Sunday, September 21, 2008

Makers Mark Distillery Tour

Our visit to the Makers Mark distillery was wonderful. Like Buffalo Trace, it was a step back in time as soon as we arrived on the property. The grounds and the buildings are beautifully maintained.
Our tour started out with the introduction of Makers Mark 'Ambassadors' who were present for the tour. In effect, Ambassadors are a Makers Mark club. It's a promotional thing. More about this later.

What happened next has become my favorite story from our visit to Kentucky. We had a large tour group, and as we approached the first building on the tour, we were hit with the smell of 'Angels Share'(the smell of Bourbon evaporating through the barrels, see Buffalo Trace blog post). One of the tour members blutered out "whats that smell?" Our tour guide spun around, her eyes got huge, and a little too loudly she exclaimed:


"THAT'S BOURBON! WE ARE A BOURBON DISTILLERY."


Whereas the Buffalo Trace tour focused mostly on the barrel aging, Makers Mark concentrated mostly on the distillation and bottling processes. These two tours are a nice combination in that regard. Of course, there is a tasting at the end of the tour. The tasting took place in their very elegant and beautiful gift shop, which seemed a little out of place in the rustic Kentucky compound. I was curious how they were going to make the tasting interesting, because Makers Mark only makes one product, and nearly everybody who tours their distillery has already tried it. Well, they came up with something clever. At the tasting, you are given one glass of 'white dog' and one glass of finished Makers Mark. 'White Dog' is the distilled product that goes into the barrels for aging. It's perfectly clear and tastes like pure alcohol. Essentially, it's a before-and-after of the barrel aging process.

Makers Mark of course is known for their bottles that are hand dipped in red wax to seal the cap. At the distillery, you can dip your own bottle in wax for a keepsake. It's something that sounds cooler than actually doing it, but it makes for a nice story and I am happy to have the memento.

































Interestingly, the bottles that you buy for the dipping are half the size of the normal 750ml bottles, and you can't buy any other Makers Mark bottles at the distillery. The reason given was that they did not want to compete with the local retailers.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Jim Beam Distillery Tour

As a long time Jim Beam drinker, I was excited to go the 'Motherland'. I had read that the Jim Beam tour was the least interesting on the 'Bourbon Trail'. In some ways this is true, but it's not the whole story.

Pulling into the grounds of the Jim Beam facility, you can easily tell that you are visiting the worlds largest producer of Bourbon. There is definitely more of a factory feel to the place, and there are aging warehouses everywhere you look. There are about 75 of these buildings.



The distillery tour at Jim Beam isn't really a tour at all, which is why it probably does not have the best reviews. It's more of a self directed visiting area. It starts with a video presentation, then you are invited to walk an area which includes a warehouse, a couple of small buildings representing different aspects of the Bourbon making business, and finally the original house built on the grounds. The entire visit can take less than ten minutes. As underwhelming as the 'tour' is, Jim Beam had the best taste testing that we experienced in the three distilleries we visited. We were served the following Bourbons:



  • Bookers - This is a 7 year 'uncut' or 'Barrel Strength' Bourbon. It's about 120 proof. I had never tasting such a strong Bourbon until then. After I recovered from the shock of the 120 proof, I found this to be a very delicious spirit. Most reveiwers recommend to cut this Bourbon with water for the best affect.

  • Knob Creek - This is Jim Beam's very popular Ultra-Premium Bourbon. It's aged 9 years and is very smooth and flavorful. Again, at the time of this tasting I had not really ever drank a premium Bourbon. It's a really accessable Bourbon.

  • Basil Haydens - This is a 8 year old Bourbon with more of a 'Rye' flavor. This was my least favorite, probably because of my lack of experience with the Rye. I am looking forward to exploring the Rye Whiskey catagory in the future to gain more of an appreciation.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Buffalo Trace Distillery Tour

Being an inexperienced Bourbon drinker at the time, I had not even heard of Buffalo Trace distillery when we first scheduled our visit there. It’s not the kind of Bourbon that you see at a typical liquor store in our area. The liquor ‘Super Stores’ carry it though. We arrived at Buffalo Trace at 11:30 in the morning. As soon as we got out of the car, it was like we had taken a trip back in time. The buildings probably look the same as they did 100 years ago. Most of the buildings are brick, with unusual black patches, which turned out to be a harmless mold that grows on the buildings due to the high humidity level in the area. The high humidity of course is due to about a quarter of a million barrels of Bourbon sitting around.

Our second early impression at Buffalo Trace was unexpected. As we approached the visitor center, Blitz Jr. and I looked at each other and at the same time said “do you smell that?” It was an odor that I had never experienced before, but it was familiar. It smelled like Bourbon, but with a humid, woody accent. We would later learn that this smell is called the ‘Angels Share’. It’s the result of Bourbon evaporating through the oak barrels.
It is really something to behold.

Our tour began with our introduction to our guide, Freddie Johnson. We hit the jackpot with this guy. I don’t know what you get with the other tour guides, but I can’t imagine a guide to be more knowledgeable or entertaining. He basically grew up on the distillery, and had stories about himself and his family that would be difficult to replicate.

The tour begins with a video, which provides some good basic information on Bourbon making and history. Next we went through the warehouses and learned more about the aging process. We finished up in the bottling room. The tour was informative, especially in discussing the aging process and techniques.

After the tour, of course, there was a tasting session. We were offered Buffalo Trace, the flagship brand of the distillery, and Eagle Rare, a single barrel ‘rye recipe’ bourbon.

Buffalo Trace 'shots':
  • Buffalo Trace offers a 'hard hat' tour of the distillation area in addition to the regular tour. We did not participate due to time constraints, but I am told it is worthwhile. You need to set this up ahead of time. Also, the hard hat tour is not for those who are afraid of heights or tight spaces.

  • Buffalo Trace also produces a Vodka called 'Rain'. We were given a taste. I don't really know how good Vodka is supposed to taste, but I liked it. It's made from an Illinois farmers entire crop. I couldn't help but think about how he would answer the question 'what kind of corn do you grow?' He would say, 'Vodka corn, of course'. Funny.