I'm flying into Louisville mid-March for work. I'm thinking about taking some overdue vacation days and hitting up the bourbon trail.

From the website, it seems like 3 days is recommended to hit most of them. Anyone have first hand experience/suggestions?

I have plenty of vacation time to burn so that's not an issue.

Never been, probably will never go, but I can give one good piece of advice: Hit as many as you can and sample as much as you can.

Yes, I went last year. You can get to all of them in 3 days... We did. But some of them were quick stops. You need to look at the hours they are open and the tour start times. Plan from there. I recommend hitting Woodford Reserve and Makers Mark. Plan to spend some time at those.... as they are the best. Lots of driving too.

I also recommend going to Kentucky Cooperage (now Independent Stave Company). Pretty insightful.

And the Bourbon Trail website doesn't show all of them. Some don't participate in that marketing campaign, but are worth the visit. I don't believe Buffalo Trace is listed on the official "Bourbon Trail" website.

Go to Buffalo Trace. Try to set up a tour prior to going and ask for Freddie. He has a lot of history about the place and my favorite tour. Heaven Hill isn't worth it to me. Tasting rooms are very small and they don't take you through the distillery. I've heard Maker's is actually pretty cool. I would go back to Willett as well.

I did Buffalo trace in July...real real good tour.

I also did the Louisville slugger tour while in Louisville...interesting and good tour as well

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Go to Buffalo Trace. Try to set up a tour prior to going and ask for Freddie. He has a lot of history about the place and my favorite tour.

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Buffalo Trace is a can't-miss distillery, even though it is not officially one the "trail". And I also recommend Freddie as a guide, I used to stop in after work when he was working the tasting room and just listening to him talk about the distillery, even not on the tour, was very informative.

Woodford offers a fantastic tour, because the distillery that you tour is essentially laid out for the purpose of hosting guided tours. Most Woodford Reserve bourbon is made at another facility in Louisville, which is then blended with the Versailles-made product before bottling. But still, the fact that it's a much smaller facility, makes for a fantastic tour that allows you to get more up close and personal than is generally possible at the bigger, more industrialized operations.

I can also recommend Freddy. He gives an amazing tasting. It's not the usual drink and go. Just the tasting took 20 minutes. His dad was a long time warehouse manager and had the honor of rolling the single barrel into the bonded one barrel warehouse (W?) and he was interviewed as a part of the buffalo trace living history documentaries.

Edit: at WT we had Jimmy Russell's grandson doing our tour. He asked where we had been that day and most of us were at BT together to start the day. He asked who we had and when we said Freddy, the comment back was everyone in the business knew Freddy and that he was well respected and gave the best tour in the business.

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Go to Buffalo Trace. Try to set up a tour prior to going and ask for Freddie. He has a lot of history about the place and my favorite tour. Heaven Hill isn't worth it to me. Tasting rooms are very small and they don't take you through the distillery. I've heard Maker's is actually pretty cool. I would go back to Willett as well.

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I liked Willett also. New distillery set up very nicely. Be prepared for BT being an old distillery. I nearly fell through the serrated grating on one of the platforms. Surprised their insurance company allows tours through the operations part of the facility. Great history though.

It's good that you're going in winter. None of them operate in the warmer months, and tours end up just being cask storage which is boring.

I went in 2011, but could only get to one tour. I chose Austin Nichols (Wild Turkey). Definitely don't want to miss that one. On the tour people were describing the other distilleries, and none sounded dull. At Makers they'll even let you dip your own bottle.

Kentucky law says they can only give each person 1 oz for free. Some give two halves, some three thirds.

The Parkway.

What a road!!!

Thinking of a summer trip. Has anyone done this in 2020? What are must yes and okay to skip etc?

Went to Louisville in 2017 and had an amazing trip based out of Louisville. We booked an Air BNB near Audubon Park and it was awesome. Some people do the trail based out of Lexington or Bardstown. Louisville with a rental car is manageable and fun.

If you're in Louisville, Many liquor stores do tastings and can open up bottles that you could never afford for per ounce drinks, Tried a PVW 23 for $40 as opposed to trying to find a bottle. Totally worth it if you want to try this way. The one store that had an amazing selection of options and barrel picks was "Westport Wine and Whiskey" in Louisville.

As far as the distillery tours go, your mileage may vary depending on your interests and preferences.

Buffalo Trace- Out of all the tours, this one is a "Must go". beautiful scenery, Book the "Hard Hat" tour for the full experience (book early, fills up fast. Ask for Freddie as your guide if possible). Don't even think about buying Blanton's or hard to find bottles. They only had Wheatley Vodka and Buffalo trace in their shop. They have a huge gift shop as well. The tasting was their "White Dog" Un-aged distillate, Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, and then you could try their Bourbon Cream IIRC. Overall, if you only get to do one full tour/tasting experience, this should be it.

Woodford Reserve- Smaller grounds, nice tasting paired with chocolate in the tasting room. Bottling room access on tour was very interesting. Very loud too with the glass bottles. Very cleaned up tour and "higher end" it seemed like. Tasting was paired with chocolates and had notes and tasting wheels. They have a restaurant on site too.

Willett- Bardstown area distilleries are neat and less refined experiences than the bigger ones closer to the city. Willett had you tour the grounds and then gave you access to their gift shop. Willett has a whole experience now with a bed and breakfast/restaurant that wasn't there when I went. You can buy bottles in their shop that are harder to find and aren't as widely distributed. They also have a good tasting of all the different ones they make if you like their stuff.

Heaven Hill/Bourbon Heritage Center- Heaven Hill seems to dominate the Bardstown area. This was much more "museum-like" with a smaller tasting. Got to try the "Very Old Fitzgerald 12" in their tasting, just ask if they have it. Very good. They have a large gift shop with some rarer bottles of Elijah Craig if you're lucky.

Four Roses- We did the bottling plant tour which is much smaller than the main one. Very simple tasting of their yellow label, small batch and single barrel. Nothing too special on this one. Gift shop had a lot of options for gifts, tumblers, glasses, etc.

Makers Mark- The other "must visit" tour from our experience, the grounds are beautiful, the gift shop lets you dip your own bottle or anything you would like to dip in red wax, they also have a good tasting and selection. They've opened up their experimental lab and the Maker's 46 side of things. Cool to see how they warehouse it in a climate controlled environment. They have an amazing restaurant on the grounds too called "Star Hill" that was outstanding.

Jim Beam Urban Stillhouse- This was in Downtown Louisville and was a touristy place, but you can bottle your own custom bottle and have it engraved.

Angel's Envy- In the middle of downtown Louisville. This tour was great and had a great tasting with orange-chocolates.Their rye was one of the our favorites. All of the bourbon chocolates you sample at all the distilleries are made in Downtown Louisville not to far from there at Art Eatables. Pack a few for the trip home to have with whiskey later.

All the distillery tours are pretty similar, to be honest. A few really stand out to me, but overall its very similar.

We ate at some great restaurants, Doc Crows was great, Garage Bar was good too, especially their charcuterie. Haymarket was a cool dive bar with great bottles. The Eagle bar had great fried chicken and a cool beer hall atmosphere too. Feast BBQ had good BBQ and frozen whiskey and ginger ale.

Let me know if you want anymore recommendations.

Great summary. I only had one day and did both of your "must" do's...Maker's Mark was cool because of the scenery. It is so old it felt like you were on a civil war battlefield. Also it's neat to buy your own bottle and dip it at the end. Wish I had bought more. And Buffalo Trace is really neat too. The grounds are cool and everything is incredibly old and historic. Wish I could go back.

Any higher end must eat places in Louisville for celebration supper?

We loved Doc Crow's.

Seelbach Hotel is good too

Matsui said:

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Any higher end must eat places in Louisville for celebration supper?

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I don't know if this would classify as "higher end" but it's definitely "bad ass". Incredibly cool place that was well worth the wait. Hammerheads is the name and they offer some really inventive foods like Smoked Cheddar Grit Tots, Venison burgers, Chicken & Waffles (awesome) made with sweet potatoes. Tacos are awesome too. We had group of 4 and we all shared and everything we ate was amazing.

Here's the weird location..it's under a house in residential neighborhood...