Kentucky BourbonTrail Day 3

Ok, so I misplaced my camera with all the photos from Day 2 of the Bourbon Trail when we visited Maker's Mark - Jack's favorite bourbon.  The good news is that the gift shop where I left the camera has it and we will be picking it up on Wednesday on our way back to Alabama.  So, eventually there will be a blog update for Day 2, but today we will skip to Day 3 and the Buffalo Trace Distillery where I used my phone for photos.  So here we go...

We had a leisurely morning as our reservation for Buffalo Trace wasn't until 3:30.  We have a nice site in the RV park just outside Frankfort Kentucky right on the river.  The geese are fun to watch, but what a mess they make!  I had a chance to do laundry and Jack and I worked at mastering a few more things in the RV that were new to us.  OK, so "mastering" might be too strong a word, but we did figure a couple things out like getting the awning speakers to work.

The Buffalo Trace property is beautifully landscaped and includes the oldest continually operating still in America.  The property is on the Kentucky River that goes to Ohio which goes to the Mississippi, so the area became a major shipping hub in the 1700's.  Early westward pioneers often brought their stills with them for personal use, but few became commercial operations like this one.  E. H. Taylor, Jr., working at his uncle's distillery revolutionized the industry in the late 1800's to make a distillery capable of producing vast quantities of truly good-flavored bourbon as opposed to the typical caustic moonshine.  

We toured the grounds and a few buildings, enjoying our guide's many, many, many, many stories.  We finally got to the tasting room to enjoy their basic Buffalo Trace bourbon plus their high end bourbons and a cordial.  We all loved the Blanton's, mixed opinions on the Eagle Rare and really enjoyed the Buffalo Cream cordial.  

Bourbon Trace is relatively small compared to Makers Mark and Jim Beam who have operations in multiple locations, but they are undergoing a 1+ billion dollar expansion and expect to be able to meet the high demand for their specialty bourbons in four years.  

Weller is one of Buffalo Trace's specialty bourbons

Some of the early Buffalo Trace bottles

These were the only liquors available for purchase.  We were all disappointed that we could not purchase Blanton's.  Unfortunately, the Bourbon Cream was sold out when we got to the gift shop.  But we did get to taste it - a wonderful cordial.  During the tasting they recommended make a root beer float with it!  I liked it plain.

I had warned you about possibly seeing glass after glass of bourbon, but so far, it has been limited to the small bourbon samples we have been enjoying.  Wait till Day 4, though, when I will blog about Evan Williams/Heaven Hill.....

We tasted four spirits, a cordial and a root beer!

We headed back to the campground and had dinner at our campsite.  I made a pork tenderloin and corn on the cob and Melinda brought baby potatoes and a cucumber and tomato salad.  Yum!  Good food, good conversation, good friends.  Another great day.