Blue Grass, Horses, and Bourbon

“When people think of Kentucky, they think of three things:” said Freddy, “blue grass, horses, and bourbon.” Freddy is the best tour guide we have ever seen. We met him at Buffalo Trace Distillery just outside of Frankfort, Kentucky.

We were driving west on HWY 64, disappointed that we couldn’t see blue grass, or a horse race (wrong season), and not willing to pay $60 to visit a horse farm. We were resigned to seeing the sights of Kentucky from the car windows. Then we saw the sign – Buffalo Trace Distillery, Exit 48. We got off the highway and wound our way back the way we had come, following the signs and just about giving up after 20 miles, and then we saw the gates. We were immediately glad we had decided to visit.

We are not whiskey drinkers and we had never heard of Buffalo Trace, so we were very surprised when we pulled into the expansive, well maintained grounds of the oldest distillery in the United States. While waiting for the next free tour to start we wandered around the gallery of photos and artifacts that told the history of the distillery and then went out to explore the grounds. Buffalo Trace has 114 buildings on 119 acres, including the oldest building still standing in Franklin County.

Freddy started our tour in the gallery, showing us a long list of distilleries and their history. At one time, there were 250 in Kentucky alone! There has been a working distillery on the property since 1787, and it is one of only four distilleries in the United States that was granted a special permit during Prohibition to produce bourbon for medicinal purposes. Apparently, during Prohibition, you could get a prescription for medicinal alcohol allowing you to purchase one pint per week. By the end of Prohibition, doctors had written over 7 million such per prescriptions.

There is a reason that Kentucky is known for blue grass, horses, and bourbon – it’s the limestone spring water. The minerals imparted to the water by the limestone give the blue grass its color, strengthen the naturally delicate bones of the thoroughbreds, and give the bourbon its unique taste.

All bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon. Freddy taught us the ABC’s of bourbon.
A: contains no Artificial colors or flavors
B: aged only in charred white-oak Barrels
C: contains at least 51% Corn.

Buffalo Trace produces about 15 brands of bourbon, one vodka, and a new blended whiskey. Here are some of their products: Buffalo Trace Bourbon, George T. Stagg, Eagle Rare, W.L. Weller, Old Charter, Van Winkle, Rock Hill Farms, Blanton’s, Ancient Age, etc… The type and ratio of the grains used in the mash as well as where it is aged and for how long, have a profound affect on the products.

We went into the oldest warehouse on the property and learned about the importance of temperature and placement of the barrels. The top shelf bourbons are aged in the middle floors of the building, while the lower-end ones are aged on the top floors – it makes a difference!

The high end and single barrel bourbons are hand bottled and packed. First they are cold filtered to take out the fatty acids that make alcohol cloudy. The bourbon is poured from the barrel into a stainless steel vat and then progressively chilled and filtered until it is perfect. Then it is siphoned into bottles, sealed, labeled, polished, and boxed by hand.

We finished our tour with a tasting. The most surprising thing was that bourbon chilled in the freezer tastes so much better than at room temperature. We also tasted the difference between rye and wheat bourbon and had a sip of their premium vodka, Rain. To finish off the tasting we got a bourbon ball and root beer, both excellent.

If you are ever in Frankfort, you need to visit. Ask for Freddy, and tell him you are interested in the “hard-hat” tour as well – a more extensive version than we had including the actual fermenting floor, etc.

“Bungs up. Bourbon down.”