The morning of the third day, we decided which distillery to visit. Woodford Reserve distillery was first on the list and it was very close in Frankfort, Kentucky. We didn't know that Buffalo Trace (makers of Blanton's, Pappy Van Winkle, George T. Stagg and a few others) was just a few miles down the road.
The distillery was fantastic but not as neat (pun intended) as the one we went to later in the day. It was like a candy store of booze and schwag for a bourbon aficionado. I bought a bottle of WR Double Oak bourbon which is actually smoother than their standard Distiller's Reserve by some crazy distiller's magic.
This is also horse country, with large ranches that train, board and breed racing horses.
At Versailles, KY we hung a right onto the Bluegrass Parkway and continued west.
I wanted to hit more distilleries but we just didn't have the time. One day I'll have to make it a point to take two weeks in Kentucky just to tour more distilleries.
We made it Bardstown, an hour and change west of Versailles and not too far south of Louisville. Bardstown is just about the capital of bourbon distilling. There are enough distilleries there to fill up a week of tours, tasting and food.
We stopped at the Willett distillery which happens to be the creator of my favorite rye whiskey. I had a chance to have a few fingers of their ultra-rare 25 year old single barrel rye back in Philly in 2012. Holy cow, that is an amazing spirit. I didn't have the money for a $250 bottle of booze though so I got a very fine bottle of 4yr single barrel rye.
Concrete bases for water tanks.
Barrel-aging warehouse.
We got dinner at a tavern in Bardstown that has been a restaurant since the American Revolution.
From there, we still had a few hours of sunlight left and decided to push further west to Paducah. We stayed the night in Metropolis, Illinois at a state park just across the Ohio River from Paducah.
Giant Superman statue in Metropolis.
Phil Forrest