The Bourbon Trail

Doug and I left Orlando yesterday at 3 p.m. and stopped just south of Knoxville at 12:30 a.m.  We hadn't driven to Indiana in over a year, so it felt a lot longer than 9 1/2 hours to me.  Thankfully, by leaving in the afternoon we missed the traffic in Atlanta and Chattanooga.  We picked up sandwiches at Buc-ee's for dinner which saved us time as well.  

This morning, Doug and I were out the door before 9 a.m.  He had researched four stops on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail that he wanted to check out on our trip.  The first one that we visited was Four Roses Distillery.  I had never been to an upscale distillery before and felt a little underdressed when we walked into the tasting room.  Thankfully, we had our Indiana shirts on so everyone that we met was more focused on talking to us about our football team then our lack of formal attire.  Doug loved the bourbon that he tasted on this stop and bought a bottle and t-shirt to take home.  I didn't try any of the bourbons, but had fun listening to him talk about them.

The second stop was probably Doug's least favorite.  The bourbons were mostly made from wheat, and he preferred the taste of those made from rye.  We were still glad that we stopped at Woodford Reserve as it was decorated with a beautiful fall "Christmas" tree.  Neither one of us could believe all of the people arriving from the tour buses.  It definitely was a popular spot.

The third stop was very quaint albeit a little hard to find.  It was named Castle & Key which made sense from the design of the buildings.  It was built in 1887 and remodeled ten years ago.  The grounds were beautiful, but the tasting room was extremely small.  Doug didn't try as much there as most of the bourbons were made from wheat.

Buffalo Trace was our last and favorite stop of the day.  We had toured the oldest, continuous working distillery in 2018, so today, we focused only on the tasting bars.  I was worried that we wouldn't get in as there was only an hour left before it closed, but thankfully, it wasn't a problem.  Since it was the only distillery that offered free tasting, I went ahead and tried a sip of a few of their vodka and bourbons.  My favorite was the cream ale mixed with their home brewed root beer.  It tasted like a root beer float. We also visited their gift shop while we were at the distillery.  Doug bought a bourbon to take home, and I found a neat long sleeve shirt with a small buffalo on it for myself.  In the end, I was really glad that we saved Buffalo Trace for our last visit of the day.  It was the perfect way to end our first trip on the Bourbon Trail.