Back from bourbon country... what a trip.
Wednesday night we headed into Frankfort, checked in. Hit dinner at Longhorn and almost got stranded due to there being ONE cab driver in town. Anyone going to the smaller towns, be aware that public transportation (cabs/uber) are limited if existent at all.
Thursday:
Buffalo Trace:
Snow was falling as we toured the place. Dave was our tour guide. Great guy, very knowledgeable. One guy in our group had taken the "hard hat" tour before and said our tour was even more in depth. The entire distillery was at our disposal. We could walk anywhere, ask anything. We got an incredibly detailed, hands-on breakdown of the full process... from corn and grains coming onto the lot, to bottles going into the boxes. We tasted milled grains, we tasted mash in various stages of fermentation, we tasted low wine and white dog. We watched filling, dumping and everything in-between. We walked a few Rickhouses including the famous Warehouse C.
We walked the bottling lines... from the high speed line, to the "single barrel select" bottling house in the WL Weller & Sons building, and the micro-scale bottling at the Blanton's house (where they bottle antique collection, Blantons, EH Taylor, etc.). Each step was very up-close and personal with no place we couldn't walk/stand and we had full access to talk to any employee at any point. It was pretty amazing how labor-intensive and hands-on their process is (particularly finishing), with handwritten labels being hand applied to hand-filled and capped bottles. As we went on to tour another half-dozen facilities ranging from massive industrial scale (bartons) to micro-scale (Willett), it this remained the most interesting process.
After the tour, we went in for our barrel pick session and they had 4 barrels of Eagle Rare sitting there. We got a rundown of the details on the barrels, how we were only getting to pick ER because we were with a military group, etc. Then we took two glasses per barrel and using a thief (long copper tube) to extract bourbon, and filled them to a line on the glass. Then for one of glass for each barrel we added water to a second line to bring to "bottled proof" (90pf). We were then encouraged to taste both barrel and bottle proof, take notes, then turn in our favorite two barrels. Universally our group disliked #2. Not because it was bad, just because it was ordinary. #3 had a unique profile and #4 had a very dense/rich traditional ER flavor profile. We left the room for a bit (wandered the rickhouse) while they mixed up the two finalists on the table. We blind tested again and in a 4-2 split decision, chose barrel #3. Filled Feb 18, 2005 it'll come in around 11yr / 1mo when dumped, and as someone who has 4 different "store pick" bottles of ER10, I feel comfortable saying IT IS FANTASTIC.
After the pick, we finished up the leftover bourbon from the 8 glasses while signing the barrel head, hammering in the bungs, taking some photos, etc. Turns out a guy in the group's friend is related to Harlen Wheatley (BT Master Distiller) so he will be signing the head as well ("For the 155th" then his signature and anything else he wants to add). The barrel will be converted to table in the on-base bar area.
We then were walked over to their catering hall where they had a great luncheon laid out... expecting sandwiches, we got a great catered meal of some of the best BBQ chicken, scalloped potatoes, etc I've had. Various desserts, sides, drinks, etc. First class affair all around. A quick stop in the gift shop and a tasting later, and we wrapped up. All in all it was a ~5hr stop and served as the benchmark for the trip. Nowhere else came close... but then again we weren't picking barrels everywhere, so perhaps it was an unfair comparison.
If anyone cares to hear it, I can continue with (far less detailed) breakdowns and photos of our visits to Four Roses ("VIP" tour), Wild Turkey (tasting), Willett (tour hosted by distiller Terry Ballard), Barton (tour), Heaven Hill (tasting), and Makers Mark (Tour).
A few of the pics from Buffalo Trace:
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An upcoming limited release of EH Taylor. We commented on it and when we came back by 30 mins later it was gone.
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Barrels being rolled across the street for filling
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Barrels being filled
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Another shot of new barrels queued up.
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Dumping was underway when we came through. Note the char in the collection trough.
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A disassembled barrel they were checking char on...
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New barrels from independent stave
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Barrels and tree cross sections from their
Single Oak Project.
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More details on the barrel construction specifications
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Approaching Warehouse C and the
sign at the entrance. This rickhouse was hit by a tornado a few years back.
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Inside warehouse C
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Some experimental barrels (EH Taylor, Old Fire Copper - due out later this year)
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Fermentation tank. They have many...
92k gallons each. The vent hood siphons off CO2.
The tanks swirl due to yeast feeding as the mash shifts from a very sweet to sour blend over a several day period.
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A Pot still in their experimental secondary distillery.
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Our group looking over our barrels before the tasting
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Glasses lined up for tasting
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Tasting
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Our selected barrel
• The tiny
WL Weller bottling hall, where they dump and
bottle all single barrel select picks.
• The
Blantons bottling hall, with two lines operating. One working on EH Taylor Small Batch, and one on Blantons.
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Hand-Applied Labels. Most every step is completely hand-done.
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EH Taylor fill station. These change based on what they're bottling that day.
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Blantons fill station.
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Corking Blantons
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Wax sealing Blantons
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Labelling, Tagging, and Bagging Blantons... all by hand.
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Looking down the blantons bottling line
• Lunch photos
one and
two
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Post tour tasting
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Bourbon Cream and Bourbon Ball chocolates.
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The single-oak project.. all 180ish individual recipes all on display.