I had never turned off my work alarm, so I was awake at 5. This worked though, because the goal was to be out of the room by 7:45. I got ready and then facebooked from my iPad while Nick got ready. Obviously, the iPad was willing to connect to the hotel wifi even though my phone wouldn’t.
We were packed up and rolling out of the room right on time. Go us! We checked out, packed up the car, and headed for breakfast right next store…at the Chick-fil-a drive through. A chicken biscuit for me, some mini chicken sandwiches and hash browns for Nick. This was our cheapest meal of the trip, tasty and very filling. And it was easy enough to eat while driving!
We hopped on the highway and followed I-64 across the rest of West Virginia and across Kentucky. It was an uneventful 254 mile drive to our next destination. We had refueled the car the night before, so we just had to stop once for restrooms and with the nice high speed limits and road construction that didn’t interfere with traffic flow because it’s not the northeast, we made it to Buffalo Trace Distillery less than 4 hours after leaving our hotel.
The drive into Buffalo Trace was beautiful. This distillery is part of the national historic registry, and wow. The driveway to the massive parking lot was tree-lined and just lovely. Once we arrived at the massive parking lot (seriously, this place is huge), the guard at the guard shack directed us where to park, and then after finding out we didn’t have a scheduled tour, directed us to the visitor center for our wristbands. Huh?
Buffalo Trace was where I had kinda goofed on planning this trip. Buffalo Trace is a favorite bourbon of Nick. Their tours and tastings are complimentary so they book FAST. I didn’t realize this early enough, so we hadn’t been able to schedule a tour here. But we’d decided to come here anyway, to see what we could and also because their gift store is really the only place to buy their bourbon cream. The bourbon cream is also why we’d left the hotel pretty early in the day (just before 8 am). It can and does sell out over the course of the day.
We parked and headed for the visitor center, where our IDs were checked, we were offered a tour at 2, which, unfortunately is when we had a tour scheduled elsewhere, and then were given wristbands and told to go shop and then head upstairs for a complimentary tasting. Wait, what?! The website didn’t say that was available!
We did a little picture taking then headed for the gift shop.
The gift shop was a freaking frenzy. First, it’s huge. Second, everyone is walking around with shopping baskets on wheels (think carry on luggage style). And those baskets are filled with clinking bottles of alcohol. It was nuts! We had fun, though. I did quite a bit of shopping for upcoming holidays, and we both got our hands on a bottle of the bourbon cream. You’re limited to one full sized bottle and 5 minis per person per day of that one. Nick also got a bottle of the green label Weller, which you’re limited to one per person per 90 days. They scanned his wrist band, which apparently had been connected to his drivers license when we were given them in the visitor center, so that he is unable to buy that one again for a few months. Wow!
Purchases made, we headed for the tasting bar upstairs. There was a line, but I think we only waited about 10 minutes. Our bartender was Dave, and he was great. He asked where everyone was from, and was very excited to find out we’re from NH. Dave is originally from New England and had spent years living in the town next to where Nick grew up. Immediately our tasting was filled with jokes about NH’s liquor stores that left the rest of the group who were from places like Ohio and Canada scratching their heads. We obviously loved it.
This was a VERY impressive complimentary tasting. We started with a sample of their vodka (Wheatley), which is 10 times distilled. This was incredibly smooth. Then it was on to the standard Buffalo Trace Bourbon. This was more drinkable than I had expected. Then it was on to the green label Weller. This was VERY drinkable. Next up? The Sazerac Rye. Nick had to finish this one for me. But we gained some insight for our trip to NOLA next February as Dave told us about Sazerac. We knew the sazerac was a New Orleans cocktail. We had no idea Buffalo Trace made the rye for it. We also didn’t know you can visit the Sazerac House. After this, it was on to the Bourbon Cream. Dave told us to only drink half of our sample. This stuff is excellent! I totally see why they have purchase limits. It’s really good! He then gave us a sample of their (non-alcoholic) root beer. While this was not quite as good as the root beer from Atlantic Brewing Company in Bar Harbor, it was VERY good root beer. Again we were told to only drink half the sample. Then Dave had us combine the remaining half of the root beer sample with the remaining half of the bourbon cream sample. Wow. THAT was good!
Tasting finished, we headed for the car, taking a few more pictures before we reached the lot.
On our way, we looked up whether we can get the Wheatley vodka in NH. We can’t. So I headed back inside for a bottle of that. And, I may have noticed that none of the cashiers working the line were the ones that had cashed me out earlier. So I was that asshole and bought another bottle of the bourbon cream. While waiting in line I found a Buffalo Trace Christmas ornament for dad. Christmas ornaments make great stocking stuffers for the man who has everything.
I paid and then headed for the car, where Nick was quite surprised that I’d broken rules, but excited about my haul. And then we left for real, very happy with how this Bourbon Trail visit had gone. If you’re doing the Trail, make a stop at Buffalo Trace, even if you’re not able to schedule a tour. It’s very worth the visit. It’s a really neat place to walk around a bit, and the experience here is top notch.
We headed for our next Trail stop, stopping at Sonic on the way. Chicken tenders for Nick, tots for me. My tots were good, Nick’s chicken was a bit dry. But it was quick and got some food into us before the next stop.
Our next stop was about 15 minutes away, at Whiskey Thief Distilling. This brought us out into the Kentucky farmland and we honestly thought Google was leading us the wrong way until we saw a small sign. We then followed signs through a farm to get back to the building for the tour.
Whiskey Thief is the polar opposite of Buffalo Trace. It’s a relatively new craft distillery. It’s still a small operation.
We headed inside and found out we were the only ones signed up for this appointment slot, so our tasting began immediately after we were handed our souvenir tasting glasses. We learned what a whiskey thief is and then were served with the whiskey thief (it’s a big copper thing). The bourbon here was not as smooth as buffalo trace, but it wasn’t bad. Nick liked it, and when he found out that if you buy a bottle here, you bottle it yourself, he was all in. Another couple arrived and Nick bottled his bottle of bourbon to take home while the other couple did their tasting. He was having the time of his life!
Tastings finished, we were given a quick tour, and then directed back to the gift shop near the entrance to the property, where we could have complimentary tastings of any of the moonshine they make. Ok!
The girl working in the gift shop was not nearly as friendly as the girl who did our bourbon tasting, so we only tasted a couple moonshines, but we enjoyed (and bought) what we tasted. Whiskey Thief has had a partnership with Moonpies, and had coconut and vanilla Moonpie moonshines. They were VERY sweet, and VERY smooth.
Very satisfied with our first day on the Bourbon Trail, it was time to finish the trip to Louisville. We hopped back into the car and headed back it I-64. It was about a 40 minute drive to Louisville. We stopped for gas, but it was an uneventful and reasonably quick trip.
When we got to the hotel, we were a bit surprised to find a LOT of cop cars. They were from multiple states, and all parked in parking spaces, so we weren’t too concerned that anything was wrong; it just became apparent that there was literally a cop convention happening here. And we would be hauling numerous bags of alcohol into the hotel. Only us!!
Check in was quick, and pretty soon we were hauling all of our luggage and purchases up to the 8th floor. We would be here for the next 4 nights. Once settled, we surveyed the damage we’d done.
Then we got down to the business of deciding where to go for dinner. Eventually a decision was made, and we walked the couple blocks to Main Street, where we pretty easily found Doc Crowe’s. We were seated immediately.
Dinner at Doc Crowe’s was excellent. Nick had some smoked chicken platter. I had a baked potato loaded with cheese and pulled pork. I had the mint julep lemonade to drink. Nick had…some bourbon drink. Service was great, and it was clear why my dad likes this place. They have a MASSIVE bourbon list.
Dinner finished, we walked around a bit, and then walked back to the hotel. Here we agreed on a departure time for the next morning, showers were taken, and I crashed hard.
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