#WhiskeyRun2015: Making My Mark

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone. I thought I’d take this opportunity of “Fake Mexican Independence Day” to talk about…my trip last month to Kentucky. It’s as good a time as any!

So it all started a few months back with a Golden Ticket showing up in the mail. No, I wasn’t getting invited to Willy Wonka’s place to see the chocolate…even better, my barrel was ready! Several years earlier I had signed up on the Maker’s Mark website to be a “Maker’s Mark Ambassador.” It doesn’t cost anything and they treat you well, sending out some fun items at Christmas, like wrapping paper, or sweaters and scarves for your bottles (it would be a shame to let the whiskey get too cold). They also put your name on a brass plaque that goes on a barrelhead (along with a bunch of other names).

The Ambassador barrels are put in a special place to age the requisite 5 to 7 (or more) or more years it takes for a barrel of White Dog to magically transform into the smooth-drinking amber liquid we call Bourbon. When they have reached maturity, the Ambassadors on that name plate are notified and they have a chance to purchase bottles of whiskey from that barrel. A couple years ago, I had to make the trip in Keith’s place when his barrels came due and he wasn’t able to hit Kentucky during the allotted time period; this time I got to make my own trip, accompanied by my wife.

Where KFC got started

Work has been crazy of late, so there was no time to take days off. Instead, we rented a car on a Monday morning and started driving. We ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel in Athens, TN; hit Trader Joe’s in Knoxville as we breezed through; then stopped in Corbin, Kentucky, to just visit the location of the very first Kentucky Fried Chicken.

A truly disturbing Halloween mask

Soon after that we headed off the interstate and across the backroads and old two-lane highways of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, headed west toward Loretto.

We stayed the night in a small town called Springfield, where I had stayed on my previous trip. If you go, I’ll just say that I’ve seen no lodging of note in Loretto itself and if you want great hotel choices, you’ll probably have to stay in Bardstown, Elizabethtown, or somewhere else an hour or so away. Springfield is closer and has a decent hotel in the Springfield Inn…it’s not the Ritz-Carlton, but it’s not a Motel 6, either.

The next day it was off to…well, Bardstown. Sadly what Springfield lacks is much in the way of restaurants. We ate at a Mexican place for dinner on Monday night (it wasn’t bad) and couldn’t find anything besides Hardee’s and McDonalds for breakfast on Tuesday, so we headed up to the location of My Old Kentucky Home (yes, it’s a real place) and had breakfast just off the town square at a little hole-in-the-wall place. It wasn’t bad, either, but it wasn’t the place we had been looking for…maybe next time.

After breakfast, I decided to take my wife by the Bourbon Heritage Center, also known as Heaven Hill and former site of the distillery of the same name (until a fire took it a while back…now the distilling operation is up the road in Louisville). That got her a first look at the rick houses that are nearly ubiquitous around that part of Kentucky.

We toured slowly through the museum, marveling at how Evan Williams practically invented Kentucky whiskey, how Elijah Craig accidentally toasted his barrels for the first time, and how the Beam family has pretty much come to dominate Bourbon-making over the last century.

I almost bought a bottle of Elijah Craig…one of my favorites…but decided to go with the Old Fitzgerald instead, in the spirit of trying something new and different. Watch for a review soon!

Soon it was time to head back down to Loretto, driving past the Willett Distillery that is less than a mile from Heaven Hill (seriously, that has to be a stop next time I’m up that way). They rolled out the red carpet for the Ambassadors on that day (there were two or three others in attendance).

We did the tour and had a great time. They have changed the tasting process a bit since the last time I went on this trip, and they’ve had a European glass artist install a bit art piece before you go into the gift shop.

Then it was time to purchase and hand-dip my bottles of Maker’s.

I got 3 bottles. In previous years you could only buy 2…now they don’t have so much of a limit of how many you can buy of your own barrel, but how many you are legally able to buy per person in the state in a day (3 liters). Had we the funds, I could have had my wife buy more, but we had spent enough, really.

My 7-drip bottle…not to be opened.

With that done, it was time to beat feet back to the Volunteer State. We took some more freeways and yet more two-lane highways, trying to find a new and interesting way home. Let’s just say Highway 27 through Southern Kentucky and Northern Tennessee is beautiful, but might not be the fastest way home.

We had a great time and are planning to try to do some more “weekend getaways” (Monday/Tuesday being my weekend). I can’t say they will all be something you’ll read about on this blog, but this one was a lot of fun. If you have the inclination, definitely visit Maker’s Mark’s website and become an Ambassador and definitely DO make the trip to Loretto whether you become an Ambassador or not. Of all the distilleries I’ve visited, it is the most beautifully-maintained and most “family-friendly.” And the whiskey ain’t bad, either!