Kentucky Bourbon Trail - Day 1

Bulleit, Angels Envy, Buffalo Trace

Although we did plenty of research on distilleries we wanted to visit, and stayed in Shelbyville because it was centrally located, we did not have a tour scheduled for Friday morning. Since we planned to visit Bulliet first, and it was less than 5 miles from the VRBO, I checked online and found openings on the first tasting of the day. So, we started our Bourbon Trail with a 10:00am bourbon tasting. Our tasting guide, Ash, did a superb job. He was pretty proud of his mood lighting and music. I don’t know if they made a difference, but he certainly set the mood for the room and set the bar high. We sampled and learned about Bulleit Bourbon, Frontier Whiskey, Rye, and Barrel Strength Bourbon. I won’t dare try to describe the tasting notes, but I left with rye and a Frontier Whiskey for a friend. Ash was engaging, knowledgeable, and fun. Bulleit was very accessible. Everything on one floor and a short walk from the parking lot.

And what do you do after an early-morning tasting on an empty stomach? You visit the bar of course.

I had the Summer Sipper because it sounded good and came in a souvenir cup, and it was a good choice. Kind of a refreshing punch. I don’t remember the name of the cocktail, but Jayne had a mango jalapeno old fashioned and enjoyed it. After a visit to the gift shop, we headed toward Louisville to pick up our friends at the airport.

As luck would have it, I misinterpreted our friends’ departure for their arrival time, so we found ourselves with a couple hours to kill. Angels Envy was close, so off we went. Got lucky with close-by on street parking, and after a walk around the gift shop, including a free same (more on that later), we went up to the bar. We decided instead of a guided tour, we would simply have our own tasting.

I chose The Perfect Flight, probably because it included a rye (rye may become a theme here) and Jayne chose the Peach Smash. She loved it. I mentioned to the bartender, Armond, how much Jayne liked it, and that started a conversation about flavors the compliment bourbon. Armond talked about grapefruit and some other ideas before returning to work and then suddenly reappeared at our table with a grapefruit bourbon cocktail. It was fantastic.

After cocktails, we went back to the gift shop since I had decided I wanted a bottle of the free sample I’d received earlier. Nope! It was gone. When the girl at the desk mentioned it was the last bottle, and appeared with a nearly empty sample bottle, I thought that was the bottle she meant. No, the last bottle for sale was sitting on the counter earlier and was now gone. Moral of the story – If you like it and it’s available, grab it. For the record, everything we did at Angels was accessible, but we can’t speak about their tours. We’ll find that out on our return trip.

After Angels we headed to the airport to grab Bobby and Lore and since we were now behind schedule – since I can’t decipher flight arrival times – we headed straight to a schedule tour at Buffalo Trace Distillery. We made it in plenty of time and had just a short wait until our tour began. Our tour guide, Matt, was great and very knowledgeable about whiskey and the history of Buffalo Trace. I will say up front, this tour is not for those who have mobility issues. It was a bit of a hill climb from parking to the gift shop where the tour began, and then a lot of walking outside, inside, outside, and small stairs throughout. If you are up for it, it is a great tour…and always free.

The tour ended with a tasting…just what we needed. At this point, I had forgotten to take a photo of the tasting line up. All-in-all, the tasting was fairly quick and not nearly as educational as the rest of the tour. As all tours do, this one ended in the gift shop which was stocked with a nice selection of whiskey and souvenirs.

We made a few purchases and headed to the car. It was time for Bobby and Lore to see the VRBO and for us to plan dinner.

For dinner we visited La Cocina de Mama, another recommendation from VRBO Host Ben. La Cocina was about a 1-minute walk from the VRBO and did not disappoint. Authentic Mexican food, great service, and fair prices. As Bobby tends to do, he made friends with the couple at the table next to us. Long story short, Mel called his friend who is a leader of the local VFW Post 1179 who said he would meet us there. Henry Jew, a former Boiler Technician Second Class, was kind enough to interrupt his evening and meet us. You may think we went there for cocktails, I mean, that’s what we expected. But this is no ordinary VFW. This is a museum honoring Shelbyville and Shelby County Veterans. They have some very interesting displays and were extremely welcoming. If you are in Shelbyville, go visit this unique VFW.

After a full day, we turned in, after nightcaps of course. We needed some rest for our Old Forester tour and tasting on Saturday morning.