The Herald - The Herald Magazine
Kentucky On the bourbon trail with Pappy Van Winkle, Triple Smoke and Devil John
THE last time I featured in these pages, it was on a two-wheeled tour of Islay’s distilleries. Now I’m on another spirit-inspired journey, but this time I’ve packed my passport, I’ve booked four wheels and the whiskey is spelt with an “e”. I’m hitting the Kentucky Bourbon Trail for a fact-finding trip with Scotch Malt Whisky Society ambassador Phoebe Brookes. The US state is home to what Congress has designated as “America’s native spirit” and where the pride in the product is on a par with our own relationship with Scotch.
Our trail begins in downtown Louisville, where everywhere we turn there is evidence of distilling and bourbon. The Whiskey Row loft apartments are next to the ongoing renovation of two bourbon warehouses into an Old Forester distillery, cooperage and visitor centre by brand owner BrownForman. Across the street, construction is under way on a distillery and visitor centre for Angel’s Envy. Further down the street is the Distilled Spirits Epicentre, home to Moonshine University, Grease Monkey distillery and its own bottling line, where you can study every aspect of distilling.
At Heaven Hill’s Evan Williams Bourbon Experience, tour guide Ally is doing his story justice. There’s a Hollywood-style production about the Welshman who set up the area’s first commercial distillery in the 1780s, followed by a look at the building’s artisan distillery in operation.
Where Evan Williams is a custom-built tourist attraction, Buffalo Trace in the state capital of Frankfort is both a living museum and a bourbon-producing giant. The oldest part of the distillery on the banks of the Kentucky river dates back to 1792 and in 2013 the site was designated a National Historic Landmark. Annual production is around three million cases and plans are under way to build 50 warehouses in the next 10 years to expand, as demand continues to outstrip supply. Meantime, Buffalo Trace brands such as Blanton’s, Weller, Stagg Jr and EH Taylor are in short supply – and if you’re searching for a Pappy Van Winkle… good luck. Fans are still discussing the theft in 2013 of 195 bottles of Pappy 20-year-old, which sells for about £1,000 a bottle.
We take a stroll with tour guide Freddie Johnson,whose grandfather was a foreman here from 1912 to 1964, when he passed on responsibilities to his son, who also spent his working life at the distillery. Freddie made his way in the corporate world until taking early retirement to return to Frankfort and look after his father. He then fulfilled the 94-year-old’s dying wish that Freddie carry on the family’s association with Buffalo Trace. “I’ve been around
this place since I was a little kid with my grandfather, getting in everybody’s way,” he says. “Now I’m honoured to keep the promise I made to my father, that I’d also work here one day.”
The gleaming glass and steel structure of Alltech’s Town Branch in the centre of Lexington is another completely different distillery experience. It began by producing beer and then, with two pot stills from Scotland in place, it distilled its first whisky in 2008. It’s now producing a cask strength and non-chill filtered single barrel bourbon, as well as the Pearse Lyons Reserve – the first malt whiskey produced in Kentucky in almost 100 years, apparently.
We drive five minutes across town to pull up in yet another different world of distilling. If you’re looking for a case of the boom in craft production, Barrel House is a prime candidate. It’s tucked away in the barreling house of historic producer James E Pepper, and since setting up shop in 2006
it has led the regeneration of what’s now known as Lexington’s “distillery district”. Where there were abandoned warehouses, there is now a bustling creative community with a brewery, restaurants, coffee shops and studios. Beards and tattoos aren’t compulsory, but appreciated.
Chad Burns is manning operations single-handedly when we show up, but a tour doesn’t take long when you only have one small still and fewer than 50 barrels in your warehouse. He tells us how Barrel House started with its Devil John Moonshine, Pure Blue Vodka and Oak Rum. “It’s aged in bourbon barrels, so if bourbon and rum were to have a baby, this is it,” he says. “But now we’ve finally released our first batch of bourbon, RockCastle – it’s the first produced here in 60 years, so we’re very excited.”
The next day, we set ourselves up with the kind of hearty breakfast you can only find in an all-American diner, followed by