I’ve circled Mississippi’s Tamale Trail seemingly dozens of times. I’ve stuffed myself along the Louisiana Boudin Trail. Last week, I completed another that my friends and I have discussed for more than a decade — The Bourbon Trail in Kentucky.
Lifelong newspaper friends Layne Bruce, of Madison, and Jim Prince, of Ridgeland, and I have dreamed of that most unique Kentucky experience for years and years. We finally nailed down a date over a year ago and began setting an itinerary. We all flew into Louisville, also known as “Bourbon City,” last Wednesday to begin our 4-day journey.
Layne worked a few years at a Kentucky newspaper and fell in love with the state. While serving on the National Newspaper Association board of directors, I visited Lexington for a meeting after which we toured one of the famous horse farms where I got to put my hands on one of the most beautiful thoroughbreds I’ve ever seen, American Pharoah, just a couple months after he had won the prestigious Triple Crown.
We also toured the Buffalo Trace distillery which only fueled my drive even more to return with friends for the full Trail experience.
It would take you a month to visit every distillery in Kentucky and learn the intricacies of each and their rich histories. Kentucky’s distinct limestone-filtered water made it the natural home of the Bourbon industry dating back to the 18th century. Kentucky is home to more than 100 licensed distilleries largely in the relatively close circle between Louisville and Lexington.
We hit as many as we could but put our focus for in-depth tours at Old Forester in Downtown Louisville and Maker’s Mark nestled in the beautiful hills of Marion County near Bardstown.
Old Forester was created by George Garvin Brown, but named for his neighbor Dr. William Forrester. He was a surgeon with the Union Army in the Civil War. Brown recruited Dr. Forrester as an early investor and as a famous doctor of the day let him do the promotions for the product.
An old newspaper ad showed Dr. Forrester holding a bottle with the line “Many, many times a day discriminating doctors say: ‘Old Forrester will life prolong and render old age hale and strong.’”
Upon Dr. Forrester’s retirement, Brown dropped one of the R’s in the name as a sign of respect.
Rain from Helene poured down on us as we arrived at the very secluded Star Hill Farm –- home to Maker’s Mark. The tour fascinated me including the print shop where they make the labels for the bottles with a hand-operated two-century old Chandler and Price printing press.
That was one of the biggest take aways from the tours that at all the distilleries the process by which the various products are made are all by hand with meticulous detail. There’s a craftsmanship from the way they grow their own corn and build their own white oak barrels to how they develop their bottles and fine tune the various recipes to get the exact taste they want.
It was an inspiring experience learning how the smallest details are what the process is all about. A lesson that can be applied to so many processes. On the flight home I circled through the long catalog of photos I made at all our various stops recounting all the stories we heard.
Margie Samuels, the co-founder of Maker’s Mark who is responsible for the bottle shape, label and famous red wax seal, is known for saying “My aim was to bring good taste to tastes good.” Kentucky is filled with “good taste” and experiences that I hope to share with friends again.
