Finished the Bourbon Trail with a side of Barton's

A quick breakfast then off to Markers Mark.  This was our last Distillery on the Bourbon Trail. Even though the distillery and bottling line were closed for maintenance and renovations we still had a very nice experience.  We were here 16 years ago and much has changed. The original visitors center is now a restaurant. Our guide was Haley.  She told us some history of the distillery as well as the rules for making bourbon.  After 10 distilleries, I think we could become Master distillers or at least tour guides.

Our next stop was the print shop where all the labels are done.  The wife of the original owner, Bill Samuels, designed the label, the bottle shape and came up with the idea of dipping them into red wax to seal.  The name Markers Mark was suggested to her because of the way Puter items have a maker's mark on them.  She wanted her husband to have his maker's mark on his creations.

Our next stop was a rickhouse.  As all warehouses holding thousands of barrels of Bourbon, the smell, the Angle's Share, is wonderful.

A new building, the cellar, was next.  This is a different kind of storage, this is made of stone.  This is for the new Markers Mark 46 and special private select barrel formulas.  As you can see by one of the pictures below, different charred pieces of wood are added to the aged bourbon to change the flavor somewhat.  To be a bourbon you cannot add flavors.  Only what it can pick up from new oak, time and temperature can be used to color and flavor bourbon.

This was a nice tasting.  In fact, for me, the tastings put a whole new spin on drinking bourbon.  I was shown how to acclimate my palate, what a Kentucky Chew is as well as what a Kentucky Hug feels like.  I feel like a bourbon drinker with taste now.

Markers Mark has a relationship with a glass artist, Dale Chihuly.  Also an interesting advertising poster.

After Maker's Mark, we went to Bardstown.  We first stopped at the visitor's center to pick up our hard earned t-shirts.  These shirts are very nice but cost us quite a lot if you add up all the tour fees. Definitely the most expensive t-shirt we will ever buy.

We walked around town and went to the Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History. Also in the same building is the Bardstown History Musume.  Here we saw a picture of Jesse James scratching his name and date on a window declaring he could not be there and be robbing a bank in Missouri at the same time. The actual pain of glass has been misplaced.

This had to be the most unhappy women in the world.















As a final event, we wanted to stop at Barton's Distillery to see the world's largest barrel.  We were told it was no longer in a location to be viewed but could go to the visitor's center.  We got there just as the final tour was starting and before we knew what was happening, distillery number 11 was underway.  This turned out to be a fun tour.  Our guide Jerrica was cute and funny. The tasting was great. We ended up buying a bottle of 1792 Small Batch Bourbon. This number was when Kentucky broke away from Virginia and became the 15th state.  We asked her about the barrel and after the tour, she took us in a golf cart up to the location.  Had our pictures taken with the barrel and a carving of the bottle (this tree had been struck by lightning) and we were on our way back to the campground.