quote:
quote:
I was at a bar in lexington, ky friday night - place had Elijah Craig 21 yo. I asked for a pour and he said it was a 100 bucks
100 bucks? yikes! I settled for Elmer T. Lee for 15
How did you like your trip to the Bluegrass?
One of the things that drew me to bourbon is there is something beautiful about just how long the juice needs to age in order to create something that is exceptional. In an age of the "quick buck" I really enjoyed going through rick houses, looking at barrels that have been there 6 - 23 years. We hit up Wild Turkey, Four Roses, Buffalo Trace and Woodford Reserve. While there are similarities in all of them, it was cool to learn about each distilleries uniqueness. (Except for Wild Turkey)
So we had a great time and I sure appreciated everyone's recommendations. I agree with the recommendation to checkout Westport Whisky and Wine in Louisville, great people with a great selection. They let you have tasting of their barrel select options for .50cents - which is awesome! It saved me 65 bucks on not getting Woodford Reserve Double Oak Single Barrel (which I have never seen before) - for my palate, the more woodford does to their bourbon, the less I like it
Buffalo trace was great just because it is so vast yet they seem to try to keep the "art form" of making bourbon alive. I was surprised that they didnt sell a wider variety of their brands in their gift shop. Im not expecting to find any special releases or anything, but maybe Col. Taylor or Weller 12year - but they kept it pretty restricted to Eagle Rare, Blantons, Buffalo Trace and something else. The bourbon creme was awesome, however.
Four Roses wasnt distilling so we took the History/Tasting tour and basically sat with one of their employees, drank whisky and heard all about the history of the place. Pretty great story that you should check out if you are in the area.
Worst place on the tour was Wild Turkey - not too surprised by this, but it was boring and not worth the time. Definitely get the mass-produced feel that doesnt have the charm of Buffalo Trace, Makers or Four Roses.
Best tour goes to Woodford just because they have taken the time to make it a really nice experience and the surrounding horse farms are really beautiful. So the whole place was just beautiful and relaxing. Only sad part of the tour is she pulled the cask strength of their double oak directly from the barrel (obviously) for us to sniff and then proceeded to pour in the gutter afterwards - shameful!
Here is a picture of the scene of the crime
:
We ate great (recommend Momma's Mustard, Pickles and BBQ - amazing smoked chicken wings and beef ribs), had great bourbon - so it was a pretty great 2 day tear though KY
my haul, nothing extraordinary is available at this time but im happy with what I brought home - especially the Four Roses Cask Strength and Angel Envy Rye: