Kentucky is...Horse Country, Bourbon Distilleries, Toyota manufacturing, great food, just plain wonderful!

"So how was your trip to Kentucky?" you may ask.  Or "Did you take the Bourbon Trail?"  "What were the highlights or surprises?" 

 

Well, we spent two very enjoyable days in Paducah, having driven up by way of Memphis.  Paducah was quite enjoyable; it's an old working river city where barges come and go. It has a wonderfully restored downtown with very interesting architecture.  We stayed in the 1857 Hotel, a charming boutique hotel.  See my post about Paducah. 

We then drove across state to the wonderful city of Lexington and enjoyed a weeklong stay in a VRBO apartment in Lexington's Hampton Court, a very special historic area.  For a bit of history and some current images of this delightful area in Northside view this video.  I would highly recommend this as "headquarters" for a visit to Lexington and bourbon country and horse country.  Lexington is a vibrant city and now one of our favorites.   Hampton Court is a comfortable walk to the modern downtown, or just a few blocks to a corner store where we could buy cheeses, meats, wine, bread, and ... what else does one need?

Lexington is well laid out with two loops, many spokes, and is thriving.  It served us well as we visited horse farms, bourbon distilleries, historic Keeneland racetrack, the largest automobile manufacturing facility in the country, a country lumber yard (hickory and elm for my crosses), and great restaurants.

Here is a glimpse of our calendar for the week.  Not all events are shown.  Click on it to enlarge.

Horse Country
The beautiful countryside is home to many beautiful horse farms, the Keeneland racetrack where we had breakfast at the track with jockeys and mingled with horse people.  We took a great tour, with Shaun Washington as our tour guide.  It turned out that we were his only customers that morning, so we got a very special tour.

Later in the week we took a tour of Coolmore at Ashford Stud and had the opportunity to see some Triple Crown winners.

American Pharoah - Triple Crown - 2015

Justify - Triple Crown - 2018

Just to the west of Lexington is the Keeneland racetrack.  A couple times we drove out there around 7 a.m. and went to the casual restaurant where the jockeys and trainers have breakfast and some fun before going out to work with the horses.  One morning after breakfast, we drove up to the track and were able to walk in and talk with some of the jockeys and even the older gentleman who was there to drive the horse ambulance if there was an accident or incident.  This was very special, not a tour; just open to stroll around and enjoy.

where jockeys and trainers dine

special care for special horses

pride in caring

the grandstands

outriders - in case a horse gets loose

Bagdad Lumber

Visited Bagdad Lumber, in the country NW of Frankfort to find some wood that I rarely work with.  I purchased a stack of 4/4 rough sawn elm and hickory for my cross making.  A lot of elms have been lost to the elm borer.

creek alongside the road

large planks

elm, hickory, and other hardwoods

On the way we stopped at Rick's White Light Diner in Frankfort for lunch.  While sitting in a booth, a man in the next booth, Winston Rogers who formerly owned Rogers Funeral Home, leaned over and said "Good morning, Rick." to me.  Rick usually is in the diner but wasn't today.  From this photo on the wall, there is quite a resemblance to me and my brother.

me

my brother

Rick

Bourbon and Distilleries

One must remember that we were novices to bourbon before this trip, hardly having tasted it and knowing very little about it.  We visited some distilleries on the Bourbon Trail but didn't focus on that.  For us, that was a wise choice.  We found that too many tours of distilleries can be too much.  There is so much more to see in Kentucky, including the horse farms and race tracks, the Toyota plant in Georgetown, fine and fun restaurants, the charming old and modern city of Lexington, and much more.

House of Bourbon

Staying in Lexington for about a week, the owner of the VRBO apartment we were renting said we had to go to House of Bourbon.  She called the manager, we visited, he gave us an excellent and informative tour of the shop including their collection of fine old bourbons that they sell on the secondary market and tout it as the largest in the world.  There were old bottles from the early 1900s, some for sale in the multi-thousands.  We did some tasting and purchased a special bottle of Blanton's.

Old Bourbon and Us

Ready for a Tasting

Woodford Reserve

Our first visit to a distillery was a good one.  Woodford Reserve has beautiful old stone structures, old copper stills, a wonderful aroma in the rick house, and a grand lobby and gift shop.  Also a nice outdoor restaurant for lunch.

Distillery

Copper stills

Barrels in the rick house

the Lobby

Castle and Key

A short drive to Frankfort took us to this gem on the McCracken Pike. This beautiful old distillery was originally owned by Col. E. H. Taylor and on the tour, we heard some great stories about him; he sounded like a real character who liked to entertain, and he built himself a castle.  An admirable restoration is underway bringing this former Old Taylor distillery back into operation as Castle and Key.  They are making bourbon and expect it to be ready for sale sometime in 2020.  They are currently selling gin and vodka though that do not have to age, and it certainly tastes good.

the Castle and Distillery

mostly Vodka and Gin

the Water in the Key, source of the water and a party pavilion

Layers of Paint

a fine Mash Bill

the Rick House

Aging

Where the Train would deliver and receive

Glenn's Creek

Earlier in the week at the House of Bourbon, a local who we met while tasting told us that when we visit Castle and Key, make sure to go about a quarter-mile up the road to Glenns Creek Distillery, the former Old Crow Distillery, in process of being restored by three partners who are quite the entrepreneurs.  He said they have a great bourbon, even though it may only be a few years old.

So, this turned out to be the most fun of all the distilleries we visited.  Old Grumpy Dave Meier, one of the owners, showed us their home built stills and the entire operation was currently in what had been the shipping/receiving building.  I mean, this is really homegrown at this time and Dave is quite the storyteller.  We found out later that he had been a Kaizen Process Methodology expert who contracted to the Toyota plant in Georgetown, KY, and spoke at conferences around the world.  He retired early and has found his dream.

Cranky Dave Meier, storytelling while we're tasting

Fermentation tanks
(the guys on the tour were from Massachusetts and VERY hungover)

Homemade Distillery

Master Distiller adding some moonshine

We purchased a few bottles of OCD #5 but wish we bought more of it and other bourbons and vodka that they make.  It is a small operation but will grow as they rehabilitate the original buildings which were abandoned in 1987.  OCD stands for Old Crow Distillery and #5 stands for the old fermentation tank in the original distillery where they found some live wild yeast which they use today.

nothing fancy

Makers Mark

Each distillery is unique but a distillery is a distillery.  When we got to the Makers Mark distillery in Loretto, KY, rather than sign up for the tour we went to their salesroom which included an area where you could dip your own bottle of bourbon in the wax.  I certainly enjoyed the opportunity with a bottle of Makers 46 which shall remain unopened as long as I have it to remind me of the experience.

Dipping

Their property was beautiful and hilly, a bus took us down to the distillery, restaurant, and sales office.

Barton 1792

We drove down to Bardstown to Barton 1792 Distillery and while there visited the salesroom, purchased a bottle of 1792 and Very Old Barton's (for cooking).  They have had a couple of costly accidents.  In March of 2019, some mash tanks were damaged; in 2018 a warehouse collapsed resulting in the loss of about 18,000 bottles of bourbon.

Buffalo Trace

Buffalo Trace is a huge facility, very old industrial in nature, bricks blackened from mold on the outside of some of the old buildings.  We enjoyed a good lunch at their outdoor cafe, passed on the tour, and went to the very nice sales area where we bought our second bottle of Blanton's.  Their tour is supposedly very good.

People were focused on Blantons with the horses on corks

KY Cooperage

So important in making good bourbon is the white oak barrels in which it is stored, imparting color and taste.  So we drove down to Lebanon to Kentucky Cooperage and had a great tour, a true learning experience.  Seeing the entire process was highlighted toward the end when they char the inside of the barrels which leads to some special tastes.

a Stack of Staves

Staves with inside charred

Unfortunately, no photos were allowed inside the plant.

Our Collection

We came home with a nice collection which will ebb and flow.  Some we can replace and the collection will grow.  Others like OCD #5 from Glenn's Creek can only be replaced when we return to Kentucky.  The Castle and Key Gin and Vodka "Restoration Release" will be keepers, never to be opened by us.

Lexington - a Dynamic City

We enjoyed 7 days in Lexington, a fantastic city of 300,000 and a host to great universities like University of Kentucky and Transylvania University.

Here's a quick look at moments I viewed in and around Lexington, a wonderful city with beautiful new and old buildings. There's lots going on - beautiful horse farms and Keeneland Race Track just outside of town, great restaurants, "Thursday Night Live" downtown, and the Distillery District is the former home of James E. Pepper Distillery but now restored to a great place for friends to gather to drink, dine, eat ice cream, or just listen to the music.
(Enjoy this 2 minute photo video)


If ever in Lexington, take a tour of the largest automobile manufacturing facility in the country at Toyota Kentucky, just 25 minutes from Lexington.  All Camrys and Avalons and some Lexus are made here at the rate of about 2000/day. Reservations are required.

Paducah - a River City

We drove to Kentucky in May of 2019 for what was a great vacation.  We spent our first two days in Paducah, a historic city on the Ohio River. and stayed at a charming boutique hotel, the 1857 Hotel, a wonderfully restored structure that at one time was a warehouse for the freight being barged on the river.

At the foot of Kentucky Avenue looking across the Ohio to Illinois

The architecture around town was very handsome, some a bit rough, some finely refurbished.
There are wonderful restaurants; we dined at Cynthia's and the Freight House.  The River Museum tells stories about the river and barge traffic which has been so important to this historic city.

           (Enjoy this photo video which shows some photos of what I saw.)