, I would have to look to see if they have any sort of special tasting where you could have a little better experience with the actual whiskey.
Who knows, maybe it’s a rule that they can only serve that much since Lynchburg’s home county of Moore is technically a “dry county”.
Jack Daniel’s is allowed to sell whiskey however as “commemorative bottles” lol
I purchased a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Barrel Proof Rye because it was the only bottle in the shop that I didn’t already have.
I was hoping to get a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Sinatra Select since we had just tasted it, but they didn’t have any available to purchase.
Oddly enough, at the very next gas station my dad and I stopped at, we found a small liquor store called John O’s Liquor that had a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Sinatra Select for sale ($20 over retail).
That was an easy decision to make because I really wanted to get a bottle at the distillery and wasn’t able to.
So now I have a bottle of Jack Daniel’s Sinatra Select on my shelf that I was able to spend some time with and get a true taste of and give a solid review (which is an extremely smooth whiskey).
Uncle Nearest Distillery
As we were driving home, we wanted to get some dinner and we see a restaurant named Barrelhouse BBQ was nearby so we decided to pull off and eat there.
Interestingly enough, it happened to be located in the Uncle Nearest Distillery.
Having just been at the Jack Daniel’s distillery, we learned a bit more about Nearest Green who is now documented by Jack Daniel’s Distillery as the first master distiller who taught Jack Daniel’s much of what he knew.
Jack Daniel’s had run away from home when he was 6 years old and was taken in by a minister into his home.
Nearest Green was a slave who worked on the same farm as Jack Daniel’s.
Unfortunately, we arrived too late to participate in a tour or tasting, but I enjoyed learning a bit about the history of these two distilleries.
They had a bunch of artifacts found at the original Jack Daniel’s distillery location – my favorite of which was this giant 2,000-pound millstone.
I’ve tasted Uncle Nearest whiskey before and would have liked to taste some of their higher-tier whiskeys. Maybe another time I will see them on the shelves in Pennsylvania.
Their tasting room and gift shop were quite stylish and fancy.
Barrelhouse BBQ
Right in the same building was Barrelhouse BBQ.
It was a bit of a fast-food BBQ restaurant where you order the portions of smoked meats you want and then add on all the sides.
We decided to split a bunch and everything was absolutely delicious.
The highlight of the entire meal was called “Grilled Cheese on Crack”.
It was a grilled cheese sandwich on Texas toast with smoked brisket.
I would go back to this place just to get another one of those grilled cheeses. It was delicious.
It’s hard for us to get BBQ like this in Pennsylvania so we enjoyed the meal and it was a nice treat after our distillery tours.
Bardstown Kentucky
We drove our way back up to Bardstown Kentucky to prepare ourselves for the next day of distilleries.
The Air BnB that we booked for Bardstown was a historical monument built in 1780 and is located directly in the center of the town of Bardstown which was the bourbon capital of the world.
It was an old coppersmith’s house with an old fireplace right in the living room and tiny stairs leading to an upstairs bedroom.
They have added on to the house to make it a bit larger and it can now accommodate 6 people.
Day 4
Mammy’s Kitchen
We started out our day 4 early and headed to Mammy’s Kitchen.
Of all the places recommended to me for our trip, Mammy’s Kitchen was one of the highest.
It was just a few minutes walk from our Air BnB so we headed there for our breakfast and were not disappointed.
I ordered the Kentucky Breakfast Hot Brown and my dad ordered the Breakfast Bowl in a Skillet.
It was a really homey small-town place and the food was extreme comfort food that was delicious.
The menus were really cool and told the history of the restaurant and they had tons of options for what to order.
And if you wanted to, you could order whiskey along with your meal because they have over 100 bottles of whiskey in the other half of the place which was a bar.
Surprisingly enough, the food wasn’t nearly as “heavy” as we thought it would be. We left feeling great and not like we had overeaten even though we seemed to have eaten a ton.
Definitely recommend Mammy’s Kitchen if you’ll be touring distilleries in the Bardstown Area.
Historical Bardstown
Before we headed out of Bardstown, I wanted to make sure my dad visited the Old Talbott Tavern.
This tavern and hotel was originally built in 1779 and is claimed to be the oldest western stagecoach stop in America.
The building housed some of the earliest guests in America and was at one point the bourbon capital of the world with over 18 whiskey distilleries in the area.
Many of the original whiskey distilleries still exist or own the major distilleries of today.
The main dining area has Daniel Boone’s gun above the bar and I can only imagine what times were like drinking in this same establishment over 200 years earlier.
In 1998, an electrical fire sparked at Old Talbott Tavern and the location suffered damages that burned portions of a room that held historical murals and had bullet holes in the walls from a time when Jesse James shot up the room after a poker game where he wanted to demonstrate his accuracy with his pistol.
The murals are still there today and you can see bullet holes in the walls as well as many other historical paintings, photographs, and documentation of the history.
Maybe next time I stay in Bardstown I will get myself a room at the Old Talbott Tavern hotel.
Four Roses Bottling Facility
On day 4, we decided to stop at a number of places.
Rather than doing full distillery tours of everywhere, we decided to only do a tour of the Four Roses distillery.
But as we were driving, we passed the Four Roses Bottling Facility so we decided to stop in quickly.
I have been there before in my last Kentucky Bourbon Trail trip in 2022 so I wanted to show my dad the two locations.
Luckily for me, they had a single barrel bottle release that day so I was able to pick up a bottle of the Four Roses Single Barrel OBSV.
The woman there said that they just randomly get bottle drops and there isn’t really any pattern that you can follow.
The trucks just show up with single barrel bottles a few times per month and they sell out within a few hours. So luck was on our side!
I’ve always wanted to get some of the single barrel recipes from Four Roses so I was excited to be able to pick this one up.
And luckily for me, I was able to get a second recipe when we visited the Four Roses Distillery later as well.
Maker’s Mark Distillery Tasting
Next, we made our way over to the Maker’s Mark Distillery Tour and Tasting.
When we arrived, instead of doing a full tour, we decided to do a higher-end tasting from their bar rather than the tour tasting which only tries their standard products.
As we explored the distillery campus, everything was very beautiful and well-kept.
One of my favorite things about Maker’s Mark Distillery was the aesthetic and feel you get as you walk through and experience the location.
If you’ve heard of Maker’s Mark before and purchased their bottles before, then you know all about their iconic red-wax seal on their bottles.
As you explore Maker’s Mark, you will see accents of red throughout all the buildings and scenery.
It was an extremely nice time to walk around and just explore the buildings and again, the distillery had a fresh-water creek running right through it.
After we finished exploring, we made our way over to the bar for our tasting and we decided to go with some of their Wood Finishing Series whiskeys.
It was a great idea to do a tasting at the bar rather than during the tour because they had a nice selection of the rarer Maker’s Mark whiskeys to try.
I had already written my Maker’s Mark 2023 Limited Release BEP Wood Finishing Series Review. I found it to be the best Maker’s Mark whiskey I have had and was extremely impressed when I reviewed it.
My dad had never tried it so I wanted him to taste it against the others and see what he thought.
As we sampled the whiskeys, my dad’s favorite was the 2023 BEP and overall the Maker’s Mark BEP was one of his favorite whiskeys from the entire tour.
I thought the 2023 BEP and the 2021 FAE-02 were about even and really enjoyed them both.
I thought the BEP had a more caramel and oak flavor profile that was extremely smooth whereas the FAE-02 had a bit of sweeter notes to it from the 10 French Staves.
Both were excellent.
The Chocolate Truffle Private Selection was also quite delicious, but not quite as good as the Wood Finishing Series whiskeys.
I also got an additional tasting of the Maker’s Mark Community Batch because I thought it was such a cool bottle.
This bottle is quite literally a Community Batch.
What they do is they take a sample of each single barrel private selection and create a community batch that is a blend of all the top barrels selected by individuals or bars that came in for private barrel selections.
The label lists out every barrel included in the batch along with the entity name of who selected the barrel.
It’s such a cool idea that I just had to try it.
It tasted quite good but still did not compare to the Wood Finishing Series. But that’s mostly because the Wood Finishing Series is just spectacular whiskey.
Dipping Our Own Maker’s Mark Bottles
The coolest part of the Maker’s Mark tour is that they allow you to dip your own Maker’s Mark bottle into the red wax.
I wasn’t sure if this would only be available to people who paid for a tour, but they allowed anyone to do it so my dad and I both dipped our own bottles.
I chose to dip the Maker’s Mark Milk Chocolate Truffle bottle I had sampled in our tasting at the bar and my dad dipped a limited edition Founder’s Release label bottle.
So they give you a Maker’s Mark Apron, have you put on some arm sleeves and gloves and you’re ready to dip your own bottle.
Here is my dad ready to dip his along with both the bottles we dipped.
They had a guide teach you exactly how they dip the bottles to get their signature seal on the top.
We recorded a video of ourselves dipping the bottles and it was quite a cool experience.
Overall, Maker’s Mark was an extremely nice experience all around.
The employees were very friendly, the scenery was beautiful, the whiskey was delicious and we couldn’t have asked for anything more from the experience.
Four Roses Distillery Tour and Tasting
Next up, we visited the Four Roses Distillery for a Tour and Tasting.
Four Roses is one of my favorite distilleries because when I first visited in 2020, it was the most in-depth tour I had and they really taught me a lot about whiskey and especially non-chill filtering.
As you experience the Four Roses distillery, they really do a nice job of showing and explaining how the entire whiskey creation process works and they make it a priority to let you smell and experience the fermentation vats where the whiskey is being produced.
As you move through the facility, you can notice the difference between the stages of fermentation each vat is currently in.
It also really helps you to understand how the yeast breaks down the sugars and creates the alcohol.
I generally recommend that everyone visit the Four Roses Distillery because it’s one of the best tours to get a full understanding of how whiskey is made.
Also, Four Roses has an interesting history and have picked up a unique array of 10 different recipes for their whiskey.
Four Roses uses 5 different yeast strains and 2 mash bills to create a combination of 10 different flavor profiles.
Depending on what yeast strain they use in the whiskey, it can have a wide variety of flavors ranging from delicate fruits to light spice, floral essence, and herbal notes.
In addition, they have a bolder mash bill which contains 35% rye spice which gives the whiskey more spice and heat than their elegant mash bill which is sweeter and has more corn.
As you can see in the top of the image above, this means that each of their whiskey recipes has a specific code combination and you can actually collect a single barrel version of each of these.
They are rare, but I was able to pick up two unique recipes on this trip.
The first was the OBSK that I got at the Four Roses Bottling Facility and the other was at this distillery tours gift shop where I was able to get a bottle of the OESK.
It’s kind of perfect because I will be able to sit down with them both sometime soon and compare the two.
Since they both have the same yeast strain, I will be able to directly compare the two mash bills and see which I like more.
Keep an eye out for my review of those bottles in the near future.
After the tour, we were able to do a tasting of the following whiskeys:
- Four Roses Bourbon
- Four Roses Small Batch
- Four Roses Single Barrel
- Four Roses Small Batch Select
I’m a huge fan of the Four Roses Small Batch Select and honestly think it may be one of the better whiskey deals you can find.
While it is a $60 bottle, it is absolutely delicious and is one of my main go-to whiskeys.
After the tasting, we visited the gift shop where I was able to buy my Single Barrel OESK and take a look at their brand new building.
I was happy to make my way over to the bar in the gift shop.
I noticed they had a bottle of the Four Roses Special Limited Release and asked whether I could get a pour of it.
To my surprise, he said yes!
It’s a whiskey I’ve always wanted to try and was happy to pay the $25 price tag for the pour.
I really wish I was able to purchase a bottle of this whiskey because it was absolutely delicious.
It had the normal caramel, vanilla, and oak you’d get with any bourbon, but it had a very distinct fruit flavor that I really enjoyed.
It was almost a raspberry note that I don’t get in many whiskeys and it really stood out to me.
If I can ever find myself a bottle of this at a decent price, I will certainly be buying myself one.
Overall, Four Roses delivered again.
It’s a distillery I would recommend everyone make sure to visit if they’re doing their own Kentucky Bourbon Trail trip.
Wild Turkey Distillery Tour (Temporary Location)
After Four Roses, we didn’t have much of a plan for the rest of the day.
My dad loves turkey hunting and Wild Turkey is one of my favorite distilleries, so we decided to visit.
Unfortunately, the main Wild Turkey distillery building that I had visited in the past was under renovation, so they just had a small temporary location open which was pretty much just a gift shop and a bar.
At first, I was going to be a little disappointed that my dad wouldn’t be able to get a full Wild Turkey experience but it turned out to be an excellent time.
We got to try some really great whiskeys at the bar:
- Russell’s Reserve 13 Year
- Russell’s Reserve Single Rickhouse
- W.B. Saffell
If you have ever had a pour of any Russell’s Reserve whiskey, you’ll know just how good they are.
They are some of the best bourbon on the market no matter which price range you are looking for.
Russell’s Reserve 13-Year Bourbon is almost always regarded as one of the most coveted whiskey bottles and for good reason.
My dad and I tasted this whiskey and immediately recognized its quality and why the bottle sells for $600-800 on the secondary market.
In my area of Pennsylvania, people line up outside the store just to get a single bottle of this.
Luckily, I do own a bottle myself because I made sure to get one for my friend and me since Russell’s Reserve is one of his favorite whiskeys.
And let me tell you, it did not disappoint.
I think it is probably my favorite pour of my entire trip and my dad may agree. His would probably be between Russell’s Reserve 13 Year and the Maker’s Mark BEP.
We then decided to try the Russell’s Reserve Single Rickhouse which is more expensive for a pour than the Russell’s Reserve 13 Year.
The man behind the bar’s name was Bo Garrett (Instagram is firebirdbo).
Bo gave us some insight into the differences between Russell’s Reserve Single Rickhouse and Russell’s Reserve 13.
He was extremely insightful and gave us some real insight into the company and some of the stories he’d experienced with Eddie Russell over the years.
We were pleasantly surprised by the experience since this was just a temporary placeholder until the main distillery was finished with renovations, but talking with Bo and having the chance to taste some of the best whiskeys of the trip really made us even bigger fans of Wild Turkey.
After tasting both, we agreed that we enjoyed Russell’s Reserve 13 Year a bit more of these tastings.
There is just something special about Russell’s Reserve 13 Year that really stands out.
Some of the flavors I really enjoyed and picked up on were nice chocolate tobacco notes and even chocolate-covered cherries and dark fruit flavors that were extremely rich and bold.
The final bottle I tasted was the W.B. Saffell.
This is a bottle that I do own. I picked up a bottle of this on my first trip to Wild Turkey back in 2020.
It was very tasty and another example of the quality of Wild Turkey products.
My dad and I still joke about how we should have gotten a Wild Turkey old-fashioned because then we would have a full set of 4 gift glasses since you get to keep the glass with each pour you get (which makes the pricing even more of a deal!)
I’m guessing that next time I visit Wild Turkey, the main building will be all complete and we will be able to have an even more expansive experience so I am looking forward to that.
Woodford Reserve
Our final stop of the day was at Woodford Reserve.
As we drove on our way to Woodford Reserve, we had the chance to see some of the most beautiful countryside scenery.
Woodford Reserve is a sponsor of the Kentucky Derby and it truly felt like we were driving right through Kentucky Derby horse country with picket fencing and lush farmland.
Since this was just an impromptu stop, we didn’t have a tour reserved or anything so we just took a quick walk around and saw what Woodford Reserve had to offer.
I’d definitely like to visit Woodford Reserve in the future sometime and have the complete experience because their distillery campus felt very nice and is probably an excellent tour.
Unfortunately, we were a little late to do tastings and have any drinks at the bar but they certainly seemed to have some rare pours but they were $65 per pour!
I’m honestly not too familiar with Woodford Reserve other than that their double-oaked whiskey is delicious.
I would have liked to taste a few of their offerings, but I will likely just purchase a bottle of their rye and wheat whiskeys and do a 4-bottle comparison with the regular bourbon and double-oaked bottles that I already own.
After Woodford Reserve, we made our way up toward Cincinnati to head to our last distillery tour of the trip the next day.
Taglio Pizza
Once we were in Cincinnati, we settled into our Air BnB and visited one of my favorite pizza places in the city called Taglio Pizza.
They have a Hot-Honey Pizza where they warm up honey and drizzle it over the hot pepperoni pizza and it is absolutely delicious.
My dad even explored this pizza further and saw that they offered a Detroit-style hot-honey pizza so we decided to try both styles.
In the end, the Detroit-style pizza was even better than the regular.
I will certainly be going here every time I’m in Cincinnati for sure.
Day 5
Day 5 was the final day of our Kentucky Bourbon Trail trip and we were visiting one of my all-time favorite bourbon distilleries.
We stopped for coffee at the Coffee Emporium which had a delicious peanut-butter coffee and has a nice hometown coffee shop vibe to it before we headed off to New Riff distillery.
New Riff Distillery Tour and Tasting
Every time I take a trip to Kentucky for a bourbon trip, I always make sure to spend a night in Cincinnati and visit the New Riff Distillery (which is technically in Kentucky, but just across the bridge from downtown Cincinnati).
New Riff Single Barrel Bourbon and New Riff Single Barrel Rye are two of the go-to whiskeys that I always have on my shelf.
They have a nice proof point, a decent price tag, and offer big and bold flavors that I really enjoy.
So I was excited for my dad to visit and have a taste for himself.
New Riff is pretty new on the scene and has been really making its mark on the industry.
It is stocked regularly in Pennsylvania and has been making its way across the country.
They have two new products that I was excited to purchase and their current lineup consists of the following whiskeys:
- New Riff Kentucky Straight Bourbon
- New Riff Single Barrel Bourbon
- New Riff Kentucky Straight Rye
- New Riff Single Barrel Rye
- New Riff Malted Rye – Aged 6 Years
- New Riff Balboa Rye
- Silver Grove
I’m a huge fan of all of these whiskeys are was looking forward to trying New Riff Malted Rye and the Silver Grove.
Before the tour started, we decided to taste a few whiskeys are their bar.
As usual, I really enjoyed them all.
Their whiskey just stands out to me for a few reasons. First, the single barrel editions are non-chill filtered and have an excellent mouthfeel to them. It’s one of the main features that really drew me toward New Riff in the first place.
Second, their rye whiskeys really strike a near-perfect balance between having all the rye spice flavors and not being too hot on the palate. They just seem to hit the spot perfectly with a nice balance.
We lucked out and the day that we visited happened to be their Spring Release launch day so they were sharing 2 new editions of their rye whiskeys.
Unfortunately, I missed the email since I was on this trip 3 days prior and wasn’t checking my emails as regularly so they were all sold out via pre-order. If I had just seen the email, it would have been perfect and I could have been there right on the day they released.
Regardless, since it was a special release day, I was able to meet New Riff’s owner Ken Lewis and have a discussion with him about why he decided to start a distillery and learn some of the values that he wanted to instill into his business.
I was impressed with his answers and he shared that he wants to build a brand that is based on values like community and bringing a unique experience to his customers.
He named the distillery New Riff because he wanted it to be a new riff on old traditions and from what I’m seeing so far, I can feel that from the company.
And judging by their sales and reputation, it appears to be working!
Something else that is interesting is that on the same lot, there is a store called Party Source which you can see from the New Riff Distillery balcony.
Ken Lewis used to own this liquor store for over 30 years and since you can’t produce and sell liquor at the same time, he had to sell the store in order to create his distillery.
So he sold the store, but he made the decision to sell the store to the employees so now one of the largest liquor stores in the country is 100% employee-owned.
This just goes to show that his mindset and ideas are truly about the community and building a business based on solid values.
Kentucky Bourbon Trail 2023 – Bottle Pickups
Every time I go on one of these trips, I end up coming home with a whole ton of “souvenir” bottles from each of the places I visit.
This year is no exception.
I do open most all whiskey bottles that I buy so I will be posting reviews of many of the bottles shown in this photo so keep an eye out for those.
I hope you enjoyed reading about this trip with me and my dad.
Hopefully, you will be able to visit many of the places we did and have an amazing time yourself.
If you decide to visit any of these places or have suggestions of where I should visit on my next trip, please let us know on social media via Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
Thanks for reading and cheers!
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