A Little Slice of Heaven (Hill), (Coconut) Pie and Jim Beam

Today, we made our way down to Bardstown, KY after our typical breakfast of biscuts and gravy, eggs, sausage for me and biscuts and gravy and cereal for Shannon.

We had a 10 o'clock appointment at Heaven Hill to tour through their rack houses (the distilling is done in Louisville, and the bottling line is off limits to visitors) and do a tasting. They also have a nifty little history of bourbon display in one half of the giftshop/heritage center. The rackhouses were pretty cool, had some pretty old barrels - up to 27 years old....

We then headed into their tasting room and in addition to the usual tastings of Evan Williams Single Barrel and Elijah Craig 18 yr, we were able to taste Bernhiem Wheat Whiskey and Evan Williams Single Barrel 23 yr. The later is only available at the gift shop and in Japan - and sells for $350... it was FANTASTIC! - but no, I did not buy one. However I did get another bottle of one of my favorite whiskies - Parker Heritage Collection Cask Strength Bourbon. Not sure if I can drink it though - as it is signed by Parker Beam, the semi-retired Master Distiller. It will go next to my Evan Williams Single Barrel that is signed By Craig Beam, the full time Master Distiller.

We took off from Heaven Hill and headed into Bardstown to see what small town life is like... had lunch at a restaurant that was opened in the 30's. Back then, the family lived upstairs and ran the restaurant downstairs. The same family still owns it, but they live somewhere else (I think). We went to the Oscar Getz Whiskey Museum that has all sorts of cool stuff - whiskey bottles (some still full) from the late 1800s / early 1900s - prohibition and anti-prohibition propaganda - various marketing tools from a number of distillers.

Afterwards we went to a bar/tavern that has been opened since 1779. Some say the Old Talbot Tavern is haunted - and we - NO JOKE - saw a half full pint glass slide off of the table next to us, right after the lady sitting in the seat that the glass landed in got up to go "ghost hunting" - the husband looked at us and said "did you see that?!?!". So that was pretty crazy... history has it that everyone from Abraham Lincoln to Jesse James spent time in the tavern/hotel.

We then headed to the Jim Beam Outpost (the visitor center at the Beam Distillery). We got there 15 minutes before they closed - so we ran in, looked around, bought a Booker's T-shirt and headed back. But not before we snapped a few pictures with Booker Noe himself.