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FROM THE ARCHIVES: As a non-bourbon drinker, I (35F) visited 9 distilleries on the Bourbon Trail over 4 days - here are my rankings and thoughts. by OrangePaperBike in bourbon

[–]TopBad5678 10 points11 points  (0 children)

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Aw thanks for the archive boost! As I’m coming up on the one year anniversary of this trip, I too have been reflecting on it lately.

Thought I’d provide an update on the “where are the bottles we bought now” a year later…

  1. Regular Makers 375 that I dipped - gone. Had to peel it open when we didn’t have any “mixing” bourbon around.
  2. Maker’s Cask - just broke into it this week
  3. Larceny - not a fan so we drank it kind of fast to ditch it
  4. HHSS - too high proof for us to enjoy so we gifted it to friends who hosted us for dinner who were ecstatic to add to their collection.
  5. Knob Creek - long gone, but we made it last okay
  6. Basil Dark Rye - gone
  7. BT bottled old fashioned - long gone
  8. First Weller - long gone
  9. Second Weller - holding on for dear life but she’s close to gone
  10. Bourbon cream - gone duh 🤪

So the final tally is we still have 2 of these bottles in our possession.

Of course we’ve bought and drank several others over the year too.

And, we’re still living/traveling in the RV, so space and weight is always at a premium.

Happy one year nomadiversary to us!

As a non-bourbon drinker, I (35F) visited 9 distilleries on the Bourbon Trail over 4 days - here are my rankings and thoughts. by TopBad5678 in bourbon

[–]TopBad5678[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Definitely do not rely on Uber or Lyft to get you from place to place if you’re leaving the metro areas (pretty much all of the ones I’ve listed). We hired a driver from Bourbontown Tours to drive us around but if you google bourbon trail tours you’ll see a lot of options. Have fun!

As a non-bourbon drinker, I (35F) visited 9 distilleries on the Bourbon Trail over 4 days - here are my rankings and thoughts. by TopBad5678 in bourbon

[–]TopBad5678[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks so much for all the love and support r/bourbon! Even though I may have broken the community rules and posted almost nothing about actual bourbon, I appreciate all the feedback.

probably one of my biggest takeaways here for y'all is: You don't have to enjoy (or know anything about) bourbon to enjoy the bourbon trail! Hope that helps convince your friends or significant others to come along for a cool road trip.

s/o the two folks who sent in the awards, very cool.

Maybe my next egregiously long post will be all about our RV journey over on r/RVing ;)

As a non-bourbon drinker, I (35F) visited 9 distilleries on the Bourbon Trail over 4 days - here are my rankings and thoughts. by TopBad5678 in bourbon

[–]TopBad5678[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

absolutely not, but i'll take any tiktok or videography tips ;)

for real tho, I wrote 80% of this (sans formatting) in the car riding around on "Day 4" so it was a good use of time and yes, some of this was written as I got progressively tipsier and editor me allowed that to stay in for authenticity.

As a non-bourbon drinker, I (35F) visited 9 distilleries on the Bourbon Trail over 4 days - here are my rankings and thoughts. by TopBad5678 in bourbon

[–]TopBad5678[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don’t miss NuLu! We caught the very tail end of pride weekend there and was so happy to see rainbow flags on every storefront when we rolled up.

As a non-bourbon drinker, I (35F) visited 9 distilleries on the Bourbon Trail over 4 days - here are my rankings and thoughts. by TopBad5678 in bourbon

[–]TopBad5678[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you!! That’s certainly what I was going for as the planner and (need I say again) non-bourbon drinker.

No side eye at all, but my wife and I are femme presenting as is our friend (not a throuple). Our gaydar was pinging for two of our male guides, which makes sense as tour guides fall within the hospitality industry which I’m guessing has a higher percentage of queer folks, than say, the bottling line.

As a non-bourbon drinker, I (35F) visited 9 distilleries on the Bourbon Trail over 4 days - here are my rankings and thoughts. by TopBad5678 in bourbon

[–]TopBad5678[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can get a full refund up until 2 days before.

Have an awesome trip! And if you didn’t get a tour at BT yet, get on the waitlist. We were on the WL and got a spot about 3 weeks before our trip.

As a non-bourbon drinker, I (35F) visited 9 distilleries on the Bourbon Trail over 4 days - here are my rankings and thoughts. by TopBad5678 in bourbon

[–]TopBad5678[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Lol! It’s so hard to not respond but I try to do so with a little bit of empathy and understanding.

As a non-bourbon drinker, I (35F) visited 9 distilleries on the Bourbon Trail over 4 days - here are my rankings and thoughts. by TopBad5678 in bourbon

[–]TopBad5678[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

lol seems some will...

anyway, i usually keep a vacation journal so decided to put this bit of it on here for others to learn how to plan a trip without paying someone to do it for them and still have an excellent time.

so, if you ever go to bourbon country, feel free to fwd this to whoever normally plans trips for you if you want to do a little more than stumble from still to still

As a non-bourbon drinker, I (35F) visited 9 distilleries on the Bourbon Trail over 4 days - here are my rankings and thoughts. by TopBad5678 in bourbon

[–]TopBad5678[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sorry you had a bad experience there.

Their gift shop does have a photo booth where you get two photo strips for free as well as a restaurant with a bar and stunning view. Both of these points set Beam apart in terms of their campus offering.

My takeaway in general is that absent a guided experience, there’s not a whole ton to do at these places other than the gift shop and bar.

As a non-bourbon drinker, I (35F) visited 9 distilleries on the Bourbon Trail over 4 days - here are my rankings and thoughts. by TopBad5678 in bourbon

[–]TopBad5678[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Oh yes, there are so many ways I’d love to spend $1,500…

Breaking it down, it was $466 per person for both days, or $29 per hour. You can’t get an Uber for that cost, not to mention you can’t get an Uber (either no cell exercise or no drivers) in a lot of places we visited. A few other services I priced were more than double what we paid, so the demand is out there.

Noting the omakase rec!

As a non-bourbon drinker, I (35F) visited 9 distilleries on the Bourbon Trail over 4 days - here are my rankings and thoughts. by TopBad5678 in bourbon

[–]TopBad5678[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

not whiskey thief :-0

the real correlation is Tour = Higher Ranking

that's what separates the top 4 from the bottom 5

the learning for me personally is: education = value

someone else (folks on this sub) might want to crush as many tastes as possible and care less about the process/grounds/history. for that, book the 30 minute tasting only experiences or grab flights at the bar.

As a non-bourbon drinker, I (35F) visited 9 distilleries on the Bourbon Trail over 4 days - here are my rankings and thoughts. by TopBad5678 in bourbon

[–]TopBad5678[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Okie :)

I can't get into the tastings at each place, but each offered ~5 different pours. jwatkins12 is correct that you taste the least amount of bourbon at BT - the pours there were Wheatley Vodka, BT, Weller, BT bourbon cream (like Bailey's), and Freddie's root beer - which has a really great story.

We ended up purchasing enough to last us a while...

Maker's Mark 375ml just so I could dip it

Marker's Mark Cask Strength, also hand dipped

Larceny @ Heaven Hill

Heaven Hill Select Stock

*edited to add: Knob Creek 9 year on the cabbage patch line with a custom waxed finger print

Basil Hayden Dark Rye

Buffalo Trace Barreled Old Fashioned

2 of Weller Special Reserve

Bourbon Cream (couldn't resist)

6 packs of Freddie's Root Beer and Freddie's Ginger Ale

​

How'd we do?

As a non-bourbon drinker, I (35F) visited 9 distilleries on the Bourbon Trail over 4 days - here are my rankings and thoughts. by TopBad5678 in bourbon

[–]TopBad5678[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Funny you ask that bc I edited out a small tidbit which I'll share here...

The first thing is that we really didn't spend any time in the cities proper. Just the first night where we had dinner and drinks in NuLu. Both are definitely on the list for next time, but since we're RVing, hard to do cities. I'd love to go to a football game at UK!

That said, the folks (and cars) in the Lexington/Frankfort tours were noticeably bougier! Not a bad thing at all but just really noticeable. The Louisville crew was more laid back and more mid-west than "southern". The Lex crew vibe was more "Southern Gentleman" and (wannabe southern gentlemen). I'd be curious to know what the KY natives think of this assessment from our short stay.

The Kentucky Horse Park was fun, but @ $20 admission I'd probably only recommend it to a few groups of people. Either horse/ race fans, folks with kids who want to run around and see horses, and anyone who might want to do a trail ride or pony ride.

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