KBT: Maker's Mark/Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center
When I think of Kentucky bourbon, the first place that comes to mind is Bardstown, KY. Even though bourbon has expanded to several other cities here in our great state, I will always think of My Old Kentucky Home as the OG of bourbon. There are 3 distilleries on the KBT in or around Bardstown: Maker's Mark (just outside of Bardstown in Loretto), Heaven Hill, and Jim Beam. On the latest installment of our trip across the land of bourbon, we visited both Maker's Mark AND Heaven Hill - two different legacies that are both very important to the history and tradition of our state's native spirit.
Our first stop of the day was in Loretto, where we got to take a tour of Maker's Mark and eat lunch at Star Hill Provisions, their on-site restaurant. Maker's has a lot to offer for people who are just starting to dip their toes into the world of bourbon; they are arguably the most recognizable bourbon in the game, they are immersed in a rich history of distilling, and they boast a very cool ambassador program, which you'll hear more about later. We started our tour by learning about the mash bill for Maker's Mark's signature bourbon: 70% corn, 14% malted barley, and 16% red winter wheat. The water used to make their bourbon comes from a natural limestone stream that runs through Maker's Mark's pristine campus, and the grains are all procured as locally as possible. We then got to see where the bourbon is distilled and fermented, as well as where they bottle the final product. They even show you where the labels are made; this is really cool because all of the labels are hand-pressed with the original press that has been in use since the distillery opened over 60 years ago. The tour also consists of their newest addition to the distillery: a building solely dedicated to the making and storage of Maker's 46, the second bourbon to be produced in Loretto. This is where the barrels set aside for Maker's 46 are stored; workers replace some of the oak staves of the original barrels with new French oak staves, which slightly changes the flavor of the bourbon to give it a little more of a vanilla taste. This building backs up to the limestone wall that gives the water in the bourbon its signature taste and provides the storage area with a naturally cooler temperature. There's also a tasting room, where customers from restaurants and bars can design and taste their own signature bourbon for a pretty hefty price! We also got to taste five different Maker's Mark products: Maker's Mark, Maker's 46, Maker's White, Maker's Mark Cask Strength, and Maker's Mark Private Select. After the tour, we got to see the gift shop, where Renee and her friend Sean dipped their own bottles of Maker's Mark in the signature red wax! We then headed over to Star Hill Provisions, where we ate lunch and had a drink from the bar. The restaurant mostly serves sandwiches but also offers entrees like our state's signature Hot Brown. We all had a different sandwich, each of which were really good (I had a meatloaf sandwich, and it was awesome)! We even had bourbon slushies from the bar, made with Maker's Mark and Ale 8, two of Kentucky's best drinks! If you find yourself in Loretto anytime soon you have to check out both the distillery AND the restaurant, it's definitely a fun trip! Also, don't forget to sign up to become a Maker's Mark ambassador; you get cool gifts in the mail, you get your name on a barrel of bourbon (and when it matures you can buy a bottle out of it with your name on it!), and after you've been signed up for 10 years you become an ambassador for life (this means you get a discount in the gift shop AND free tours for life)!
Our last stop of the day was in Bardstown to check out another well-known distillery in the bourbon world: the Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center. Located just minutes away from downtown Bardstown, Heaven Hill also has a rich history in the bourbon industry. Family owned since the 1930s, Heaven Hill boasts several different products: Heaven Hill (of course), Evan Williams, Old Fitzgerald, Elijah Craig, Henry McKenna, and Larceny, just to name a few. The Shapira brothers, owners of Heaven Hill Brands, have managed to produce millions of barrels of bourbon; in fact, they filled their 8,000,000th barrel just a few weeks ago! Heaven Hill produces so many products that have different mash bills - the bourbon mash bill consists of 78% corn, 12% malted barley, and 10% wheat. We proceeded to take a tour of one of Heaven Hill's dozens of rickhouses - Warehouse Y to be exact - and although these rickhouses are fairly new they house over 80 years of bourbon lore. The original rickhouses here were destroyed in a fire back in 1996, along with over 90,000 barrels of bourbon. Several other well-known distilleries pitched in to help Heaven Hill get back on its feet, showing yet again that the people in Kentucky are some of the finest around. Warehouse Y houses mostly Heaven Hill and Evan Williams bourbons, and we got to see freshly filled barrels, as well as some barrels that have been resting in the rickhouse for nearly 20 years (those will fill some very expensive bottles of bourbon soon!). We didn't get to witness the distilling process here, as all of the bourbon production occurs at the Bernheim Distillery in Louisville and that facility is off-limits to the public. We did, however, get to sample several of their products, including bourbon (Heaven Hill white label), rye whiskey (Pikesville Supreme), and wheated bourbon (Larceny). The Bourbon Heritage Center has a lot of really cool artifacts and information to check out; it's not as flashy as some of the other distilleries, but that's okay; it bears a lot of important pieces of bourbon history. Tours here are $10, and well worth the trip, I think! We had a good time on this leg of the KBT, and we would both recommend coming over this way to check out both of these wonderful distilleries. As you can see by all of our pictures, there's so much more to see than I had time to fit into this post - so get out there and start exploring these places for yourselves! You'll love these places regardless of your thoughts on bourbon - I guarantee it! Cheers!
