After what was a short night's sleep in Elizabethtown, KY (the less said about phones ringing in the middle of the night the better!) Keith, Ray and I got a fairly early start with breakfast at Shoney's (love that Country Fried Steak!), plenty of coffee, and a quick drive through some narrow two-lane backroads to Loretto, and the Maker's Mark Distillery.
I've been to 3 whiskey distilleries (Jack Daniel's twice and Wild Turkey--twice as of today) and this is definitely the most inviting setting I have seen. Beautiful grounds with well-preserved period buildings and attractive paint jobs (dark brown with red trim) met us as we drove in. The people were all nice and the tour was very fun and informative, followed by a tasting of MM signature Bourbon and a Mint Julep concoction they release every year around Derby time. Keith and I both bought commemorative bottles that we got to hand-dip in the MM red wax ourselves...a nice keepsake for many years to come (although...on the other hand, another commemorative bottle of whiskey that will sit on the shelf fairly permanently).
We took another quick drive through the Bluegrass State to Lawrenceburg, ate lunch at a sandwich shop in downtown and toured the Wild Turkey distillery. It was a polar opposite of Maker's. Although the people were all friendly, the tour guide did not seem to have as personal an investment in the process or the beverage. While MM is a family-run business with charmingly inefficient methods (that produce great Bourbon), Turkey smacks of huge corporations. The buildings were fairly dirty and run-down looking and the entire place was more of the "working distillery" (as the tour guide referred to it) rather than a welcoming place for visitors. Please don't read that I would recommend he visit to Wild Turkey--I would say to go, but also to visit at least one other distillery that keeps that more welcoming feel. If not MM, then perhaps Four Roses which looks welcoming in the brochures, at least.
We stopped in Lexington for a short visit to the first liquor store where I ever bought a bottle of Turkey. We bought a bottle and headed out...next stop: Cross Lanes, West Virginia, a few miles west of Charleston. There we stopped for the night, checked in, ate, and broke out some cigars and the bottle of Wild Turkey 101 we bought at that shop in Lexington where my love of Bourbon Whiskey was born. Another night with too little sleep will be followed by a long day of travel through West Virginia, Maryland, and--finally--Pennsylvania, where the main attraction of this week-long excursion will take place. Stay tuned...
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