For Day Three of our Kentucky Bourbon trip, we booked a 12-person Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van from Celebrity Limousine to safely transport us to several distilleries. We began our day at Woodford Reserve. The distillery had a beautiful seating area with large couches in front of a fireplace, and the bar had tastings or cocktails for purchase. The guys did their tastings and decided which bottles they wanted to purchase, and off we went to the next stop.

Limo Driver

Woodford Reserve

Woodford Reserve

Woodford Reserve

Castle and Key was worth stopping at just for the beautiful grounds. The owners built their distillery on the historic Old Taylor Distillery property and repurposed the buildings for their operation, so an old train station, The Taylorton Station, now serves as an on-site bar; tasting room; and a café serving beer, wine, cocktails and neat flights. The Cistern Room originally served as the power plant during Colonel E.H. Taylor’s ownership, and in 1934 National Distillers reconfigured the building to serve as their Cistern Room. To this day, the Cistern Room is still used for all Castle & Key’s barrel filling. The Boiler Room that once powered the distillery is now home to the retail shop.

On the Grounds of Castle & Key

Grounds of Castle & Key

Tracey at Castle & Key

Our next stop was to a smaller operation, Glenn’s Creek Distillery. Built on the abandoned Old Crow Distillery property, the owner, David Meier, wanted to resurrect the original Old Crow Bourbon recipe. The distillery is marketed as “A Little Different, A Lot Better — Bourbon without the BS.”, and it is a laid-back distillery to visit, with fun bottles named OCD #5 (A nod to the Old Crow Distillery), Flippin’ the Bird, A-MAIZE-ING C.O.B. (corn-only bourbon) and Swheat Bourbon Whiskey(for their sweeter bourbon).

Next was Whiskey Thief. This one was unique because they offer tastings right from the barrel with a whiskey thief (A long, slender, tube-like tool, historically made of copper, used by distillers to extract small samples of whiskey directly from an aging barrel). They also had a firepit out back with Adirondack chairs to relax in and enjoy the samples.

Whiskey Thief Distilling

Whiskey Thief Distilling

After a quick stop back at Buffalo Trace to grab our daily allowance of bottles, we hit Wild Turkey, where the men enjoyed some Old Fashioned cocktails before we headed back home.

Wild Turkey

Wild Turkey

Wild Turkey

— Tracey Cullen, art director