We left the Tennessee mountains early this morning and once again crossed over the Cumberland River. So beautiful to see the mist rising over it.
Given that it was Father’s Day, we thought it would be fun to start the day off with a fancy breakfast. We had about a 3 hour drive to Bardstown, KY. By the time we got there we were good and hungry. Our plan was to do most of the driving early in the morning so that we could spend the afternoon hitting up the Bourbon Trail and then have a very short drive to the campground. Seems like the whole world was taking dads out to breakfast. At the restaurant where we hoped to eat we could be seated in 10 minutes, but were warned our food wouldn’t arrive for an hour. We moved on and settled for a very modest mom and pop restaurant. It was great, but the waitress misunderstood what we wanted so we ended up splitting a breakfast. Happy Father’s Day Ned and thanks for giving me most of the pancakes.
This is our third time hitting up the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. We’ve visited Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark, Four Roses and Heaven’s Hill previously. Today we started with Willett’s. The grounds are much more modest than the other bourbon makers, but the tour and guide were both awesome.
What made this tour so much fun was that this distillery has a lot less rules and isn’t so stuffy. For example, they left us stick our fingers in the big batches of mash and taste them. There were several batches going, all with different fermentation stages, and each tasted quite different. Much like fermenting cocoa beans! Unfortunately, it was also close to 100 degrees today and none of the buildings are air conditioned. The distillery and other buildings were even hotter than the outside.
As you drive around this part of Kentucky rickhouses are everywhere. These are the buildings where the bourbon barrels are aged and stored for years.
It’s always fun taking tours with my favorite food scientist. Ned points out things I never think about. Willett has only 7 rickhouses that holds x amount of barrels. They make y amount of barrels per day. Ned was convinced that the math didn’t add up. His logic; they have to distill the exact same quantity of bourbon they bottle every day or they would need more warehouses. Sounded like a word math problem to me. I’m a Poli Sci & English Major, I just wanted to taste it. I did get a kick out of seeing some hams being cured in one of the rickhouses.
Finally, the tasting! Willets is VERY generous in their samples and pouring. It was fun tasting the different proofs and aged bourbon.. By the time we left my head was swimming and it was now a solid 100 degrees. I didn’t have it in me to do another bourbon tour and tasting. All we wanted was to get cooled off somewhere. Time to head for the state park.
Uh-oh, only one slight problem. No lake access at this state park. (Why the heck call this Taylorsville LAKE state park then?) We took a 10 minute drive down the road, walked down a steep hill and headed for the only lake access point, next to the dam. The water was the hottest water we have ever swam in. Seriously, in the 90’s. We kept trying to find cold water, but even diving down 5 or 6 ft it was just a titsch cooler. We didn’t care. The alternative was baking at the campsite. We soaked for hours. Tomorrow, we give it the ol’ college try and hit up 2 more bourbon makers. Cheers and Happy Father’s Day to all you great dads!
