The Bourbon Trail Conquered! Part One: Woodford Reserve

So I am happy to finally say I completed "The Bourbon Trail" before I left Bardstown last year.  (Saying last year makes it sound like it was so long ago....when it was really less than two weeks ago) Even though I had10 months in Bardstown and many wonderful visits to distilleries with my guests, I still had three more distilleries to tour to get my free t-shirt!  So I dragged Rambo with me to cram in all three visits in one day.  (Rambo being the young man who took me shooting and has a slight infatuation with me.)

We left Bardstown early so we could hit the first tour of the distillery that was the farthest away.  Woodford Reserve is located in Versailles, KY.  Versailles...(pronounced Ver-sales) is horse country located near Lexington.  Woodford Reserve I found out is owned by the Jack Daniels Corporation in Tennessee. It is referred to as a "craft bourbon". They only make a couple of bourbons and Rye. Nothing like you would find at Jim Beam or Maker's Mark.  It is very small and probably the most beautiful nestled in and around all these amazing horse farms.  Going to work there would be so peaceful and relaxing.  They even had a cat!  He was named after the bourbon's creator....which I can't remember right now. Elijah...something

The descendants of the original distillers...notice all those Brown names??

Looking down at the distillery from the visitor's center.

The Rickhouse.  Notice not nearly, as tall as, all the other distilleries...and made of brick on the outside.

The bottling warehouse.

Once they have been filled with the "White Lightening", the barrels are transferred along this rail to the rickhouse for storage  .

A barrel in front of the rickhouse.

  

Inside the distillery. They actually distill their bourbon three times as opposed to just two times which most of the other distilleries do.  These copper stills are from Scotland.

Looking down to where the barrels are filled.

This is how the barrels get filled after the three step distilling process. Then the bungs get hammered in....they told us what wood is used to make the bungs, but I can't remember. 

This building was originally created for the tax men that took up residence to make sure they were getting their share of the money the distillery made. They were not very popular....so no bathroom was ever installed inside the building.

Looking up to the visitor's center.

Elijah, the distillery's cat!

Chubby ol' guy. They think he is about 15. 

He enjoys the attention of all the visitors.

Elijah wondering what happened to all the attention.

Picture of the barrels in the rickhouse. 

The rickhouse and bottling area.

The bottling operation!

The visitor's center.  They take you on a little bus down to the distillery....it really isn't far enough to require a bus. After we got our sample of bourbon to taste,  a chocolate treat and then the required stamp on our passports, we headed to Wild Turkey.