Spitting Out Bourbon and Other Strange Happenings

Following our own example, we started off the morning eating our usual breakfast (see post below) and hitting the road - we were on our way to Buffalo Trace. Flash back to a month ago...Being one of the two distilleries that I didn't have a supplier contact for - I was originally afraid that we would have a hard time getting in. Luckily my friends at Young's Market were able to pull a few strings and get us in. I was very appreciative as some of my favorite whiskies are created here: Buffalo Trace, George T. Stagg, Eagle Rare, WL Weller, Van Winkle, and the list goes on and on.

Alright, back in the present. I knew that we were going to have a chance to meet Mark Brown, the president and CEO of Buffalo Trace - so I was very excited to arrive. Who would have thought that our experience there is something I will never forget. As we walked in, I asked the lady in the gift shop for Margeret as she was our contact - turns out that she was her (bad english I know). She was amazingly nice - greeting us with a huge smile and bringing us into her ongoing conversation with a few other BT employees about an article in Delta airline's magazine which highlights Lexington and includes bits on the distillery. She then introduces Shannon and I to Carey, the gentleman that will be taking us on the tour - but first we had to go up and meet Mark.

We walk up to Mark's office - he and two other employees are in the middle of a meeting, but take a break just to sit and talk to us. We chat about business on the west coast, the economy, how Safeway is doing, etc. Then we turn to talking about Bourbon and what we like, what we find interesting, etc. He kept saying that it was such a pleasure having us at the distillery, which blew me away, because I was in awe of who I was sitting in front of.

Mark is one of the most forward thinking people in the whiskey industry in my opinion. He is constantly experimenting with different concepts and whiskey making ideas. To read more about his experiments check out the blog What Does John Know and also the most recent Malt Advocate magazine. BT has even bottled some of the experiments, most of which are whiskies that were aged (for at least some time) in used wine barrels. Much to my surprise, Mark presented me one of the Zinfindel finished bottles as a gift. Considering that some of these are going on eBay for upwards of $80 for a 375-ml - I was extremely grateful as they are next to impossible to find in any store.

We then headed down to meet Carey for the tour. We got the "hard hat" tour which took us through the entire process. We had this experience once before at Maker's Mark, but Buffalo Trace is HUGE so the parts involved in the process are even more incredible. Too much to go into detail but it was just amazing.

Following the tour, we were brought up into the experiment lab. Buffalo Trace has nearly 1500 barrels dedicated to their experiements - and are always trying to create something new. In addition to the barrels they also have a new micro-still that will be used in creating the whiskies. In the lab we were allowed to taste some of the experimental whises that they are considering releaseing in 2009 and 2010. We tasted 4 different batches, and at least two of those, no one, outside of BT employees, had ever tasted. Simply Incredible. Now they weren't all great, but they certainly weren't bad - but I was just in awe that we got to taste them. I don't really want to say what they were as I'm not sure if BT would want the info getting out, but they definitely have some wild ideas. By the way - the lab was "taste & spit" no getting drunk while at work! So they had several large spitoons spit the bourbon into - pretty cool.

After the tour and tasting we headed back down to the gift shop, bought some souviners and then headed back up to Mark's office. We sat there for another half hour to hour just going over the tour, asking questions, talking about everything from Kentucky to the upcoming WhiskeyFest. He signed a bottle of Eagle Rare for us and we went on our way, amazed by the experience we just had.

We then headed over to Woodford Reserve (after our good friend Garmin gave us bad directions). Compared to Buffalo Trace that has 11o buildings on the premise, this place was TINY! The majority of the "work" is done in two rooms. This is one of the few places that "creates" their seasons by heating and cooling the rack houses. Every other distillery lets nature take its course. We then headed back to the gift shop & visitor's center for a sample of the bourbon.

The drive to and from Woodford was amazing - the distillery is surrounded by horse farms - and is landscaped just beautifully. It was a wonderful drive.

We are back at the hotel now gearing up for our last day when we will visiting Wild Turkey and Four Roses. See ya tomorrow!