House Blend

For day three of the Louisville trip, my husband and I headed south to Bardstown -- the city generally, and ultimately the distillery specifically.

First, we stopped at Heaven Hill, having heard they had both a nice distillery and good bourbons. As to the first -- I can confirm. Heaven Hill is a mega-conglomerate of the bourbon world, and they've used their success to build massive and modern buildings across a huge sprawl of land. That includes a museum you can walk through, full of exhibits detailing the growth of the bourbon industry in Kentucky and many of the people who were pivotal in that history. We walked through (in part because it was interesting; in part because so many people come to Heaven Hill that you can't really do anything else without having booked an experience in advance).

As to whether Heaven Hill has good bourbon? That's almost certainly true as well, no matter your particular taste. That's because they are ultimately the parent company responsible for a huge number of well-known brands. Besides one actually branded "Heaven Hill," they make Elijah Craig, Evan Williams, Pikesville, Bernheim Original, Rittenhouse, and a bunch of others. Of the few we sampled, Larceny struck me as the best -- a brand I certainly remembered seeing back in Denver, though couldn't recall having had before. Your tastes may differ, but Heaven Hill probably has you covered.

We had a little time before scheduled events later in the afternoon, so we made another short stop at the nearby Preservation Distillery. This was the antithesis of Heaven Hill, a place that proudly proclaims itself to be "Bardstown's smallest distillery." Lots of distilleries in the area are set on farmland, but Preservation is still using it that way -- cows roam the grounds, and just a few small buildings are devoted to making bourbon. A lazy cat lounged outside the tasting room entrance, caring nothing for us or anyone else going in to sample. We tried just one whiskey each -- all we had time for, and all they would pour in any case. (Either they don't want to deal with sloppily drunken tourists, or you have to have more money and clout to serve any more than that in Kentucky?) Small though Preservation is, a map on the bar showed the other states they have managed to distribute in, with Colorado being one. So perhaps in the right mood, I might have some bourbon from them again some day.

The next stop was the focus of the day. We went to Bardstown Bourbon Company, a relative new kid on the distilling block, but already a personal favorite of mine. We had booked two experiences in advance, and the first one turned out to be one of the great highlights of the trip -- a one-hour session called "The Art of Blending." A guide took us into a backroom they call "The Library," a fancy, decorated room where the shelves were filled not with books, but with bourbons -- from throughout history, and from a wide variety of distilleries. Our guide pointed out a number of interesting and rare bottles, from one actually distilled in the late 1800s (and containing the original spirit!) to a souvenir bottle of Dickel with a distinctive shape that made it a go-to prop on the original Star Trek. 

In this unique setting, each participant in this small event found a station with three drams of different bourbons set up -- two completely different 4-years from Bardstown, and a 12-year from an (officially) unspecified third party. One of Bardstown's own "Fusion Series" of bourbons was made from exactly these three components, with the exact ratios specified on the actual bottles and on a reference sheet in front of us. We got to taste each of the three separate components, and then -- using graduated cylinders and an eye dropper -- measured out the exact blend of the Fusion for ourselves to compare the results and see how each separate whiskey might have influenced the results.

Then it was experimentation time. Each of the seven people attending the event played around with mixtures of our own, ultimately writing down the one we thought turned out best and handing it to our guide. (Remember to pay attention to color, aroma, and taste, we were reminded.) Then one blend was selected at random for everyone to make, sample, and comment on. It of course totally helped my enjoyment of the experience that mine happened to be the selected blend... and it seemed to be well-received by all.

Our guide in the class gave us ideas to bring blending home with us from this short class. This can be a way to use up a random, disappointing bottle of whiskey you might have; just grab your own tubes and droppers and start blending -- maybe you can save it! Or this could be the basis of a party with your whiskey-loving friends: invite everyone to bring a bottle, and then get everyone engaged in making blends from those ingredients. You can even make a little competition out of who creates the best blend! I must say, I've already done some "window shopping" for the tools to blend at home.

We had tickets for a second event at Bardstown, but with enough time in between to have lunch at their restaurant. After having been told by both our waiter and our blending class guide that the chicken sandwich in the restaurant was famously good, we decided to put it to the test. Test passed, with flying colors... it was the tastiest fried chicken we had during the whole trip (among more examples than is probably healthy).

Since this post is starting to run long, I'll take this moment to pause the narrative until tomorrow, when I'll pick back up with the rest of this day and the final morning before our flight home.