Touring Some of the Bourbon Trail

     We took the opportunity to make a few more stops on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail tour. One stop was the Buffalo Trace Distillery. They hold the title of the oldest continually operating distillery in America. They remained open even during Prohibition (making spirits for "medicinal" purposes). The distillery sits on 440 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds. There are several tours that you can take and all of them are free of charge. Be aware, however, it is best if you get online and reserve your spot prior to dropping by. While tours are free, they are very popular and often filled. We took the Bourbon Barrel tour and the National Historic Landmark Tour. The Hard Hat (behind the scenes) tour was booked throughout May with no vacancies until June!

     Our Barrel Tour started upstairs in the Visitors Center. The Visitors Center is unbelievable in itself. Made from the original rack house it has one wall that sports a wainscot of charred bourbon barrel staves. It is as beautiful as it is unique (see above photo).

     Our tour guide was Freddie Johnson, a 3rd generation employee of the distillery. His Grandfather was the first African American foreman in Kentucky and had a close friendship with Col. Albert Blanton (owner of the distillery). Freddie's father mastered the ability to repair leaking barrels while the whiskey remained inside. His skills made him the first African American in the state to be appointed Warehouse Supervisor. Freddie has been with the company many years and is a real treat to  have as your tour guide. In fact, as you begin your tour, you pass a wall adorned with photos of the Johnson family documenting their contributions to the distillery.  We passed a five story warehouse which held thousands of barrels aging. The photo above tells a few stories. Look at the windows. The first two floors are barred but the other floors are not. Why? We were told that the bars kept the distiller from avoiding taxes on barrels when the revenuers came. The barrels can withstand a drop of 20 feet but burst apart if dropped from anything higher. Another thing is the black mold on the building. Seems that this mold grows only in the presence of alcohol. This fact allowed revenuers to locate illegal stills just by watching for the black mold. Also the entrance doors to the warehouse were locked by two padlocks. One key kept by the Distillery, the other by the Government. Therefore, in order to take product out of the warehouse, it required both of them to be present.

     One of the requirements of true Bourbon is that it is stored and aged in barrels of White Oak. These barrels are required to have never been used and are only used once. After that, they are sold to makers of Whiskey (domestic, Irish, Scottish and the like). Recently wineries and brewers have been aging their wine and beer in bourbon barrels to impart the unique flavor. Buffalo Trace uses barrels made from White Oak from the Ozarks.

     The barrels come from receiving to the filling line where they are filled with what is called White Dog. This is the clear distilled spirit that will become bourbon. Upon filling, the barrel if sealed with a plug called a Bung. The Bung is made from Poplar and will expand as it absorbs the alcohol thus creating an airtight seal.

     There's at least one barrel in this massive complex that I personally sealed.

     Barrels age on various levels of the many warehouses. On some floors the temperature swings cause the alcohol to seep in and out of the charred oak inner barrel infusing it with flavor. On the lower floors, the temperature swings are minimal and the fluctuations in barometric pressure moves the alcohol within the barrel. Thus it ages slower and takes longer to produce the end product.

     The tour ended with a tasting of the product. Seven year aged Buffalo Trace Bourbon and 17 year aged Eagle Rare. It was topped off with a chocolate Bourbon ball and a neat mix using Root Beer and Bourbon Cream.

     During the Historic Landmark tour, you cover a lot of the area covered by the Hard Hat tour. You see the very beginning of the product. The arrival of raw corn. It is ground and cooked making a sweet mash. Portions of the previous batch, called sour mash, is mixed with sweet mash and cooked together. Then the mixture is put into 10,000 gallon tanks, mixed with yeast, and left to ferment for five days. You see all of this process up close and personal. I actually got to sample a little of the ground corn, sweet mash, and fifth day fermented solution.

Large Mash cooker

Fifth Day solution. Top layer is mostly corn oil.

     Once again, at the end of the tour you get to sample product. Luckily we did the tour on different days so there was no reason to designate Barb as my driver.

     Above is the smallest, government approved warehouse. It house but one barrel. In this case, it is the 6 millionth barrel of Bourbon. When it is ready, it will be bottled and the 7th million barrel will take its place.

Wilderness Trails New Warehouse- 2016

Wilderness Trails New Warehouse- May 2017

     We also traveled to the Wilderness Trails distillery. This small craft distillery is just beginning to age bourbon. They specialize in Vodka and a sorghum based Rum (my personal favorite). We dropped by to see the progress on their warehouse and discovered that they are continuing to build on and are adding another, bigger warehouse and a new still for more Bourbon production. Can't wait to come back and see what's new.