KENTUCKY BOURBON TRAIL, DAY 4 - EVAN WILLIAMS/HEAVEN HILL

Day 4 is the Speakeasy Tasting at the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience on Whiskey Row in downtown Louisville. This is not their distillery, more of a tourist attraction.

Remember how I talked about the possibility of every blog post showing glasses of bourbon?  Well, I have not been doing that (you're welcome), but this photo makes up for it!  

We read the interesting liquor history placards at the entrance while we waited for our tour to begin.  

THE Evan Williams

Don't miss the 1803 Entry.....Wow!!

We took the elevator down to the cellar where there was a large bank vault.  The guide opened the "vault" to reveal a door with a small opening.  A volunteer was told to knock on the door and say "Jake sent us."  He promptly knocked on the door, the slit in the door opened, and he asked for Bob!  The opening slammed shut.  He knocked on the door again and correctly said Jake sent us and we were ushered into the large wood bar in the speakeasy in the basement.  (I took a couple videos and tried to include them in the blog, but received error messages, so deleted them.) I was asked to put my phone away as it might scare the bartender in the speakeasy because he had never seen one (so no good photos, sorry.)

Jake, our bartender, explained that we were in 1932, on the eve of the Presidential election that folks were hoping would relieve the depression and repeal prohibition.  He explained that thousands and thousands of jobs were lost when prohibition was passed, from distillery owners and workers to railroad workers that no longer hauled liquor across the country.  And all this was happening as the farmers (no longer growing grain for liquor and lots of other reasons) were descending into a depression ahead of the great crash of 1929.  Jake was totally believable as a bartender from that era and we thoroughly enjoyed the entertaining tasting.

Afterwards, we again visited the gift shop where a yet a few more bottles were purchased before heading back east to our campground.  We stopped for a wonderful Italian meal about halfway back to the campground and met up with one of Joe's high school friends.  We enjoyed his stories of a younger and carefree Joe, but just like the Speakeasy experience,  Shhhh, don't tell.

Tomorrow Joe and Melinda are meeting up with family and Jack and I will enjoy a day of rest.  Tuesday is our final Bourbon Trail stop and we are looking forward to our Woodford Reserve tour and tasting.