Buffalo Trace Distillery

Erin was the mastermind of the weekend's logistics. She did a ton of research and planning to make sure that we got the most out of our one full day in Kentucky. This was important because the distilleries are scattered all over the Kentucky countryside and have limited hours, so her careful planning and printing of directions ensured that we were able to go on a tour at Stuart's top three distillery choices. Stuart secured a really nice Mercedes R350 Bluetec for the weekend. He is writing an article about it for work, and we got to cruise around in style. My favorite feature was the fact that it has two huge moon-roofs, so even though Todd and I were in the "way back" it didn't feel dark or cramped.

Our first stop on Saturday's bourbon distillery tour was Buffalo Trace. Erin's parents, Sue and Mark stayed in Cincinnati on Friday night, and they met us at the distillery on Saturday morning and spent the rest of the weekend with us. Buffalo Trace is one of the oldest continuously open distilleries in the country--one of four permitted to remain in operation during Prohibition--there is a lot of history on this chunk of land. In the tasting room the walls were lined with photographs of the distillery's history, staring in the late 1800s. Our tour guide, Don, was great! He had a wonderful sense of humor, knew a ton about bourbon and was completely unfazed by our humongous tour group. He did like to go on some tangents from time to time, which had Erin a little bit worried about us having enough time to get to the next stop in time for their tour, but it all worked out well. I think that this was my favorite of the three distilleries we visited on this trip. It was a good mix of beautiful landscaping, great history, behind-the-scenes views and tasty bourbon, but it didn't feel too over the top touristy.

Waiting for the tour to begin

I loved the all-brick warehouses with the barrels of aging bourbon peeking through the windows.

One of the things that qualifies liquor as bourbon is that it is aged in a charred white oak barrel. The barrel can only be used one time (most of the bourbon distilleries sell their used barrels to other liquor distilleries to make Scotch).

I loved the sweet smell and the look of aisle upon aisle of whiskey barrels.

Some fancy top shelf bourbon all boxed up and ready to go to its new home.

Learning about the bottling and labeling process.

Labels waiting to be affixed on their bottles.

Tasting time!