Four Roses and Wild Turkey

Yesterday was a good opportunity for us to visit 2 more of the Bourbon distilleries along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. We had already visited the 3 that lie along the western part of the trail (Makers Mark, Heaven Hill and Jim Beam), so we went to 2 of the 3 remaining distilleries that were on the north/central part of the Trail - Four Roses and Wild Turkey. Both of those are in the city of Lawrenceburg, KY, which is about 20 miles from Lexington.

Of course, they all have to go through the same distilling process, but they are each very different in the way they "tweak" the products to produce variations of bourbon that make up their product lines. We also discovered yesterday that each of the distilleries has a shut down period each year when they clean their facilities and perform necessary maintenance on equipment. Both of the distilleries we visited yesterday were in their shut down period, so we didn't get a chance to see actual production like we did in the others. Another of the reasons for having their shut down period in the summer is the heat, and the resulting costs associated with production in the warm weather. The water used in the process is taken directly from the rivers and it must be a certain temperature to produce the best bourbon. The costs associated with cooling the water in the hot summer are not justified by some of the distilleries.

Anyway, the first stop was at the Four Roses Distillery:

and we immediately could see a very different architecture of all the buildings in the facility. It is the only distillery that is Japanese owned, and the Japanese influence was evident, especially in the signs that were written in both English and Japanese. This is the most automated of all the distilleries (of course, Japanese), and they won the award in 2011 as the top Distillery;

They have been primarily an exporter of bourbon until recently, and they are now distributed and marketed in 47 states. That explains why it is the least known of the bourbon brands along the Trail. Our guide was very knowledgeable and did an excellent job describing the process and the differences in their products:

The beautiful buildings and grounds were very different and evident throughout the tour. The warehouses at this distillery are only 1 story high versus the 6 or 7 story warehouses at the other distilleries. They believe that this gives a more consistent flavor as it doesn't go through the wide fluctuations in temperature that bourbon does in warehouses that have barrels on the 1st floor, and barrels on the 6th floor, where it is much warmer.

 The tasting room was actually outside:

and they had several different products that were available for tasting. Their bourbon is excellent, and the gift shop was loaded with quality merchandise that was one of the best so far:

Our next stop was only about 8 miles up the road, also in Lawrenceburg, KY, at the Wild Turkey Distillery:

This was a tour that I was looking forward to as I was a huge fan of the Wild Turkey "101" brand for many years during my earlier hunting days in Washington State. This distillery was also shut down for the summer, but we were given an excellent tour through the facilities of one of the largest producers of bourbon. This tour was the first one that used a bus to carry visitors around the facility, and there were several stops, beginning at the fermenting building:

where our guide explained the process:

and we saw the many vats that were used in the fermenting process that were sparkling clean and empty for the season:

Our next stop on the tour was a warehouse that was fairly typical of those we've seen elsewhere - except for the Four Roses single story warehouses - where we saw thousands of barrels in the aging process:

We eventually made it back to the visitor center where the tasting room was located and the gift shop was located:

The shot we took of the tasting session wasn't that great, so it was not included here. We did get to taste some great bourbon, including my old favorite "101", and a new product called American Honey. We liked the taste of this so much that we purchased a bottle on the way out of the gift shop.

There's only 1 more distillery to see to complete our tour. That last one - the Woodford Reserve Distillery - is near Lexington and we plan to visit that one when we go to Lexington for a visit in the near future. Kentucky is best known for horses and bourbon, and we are gaining a real appreciation for the bourbon part. There are some nice places to visit that are Thoroughbred horse farms that will be on our list of places to go and things to do.

It's off to work again today at 5 PM and that begins our week of 4 straight 10 hour days. I hope we 're up to it...