Bourbon Country - Georgetown, Lexington, Louisville

View of Louisville, Kentucky and the Ohio River while flying over Clarksville, Indiana.  May 15, 2018

75% OFF! Good deals on stuff at the Louisville airport a few weeks after Derby 144.
Bourbon 30

Our first Bourbon tasting trip was at Bourbon 30 in Georgetown, Kentucky. "It's Bourbon 30 Time!" here all the time.

Single Barrel  (97 Proof)
Bottled one barrel at a time this process features each barrel's distinct personality.
Small Batch  (100 Proof)
Selected individual barrels of Bourbon are combined to create a well rounded, smooth and creamy on the palate.
Proof Aged Bourbon (90 Proof)
Selected barrels of Bourbon are cut to 90 proof before finishing the maturation process. This yields the great flavors of high proof Bourbon at a lower sipping proof. Cool concept.
And ... Rye Whiskey (98 Proof)
A nice blend of Ryes from different barrels is finished in previously used Bourbon barrels to give it a bold, spicy, and bourbony experience. Not bad for Rye Whiskey!
OK, you can probably tell by my nearly empty tasting glass in front of the Small Batch that I liked it the best! (Even though it is the highest proof Bourbon.) The glasses also indicate that my preferences were for the Proof Aged followed by the Single Barrel. 

Their Bourbon mash bill is 75% Corn, 21% Rye, and 4% Malted Barley. It's a great place to taste without all the hoopla of a distillery tour (which makes sense because their distillery source is elsewhere).

Jeff Mattingly, founder of Bourbon 30, signed my bottle of Small Batch Bourbon. And I eventually thought to take a picture of it before the contents disappeared!

Bluegrass Distillers  

Bluegrass Distillers is part of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour.  Located in a renovated old bakery building, it is on West 6th Street in Lexington, but the front door is set back a few buildings on The Legacy Trail just around the corner from West Sixth Brewing. They use organic and locally sourced grains to make their Bourbon.

Skip the charred oak barrel aging and you have what is called "white dog whiskey," use Kentucky blue corn and you have Blue Dog Whiskey. Yes, you have it; I'm not a fan of any white dog whiskey.

Bluegrass Distillers sells two types of Wheated Bourbon and two High Rye Bourbons.

The Wheated Bourbon is bottled at 90 Proof and made with 75% yellow corn, 15% wheat, and 10% malted barley. Wheated Bourbon has a rich, buttered spiced cake aroma and the taste yields more oak and vanilla flavors compared to the pepper and spice of the High Rye.
A higher proof Wheated Bourbon can be drawn straight from the barrel, and then you can cork and label your own Bourbon at 104 Proof.
Kentucky Straight High Rye Bourbon is bottled at 90 Proof and made with 75% yellow corn, 15% rye, and 10% malted barley. It has aromatic notes of butterscotch and spices with a peppery, spiced flavor. The Bourbon is barrel-aged for at least 2 years.
Surprised to see a 15% rye content billed as "high rye." The rye content of 35% in Four Roses Single Barrel seems more like a high rye.
High Rye Straight Bourbon Barrel Drawn is a bourbon you can draw straight from the barrel, cork and label it for a one-of-a-kind 107 Proof bottle of Kentucky Straight Bourbon.

I was excited to try the Bluegrass wheated Bourbons, but they weren't my favorites. Maybe bigger tasting glasses would enhance the experience. They certainly have a big tasting room!

Bulleit Experience at Stitzel-Weller Distillery

Thomas Bulleit, Jr. revived an old family Bourbon recipe and started the Bulleit Distilling Company in 1987. He was inspired by his great-great-grandfather Augustus Bulleit, who made a high rye whiskey between 1830 and 1860. High rye content gives Bulleit a bold, spicy character with a distinctively smooth, clean finish.

After searching for the Bulleit Distillery for years (see Bulleit Bourbon Tasting 2011) I was glad that The Bulleit Experience at Stitzel-Weller Distillery in Louisville (Shively) finally opened in 2014. It only took me 4 years to get there!

Stitzel-Weller is an iconic piece of Kentucky history and was formed when A. Ph. Stitzel Distillery and distributor W. L. Weller & Sons combined their businesses in 1935. The founders were Julian (Pappy) Van Winkle Sr., Alex T. Farnsley, and Arthur Phillip Stitzel.

The Stitzel-Weller location is now used to test out new Bulleit recipes in small batches and stores massive amounts of whiskey that occupy the rickhouses. Bulleit's main production is done at their larger distillery in Shelbyville, KY, which opened in 2017.

Forrest takes the Bourbon tour to another level.

After a brief tour of the distillery area and a rickhouse we tasted these excellent Diageo brand Bourbons:

• Bulleit
• Bulleit 10 Year
• I W Harper
• Blade And Bow

Bulleit Bourbon is medium amber in color, with gentle spiciness and sweet oak aromas. Mid-palate is smooth with tones of maple, oak, and nutmeg. Finish is long, dry, and satiny with a light toffee flavor.

Bulleit Bourbon 10 Year Old is Tom Bulleit’s selected reserve. Aged in charred American white oak, select Bulleit Bourbon barrels were set aside to age for 10 years. The result is a special expression of Bulleit that provides a rich, deep, incredibly smooth sipping experience.

I.W. Harper began in 1872 and was originally launched by Isaac Wolfe Bernheim.
I.W. Harper Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (82 Proof) has a subtle nose with hints of caramel and vanilla, velvety bursts of wood and spice finishing with subtle fruit notes.

Blade And Bow is made using the Solera aging process. Whiskey from old Stitzel-Weller barrels is added in a fractional blending that is a mixture of ages. The average age gradually increases as the process continues over many years.
Blade and Bow Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey has a subtle aroma of fresh fruit and a taste that includes hints of dried apricot, ripe pear and a sweet roasted grain. The finish has notes of charred oak and warm winter spices.

 Jockey Silks Bourbon Bar
We visited the Jockey Silks Bourbon Bar at the Galt House Hotel as our first stop on this Louisville Urban Bourbon Trail trip. I enjoyed some Wheated Bourbons: W L Weller Special Reserve (90 Proof) and an Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond (100 Proof), a blend of 75% Corn, 20% Wheat, 5% Malted Barley.

Downtown Bristol Bar & Grille

Our next stop on the Urban Bourbon Trail was the Downtown Bristol Bar & Grille. I tasted a Bernheim Original Kentucky Straight Wheat Whiskey (90 Proof) distilled from a mash containing at least 51% soft winter wheat and a Willet Corner Creek Reserve Bourbon Whiskey (88 Proof) a blend of Corn, Rye, Barley and Wheat. Both were very good and unique!

We first visited this bar in 2016 and I published some pictures of the place and my first Pappy tasting there. Our initial visit was lots of fun, but this time it seemed like the bartenders were more interested in getting ready to close up (at 9:30 on a Friday night) than educate somebody about their Bourbon selection. Must have been that everyone went to A Taste Of Main Street, a special event at The Kentucky Center that night.

Harvest Restaurant

For my last taste of the evening I had a Wathen's Kentucky Bourbon (94 Proof) at Harvest Restaurant. Wathen's is produced by Charles Medley and has a Mash Bill of 77% Corn, 10% Rye and 13% Malted Barley. I enjoyed the different Rye-Barley balance, despite its mediocre reviews online.
We enjoyed this NuLu bar and restaurant on Friday night so much that we went back for their Saturday Brunch! It was an interesting farm to table menu that included seasonal ingredients delivered to their kitchen by local farmers. We had the special Omelette and the Market Strata with some Gruet Brut Rose for Devon and I had a great Bloody Mary!

Angel's Envy
This place looks very cool inside and out, a great presentation of products, but we didn't have time for a tour and, consequently, there was no tasting. I've had their Bourbon before and liked it.  The mash bill (as you can see in their mash bill components display) is 72% Corn, 18% Rye and 10% Malted Barley; it's also finished in ruby port casks.

Sidebar At Whiskey Row - Downtown
Well, we managed to show up in Louisville a few weeks after the Derby, but we watched the Preakness Stakes at the Sidebar At Whiskey Row - Downtown (unfortunately, they couldn't turn on any audio).  I sampled these fine Bourbons during the race and with a fantastic lunch:

• Town Branch (80 Proof, 72% Corn, 15% Malted Barley, 13% Rye)
• Old Forester Signature (100 Proof)
• Willett Pot Still Reserve (94 Proof)

The "Philadelphia Attorney" burger, was topped with a braised short rib, bourbon mushrooms & onions, blue cheese, and lettuce. It went very well with the "Truffle-Parmesan Fries" that included grated parmesan, parsley and roasted garlic truffle aioli. Wow!

And, of course, Justify won!

We only visited Lexington, Versailles, Georgetown, and Louisville for four days, but it was plenty of fun! I hope we can return to the Urban Bourbon Trail in Louisville soon. 

See you on future tasting trips! 

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