Recent Comments

That's great to hear. Pitching has been serviceable but not stellar it seems.

Join The Key Player's Club to read comments posted in exclusive content and its members only forum.

Join The Key Player's Club to read comments posted in exclusive content and its members only forum.

Shot of us from a few years ago - when we had a better turnout than last year. I'm the dweeb in the middle with the big floppy hat.
" />

I'd take it in a New York minnit. Still dead around here but for an occasional winter holdover striper. Still haven't been out myself, but the knee replacement has gone well and I'm ready to go when the fish finally do show up. Luckily my neighbor is rushing the season for those few holdovers, so I'll know when trout and reds do arrive.

I suspect the if he DOES get money, they'll simply find a way to bill current fans, and maybe nonfans, for it.

How was your trip? Which route did you choose?

Join The Key Player's Club to read comments posted in exclusive content and its members only forum.

Thanks for the updates. I really appreciate them.

Apologies for the ensuing novel.

Couple things to clean up:

The Kentucky Bourbon Trail is a commercial partnership of many of the major distilleries throughout the state, primarily concentrated between Louisville, Lexington, and Bardstown, but also a few out of the way places. Each spot has a variety of tour and tasting options, and pretty decent gift shops. Many may have allocated items available, either at open, such as Heaven Hill, or randomly during the day, such as Michters. Of note, Buffalo Trace is not, and has never been, associated. They're on their own program, but offer similar experiences. Doing the whole trail would take a month and a liver transplant.

Urban Bourbon Trail is solely Louisville. It's a mix of distillery tasting rooms and bourbon bars. Great for a weekend itinerary, but you still can't hit them all and not die.

There's also the Craft Bourbon Trail. Little brother to the KBT, it's divided regionally, and you used to get a cool token per region and plaque if you did them all. Lots of variance in quality on this one. You get places putting out 2 year old rot gut for 100 bucks, experimental stuff, and clones of 1970s era Old Crow, all across the state.

Wife and I have done annual trips since 2020, and we've been to almost all of them. A few miscellaneous thoughts:

Tours at the corporate places tend to get redundant. They largely talk about what bourbon is, how it's made, and then some branding about how they're different. That said, there's a lot of cool architecture and history too. Woodford, Four Roses, Buffalo Trace, Makers, Stitzel-Weller are all worth doing once.

Craft places vary wildly. You go to Glenn's Creek, get damned good whiskey, the owner does the tastings and talks a lot of shit about the big boys, but it looks like a set for a horror movie. You go to Hartfield and Co, "the only distillery in Bourbon County" and they're friendly, but it's a lot of money for terrible juice. Try them all, but don't feel like you have to buy any bottles. A lesson I didn't learn till our third trip.

Tastings are often as good as tours, for less money. If you are with your spouse, share one flight. You can try more things at more places.

If you're after bottles, especially allocated, join the "what does (distillery) have today" Facebook pages. Helps to track drops.

Eat. There is so much good food on and around the trails. Bar at Willet egg salad sandwich, burgoo at Elkwood Tavern, chopped mutton in Owensboro, etc, are worth the trip in their own regard. Louisville has White Castle, and that shit is a hangover preventative at the end of the night.

Fire off any specific questions if there are any. Food, drink, tours, museums, whatever. Kentucky is awesome, and it ain't all distilleries.

Top of 9th still 3-1