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| The Graceland of bourbon distilleries. |
I'm not the kind of guy who doesn't
take advantage of any opportunity to sip some good bourbon. In fact,
I deem it more of a calling than an opportunity. At least that's what
I'm telling myself as I sit in the afterglow of a day flitting from
bourbon bar to bourbon bar in Louisville. It's a good thing I no
longer live in the Derby City. Drunk and broke is no way to live out
my remaining years. No, I just swoop in every six months or so, visit
friends and put a dent in the local bourbon supply.
Let me set your mind to rest, we do
have a designated driver for these little bourbon-infused excursions.
Also, most Louisville joints seriously pouring bourbon are attuned to
the needs of folks who just want to sample this or that. Many have
price lists including half-ounce pours. So, we aren't tossing back
bourbons two ounces at a time.
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| No serious bourbon drinker can live life without at least one visit to Louisville's Whiskey Row. |
Earlier this year, I made a
half-hearted attempt to put together a group of friends to spend a
weekend in Louisville on a bourbon-tasting adventure. Because I just
came off one of the worst earning quarters in the past several years,
the Great Louisville Bourbon Gathering of 2019 was postponed –
perhaps until 2020. When I visit Louisville on my own, I stay with
friends and my only costs are an occasional meal out and the cost of
whatever bourbon I consume. The GLBG would have entailed renting a
house, securing transportation, meals and on and on and on. I simply
couldn't justify it with the uncertainty of revenue-producing work this year.
I firmly believe that to be a member of
the pseudo religion of bourbon, requires at least one pilgrimage to
Louisville. It is, in fact, where bourbon was elevated from glorified
moonshine to the wonderful elixir we know today. To turn distilling
bourbon into a money-making enterprise required a broader audience.
This audience was accessed by shipping bourbon south down the Ohio
River to ports in New Orleans. Louisville became the obvious jumping
off point for a bourbon's journey to world fame. (During your trip to
Louisville, be sure to invest an hour in the tour of the Evan
Williams facility on Mains Street. You will leave there with a rich
education in Louisville's contribution to launching bourbon.)
Although my first attempt at organizing
a GLBG failed miserably, I have not given it up. I want my fellow
bourbon travelers to experience Louisville's bourbon scene as I
have. I want them to belly up to the tasting bar at Liquor Barn, gaze,
open mouthed, at the scores of bourbons and ryes lining the shelves
spread across the wall behind the bar. I want them to be able to
thumb through the 40-page booklet of available brands to sample. And,
this would be just one stop on the agenda.
No, I haven't given up on the GLBG.
On these forays into bourbon country, I
usually have a wish list of difficult-to-find brands to purchase.
Elmer T Lee always tops this list that also includes Wild Turkey's
Forgiven, Col. E H Taylor Small Batch, Weller 12-Year Old and others.
One can dream, right?
Driving up to Louisville from
Greenville, SC, I had mapped out a number of liquor stores in the
Frankfort area to visit as I made my way to Buffalo Trace. A
fraternity brother of mine in Ohio had texted me the week before to
report that a buddy of his had visited Buffalo Trace that day and was
bringing him bottles of Blanton's, Eagle Rare and (wait for it) Col.
EH Taylor. I was stoked. Visions of hard-to-get bourbons danced in my
head. I was convinced that all I needed to do was get myself to
Buffalo Trace and bottles of Eagle Rare and EH Taylor would be mine.
Tell God your plans and watch him
laugh, right? Just outside of Frankfort proper, Buffalo Trace is easy
to find and to get to. It's not officially on the Bourbon Trail, but
is surrounded by distilleries that are. You must look for it
separately. Anyone investing the time and effort to follow the
Bourbon Trail is missing out if he/she doesn't add Buffalo Trace to
the itinerary. It is, after all, the Graceland of distilleries. It's a
tourist trap of the first order. I have no clue how much revenue it
generates annually, but I've never been there when it wasn't packed
with tourists eager to plunk down hard-earned dinero for a tour, tee-shirt, set
of coasters or some other trinket emblazoned with the Buffalo Trace
logo. The only thing missing is a photographer set up in front of the
huge bison sculpture, snapping photos of mugging tourists with the iconic sculpture and selling them for $20
a pop.
On the plus side, Buffalo Trace offers
one of the better distillery tours I've ever experienced. And, if you
are lucky, you can buy one or two of its hard-to-find labels right
out of the gift shop. I was not so lucky. After parking in the
sprawling parking lot and hiking to the gift shop, I found shelves
lined with a Bailey's-like beverage. “Hey, where's the EH Taylor?
Where's the Eagle Rare?” “Not here,” the ghost of the Great
Buffalo taunted me. Nuts!
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| Yes! |
Foiled in my plan to buy at least some
of what I was searching for at Buffalo Trace, I fell back on my
liquor-store list. I visited three Frankfort liquor stores before
getting on I-64 to continue to Louisville. I did manage to find a
single bottle of Eagle Rare at my last Frankfort liquor-store stop.
Twenty-or-so miles west of Frankfort is Shelbyville. I like
Shelbyville with its historic downtown. I had some time to burn and
decided to take its exit and search a liquor store or two in the
area. As soon as I exited, there was a liquor store. I wandered in
with low expectations, but, what do you know, I found another bottle
of Eagle Rare.
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| I was on a roll. |
I found my way to State Route 60
running parallel to I-64 and headed west. The friends I stay with in
the Louisville area live off of Rt 60 roughly 15 miles west of
Shelbyville. I Googled liquor stores near me and found two on Rt 60.
In the first one, I found a bottle of Col. EH Taylor for $49.
Trumpets sounded, a flock of white doves ascended and angels wept.
Once again I was little Rusty falling to my knees in awe of the
mountain of gaily wrapped presents under the Christmas tree. Wiping
the tears away, I climbed back into the Kicks Nissan provided me for
this extended trip and moved on to the next liquor store on my list.
I walked in the store and found a
second bottle of EH Taylor. Here it was priced at $65. Having just
bought a bottle for $49, and thinking if two stores each had a
bottle, others must, as well. I passed on the $65 price tag. That
may have been a dumb thing to do, but I couldn't justify spending $15
more.
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| This a liquor-store tasting area done Louisville style. |
That was Friday. Saturday was our day
to wallow in the bourbon experience. We visited a couple of big
liquor stores where we sampled a few bourbons and I found a couple of
new bourbons to add to my stash at home. Then we hit downtown
Louisville's Whiskey Row. This is an 8-to-10-block stretch of
Louisville's Main Street that is almost entirely devoted to all
things bourbon. There are bourbon distilleries, bourbon bars and
bourbon restaurants operating in what used to be a warehouse district
just a couple of blocks from the river. Although two or three bourbon
joints we visited had Elmer T Lee on their bourbon list, they didn't
actually have it to pour. Elmer T Lee is an elusive label distilled at, you
guessed it, Buffalo Trace. I have unsuccessfully hunted it for the
past two or three years.
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| Two birds, one stone: This is a stout-barrel-finished bourbon aged and bottled by Goodwood craft brewery. |
We hit a couple of joints, had a sip of
bourbon in each and then headed for home to rest up for dinner and
then post-dinner bourbon sipping. Dinner was at Eddie Merlot's, a steak
house in downtown Louisville. There I found another bourbon I had
never heard of called Wathen's. It will be on my list to buy on my
next Louisville junket. After dinner we stopped at Checks BBQ and
Blues for a nightcap. Running my finger up and down the columns of
bourbons in its whiskey list, I discovered Elmer T Lee. With
absolutely no expectation of them having it, I asked the server for a
pour, neat, of course.
Imagine my surprise when she returned
with it. Not only did they have it, the bartender told me he had
three more bottles in the back room. What? I know where my first stop
will be on my next Louisville visit.
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| Finally, a pour of the highly prized Elmer T Lee! I can now die happy. |
Cheers!
