The Bourbon Capital of the World - Part 1
Posing with Bardstown's City Hall
A few weeks ago, Chris happened to mention that we needed to get back to Bardstown, Kentucky, sometime soon; Bardstown is considered the "Bourbon Capital of the World," due to its high concentration of local distilleries, and while we'd passed through for lunch a few months back after visiting Maker's Mark, we hadn't really spent much time in the area. We booked ourselves a campsite in a RV park just outside of downtown and used the Juneteenth holiday to take a long weekend for wandering around and tasting some brown spirits!
We headed out after work on Wednesday, taking around two hours to cover the 100 miles from Bardstown to home, and arriving at White Acres Campground, our home base for the next few days, just before an impressive rainstorm blew in (we did our setup in record time, and we were safely inside when it hit).
One of my favorite parts of campsite check in - reading the rules!
Not the best picture, but the rain was coming down diagonally, and the sky was a weird yellow color
(we're watching the final episode of the newest season of Clarkson's Farm).
Having worked all day, we tuckered out pretty quickly, letting the steady drum of rain on an aluminum roof soothe us to sleep. The next day, we were up and moving before too long, enjoying our normal camping coffee/tea service and eating some warmed up breakfast casserole and biscuits (we make these at home - while we have an oven in the rig, it's not the best, and things take 800 years to cook. It's easier to bake them ahead of time and use the oven to warm things up later).
Once fed, it was time to start our day! Our first scheduled event was lunch at the Willett Distillery, but that wasn't until 11am, so we decided to wander downtown Bardstown, checking out local landmarks using the walking tour brochure the RV park provided us the evening before. Settled in the 1780s, Bardstown is one of the oldest cities in Kentucky, and it has an impressive array of historic homes and buildings; many are still private residences, but others are businesses, including shops, hotels, and restaurants.
In front of the old jail, now a B&B
The Episcopalian Church in town
The Jacob Yocum House was built around 1792 and is made of hand-hewn logs
At the Chicken Cock Distillery - they weren't open yet, so we just posed for pictures
While we were wandering downtown, we received an unfortunate text from Willett; apparently, a water main broke in town, leaving their kitchen and distillery high and dry! We had to cancel our lunch reservation, which was a bummer, because we were looking forward to trying their legendary egg salad sandwich - that's not hyperbole, it even has its own Instagram page! We figured that even though the kitchen was kaput, we could likely still stop by Willett for tasting and shopping, but alas, the whole spot was closed for the day.
At least Chris made a friend!
He's a Hemingway cat!
Whenever you got too close to a spot where you shouldn't be,
the distillery had one of these signs, which cracked us up.
D'oh!
Lots of cool greenery features here
We all knew Chris is tall, but as tall as a rickhouse?
Seriously, though, look at how gorgeous that is - a glass fronted rickhouse,
just so you can see all those barrels!
We didn't end up having any further rain, but the clouds were pretty dramatic
After picking up a bottle of Bardstown BoCo's small batch stave finish bourbon, we headed back to downtown for lunch at Cafe Primo, a cute little Italian spot we passed in our earlier wanderings. We split a caprese salad and small pizza, both of which were great, and then it was back to the RV for a quick break before our afternoon adventures. While we were there, we learned that the water main hadn't yet been fixed, so our Heaven Hill experience, originally planned for Thursday around 2pm, needed to be rescheduled (that whole side of town was impacted). To open up our calendar, I called the James B. Beam distillery; we had a Friday afternoon experience planned with them, and thankfully, they were able to reschedule us on Thursday, even with such short notice. Calling Heaven Hill back, we were able to squeeze into their schedule on Friday at 12:30pm - success! We relaxed in the rig a bit longer, and then it was time to drive to Clermont (about 20 minutes away), where Beam is located.
Not shown - the arrows I later drew to indicate all the changes we had to make.
Stupid water main!
While you'd be correct in assuming that James B. Beam Distillery makes Jim Beam, its most famous product, its portfolio includes tons of other notable spirits, such as Legent, Knob Creek, Basil Hayden, Baker's, and Booker's. They make a ton of whiskey/bourbon! Although we love a good production tour, we've been on quite a few in the last year, so we opted for their "Maturation Matters" experience instead. In lieu of wandering past a bunch of mash tuns (which I really do love - I enjoy watching the little yeasty beasties do their work), we were driven to one of Beam's rickhouses and given a spot in front of three barrels. Each barrel was from a different floor of the warehouse, but they were filled with the same spirit - Jim Beam white label - and barreled at the same time. We were clearly able to tell the impact the location in the rickhouse made on the liquid in the barrel; barrels up higher experience hotter temperatures and age faster, while those lower move along much slower. It was a really interesting session!
What's in his cup? Rainwater.
Into the rickhouse we go!
Our guide was very concerned with Chris banging his head, understandably
One of the most entertaining parts of the session, however, involved opening the barrels for tasting. Jackson, our guide, showed us how to use a mallet to whack the area around the bung hole until the bung popped out, allowing us to thieve whiskey directly from the vessel. When we all gathered to start our experience, we realized we had quite a small group - just 6 of us - and both of the reservations were made by folks named "Amanda." The group quickly decided that the two Amanda's should be the volunteers to open the other two barrels, and after the other Amanda took her turn, I was up.
Please do enjoy the following video (sound is mandatory on this one):
Please note, among other things, how very, very carefully I am listening to Jackson's instructions,
how I look around to make sure I'm not going to hit anything when I swing,
and the look I give Chris straight down the camera when Jackson mentions not letting the hammer fly loose.
As a note, I opened the barrel way faster than the other Amanda, just saying.
Once all three barrels were opened, we were allowed to blend our leftovers as we wanted
What a great experience!
Although it wasn't crazy hot on Juneteenth, it was pretty sweaty inside the rickhouse, so after our experience, we adjourned to the Kitchen Table restaurant on site for some cold beverages and munchies.
My mocktail with a view of the parking lot and more rickhouses -
I was driving us back.
Chris enjoyed another flight of Beam's offerings
After picking up a bottle of Legent from the gift shop, it was time to hop back in the truck and head toward Bardstown once more. We made a quick stop in downtown for baked goods (at Flour and Oak) and beer (at Scout and Scholar), and then it was back to the rig for the evening. Dinner was pasta with a spinach salad, and the evening's entertainment included starting the newest season of Welcome to Wrexham and strolling the RV park. Time for bed!
In the next blog, we find out if water service has been restored!
Later!
Amy
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