I am sure a lot of y’all have been to a distillery and taken in a tour here in Kentucky. I know I have been to a few now. If you haven’t not and you are into exploring or like new things, Or this is a big one, love bourbon, then you most definitely need to do a Kentucky Distillery Tour. Here is a bonus, The Kentucky Distillery Association (KDA) has put together a Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Yes sir or ma’am. The KDA working with its members, which are all most all of the Distilleries in Kentucky, has worked out and published a list of Distilleries that you can visit and you can tour.

So, depending where you plan on visiting in Kentucky, or maybe you are staying a while, you can visit the Bourbon Trail. It used to be that you should visit the KDA Home, get the tour book, visit the distillery and get a stamp or coin for visiting. I haven’t seen that in action any more. But the Kentucky Bourbon Trail is a good start for where the Distilleries are located, a quick background of the distillery, how to contact them to setup a guided tour. I would recommend picking one up, you can even get it on Amazon now.

I will list 3 areas where there are some good distilleries to visit. Bardstown, Louisville and Lexington. There are a lot more place throughout Kentucky, these 3 have a lot of distilleries in the areas.

Bardstown has a few great ones. There is Bardstown Distillery, Lux Row Distillers, Heaven Hill Bourbon Experience, Willett Distilling. Four Roses is near and down the street not too far is James B. Beam Distilling.

Louisville is where a lot of people like to go and start the Trail. There are few great places to tour, Rabbit Hole Distillery, West Sixth NuLu, Stitzel-Weller Distillery (not to be confused by where Weller Distillery is located.), Angels Envy, Mitchers Shively Distillery.

If you travel from Louisville to Lexington on I-64 you will go by Jeptha Creed and Bulliet Distillery and the new Whisky Thief Distillery. If you travel from Bardstown to Lexington along the Bluegrass Parkway, you will pass by the Four Roses Distillery, Wild Turkey, and the Lawrence Bourbon Company.

In the Lexington Area, you are near a few that are either in Lexington or very close. Alltech and Lexington Brewing Company, Bluegrass Distillers, Fresh Bourbon Distillery, RD1, Barrel House Distilling, James E. Pepper Distillery.

Close to Lexington is Frankfort and close to some other amazing distilleries. The Woodford Reserve Distillery on the way to visit Castle and Key Distilleries, J Mattingly, Buffalo Trace Distillery, Saddlestone Distillery.

Brief mention for some distilleries that are in the area but do not do tours. Glenns Creek Distillery and Old Crow Distillery.

All of the tours usually end with a tasting of the bourbons and whiskeys that they distill at the locations. Some may even offer a discount on some of the bourbons.

Take a tour and sip the corn of Kentucky.

Rich Pesta