Last week/weekend, a few buddies and myself headed out to Kentucky to tour some distilleries, taste some whiskey and try to find some rare bottles. I am sure others here have done something similar. I should have asked advice before we left, but we ended up successful just winging it. And for those interested in fine whiskey, I figured I would start a thread to share my experience and hear from others that have hit the trail before me.
We ended up visiting, tasting and/or touring Buffalo Trace, Old Forester, Jim Beam, Evan Williams, Heaven Hill, Michters, Woodford Reserve, Peerless, Angel's Envy and Whiskey Thief distilleries. All were somewhat interesting, however, most of the tours of the "big guys" are pretty duplicative: Good limestone water, local grains, terminology, mashbills, bourbon rules, how a column still works, barrel char effects, tasting and then exit through the gift shop. But I also have to admit that I did learn quite a bit during the trip. I gained a new respect for Michters, due to their investment in quality throughout their processes in order to ensure that their product is exceptional. I really enjoyed the restaurant at Jim Beam. I loved the tasting experience at Heaven Hill. I loved the bourbon salted chocolate covered Twinkies at Evan Williams and the salted bourbon caramel coated marshmallow at Old Forester.
But I have to say that the best experience we had by far was Whiskey Thief Distillery, and I highly recommend a visit to anybody that loves good whiskey experiences. The distillery itself is tiny. They only have about 1000 barrels currently aging in rickhouse/storage. The entire distillery itself is all contained in a big barn that sits out in the middle of a field past a cow pasture and feed barn at the end of a sketchy winding farm path.
If you go on a Friday or Saturday afternoon, they have Adirondack chairs set out looking over the pastures, live music, a bar for cocktails and even a food truck for a bite to eat. Unlike the sterile mechanical tastings and tours of the big corporate distillers, Whiskey Thief is a wide open party. Everybody is mingling and having a good time. It is glorious.
The operation was previously known as Three Boys Farm Distillery, but the new owner (Walter) changed it back to its originally intended name "Whiskey Thief". It is named after the long copper instrument that you stick in the barrel to draw out tasting samples. In line with their name, they pull out 10 barrels and split them up into 2 tasting areas with 5 barrels each.
None of the 10 barrels are the same mash bill or expression. If you buy a tasting, you get a small etched glencairn glass and 5 samples from whichever barrels you want to try. Fair warning if you ever go there for a tasting, you need a designated driver because the nature of a whiskey thief is NOT conducive to small pours for samples. This is the only distillery in the US, if not the world, that you taste their whiskey at full cask strength, straight from the barrel. Folks wander around to the tasting stations and choose which barrel they want to sample. The staff then use the copper whiskey thief in each barrel to pour you a long, neat pour straight from barrel of high proof whiskey. And if you find a barrel you really like (and you will - their whiskey is phenomenal), you grab an empty bottle (they have several types and sizes to chose from) and you can fill your own bottle from that barrel by hand using the whiskey thief. My buddy Chris let one of the staff fill his bottle, because he did not want to spill a lot and catch hell from us about it.
But the funniest thing was how this all came about. We had no plan to visit this distillery. But the father of one of my son's hockey teammates had told me about it 2 years ago. He had met what turned out to be the PRIOR owner and they became friends. The prior owner sent him a bottle from a honey barrel, and he shared some with me at a tournament one time and it was fantastic. So I knew from his stories that it was near Frankfort. We were on our way back to Frankfort after touring Michters, and we had some time to kill before our dinner reservation. We decided to swing by Whiskey Thief on a whim. We got there about 30 minutes before it closed, and we missed the last "tour". We declined to buy the tasting, because we knew they were supposed to close in half an hour and we were heading to dinner shortly. But we were welcome to look and hang around. So we did, and I ended up talking to a tour operator and telling him about my buddy that knew the (what I thought to be the current) owner. I learned that the place had been sold, so I realized it might not be the same guy. About that time, a guy comes walking out of the office area, and the tour operator told me that was the owner, Walter. So I go up to Walter and introduce myself. I tell him the story about my friend that introduced me to their whiskey, and that I loved it. I also point out my buddies (also hockey dads) that were about 20 feet away and we chat about that for a minute. But it turns out that my friend met the OLD owner, not Walter. But Walter was very happy to hear that I liked their whiskey, so he tells me "You have GOT to try this barrel over here", and points me to one of the tasting stations. I tell him that I'd love to, but we did not actually book a tour or buy a tasting, that we just wanted to stop in and look around because we heard it was a great place. I told him that we were actually just kinda crashing the party. Walter looks at me, smiles and says "John, just because you drink MY whiskey, it does not mean that I have to charge you for it." And he turns and calls out to one of the staff and says "hey, get us some glasses over here!" I look over and my buddies, and they are walking over to see what is going on. I introduce them to Walter, and the girl comes back over with a box of tasting glasses. Walter hands each of use a glass, grabs one for himself and leads us over to this set of barrels. He then grabs the whiskey thief on barrel #1 and personally gives us each a pour. And not a small pour either. He pours himself a stout pour too, and we discuss the tasting notes and nature of the barrel as we do so. Then, we spent the next hour and a half drinking whiskey straight from the barrel with Walter matching us glass for glass. Despite the fact that it was past closing time, he even gave us our own private tour and explained some of their processes regarding their mash and some experimental mash bills. Luckily, one of our guys was not drinking much, so when we left, he could drive us to our dinner reservation safely. Come to find out, by Kentucky law, you can only have 5 samples at a commercial whiskey tasting. But if you are not at an official tasting, and you are just friends hanging out after closing and drinking with the owner of the distillery...
Eventually we had to go in order to meet our reservation, but I wish I'd stayed longer as hearing Walter talk about the distillery processes, the business and the culture was fascinating. I am glad that we did not set up some rigid schedule of tours because if we had, we would never have had the free time to stop by Whiskey Thief and we would have missed out on what turned out to be the best experience of the whole trip.
We ended up visiting, tasting and/or touring Buffalo Trace, Old Forester, Jim Beam, Evan Williams, Heaven Hill, Michters, Woodford Reserve, Peerless, Angel's Envy and Whiskey Thief distilleries. All were somewhat interesting, however, most of the tours of the "big guys" are pretty duplicative: Good limestone water, local grains, terminology, mashbills, bourbon rules, how a column still works, barrel char effects, tasting and then exit through the gift shop. But I also have to admit that I did learn quite a bit during the trip. I gained a new respect for Michters, due to their investment in quality throughout their processes in order to ensure that their product is exceptional. I really enjoyed the restaurant at Jim Beam. I loved the tasting experience at Heaven Hill. I loved the bourbon salted chocolate covered Twinkies at Evan Williams and the salted bourbon caramel coated marshmallow at Old Forester.
But I have to say that the best experience we had by far was Whiskey Thief Distillery, and I highly recommend a visit to anybody that loves good whiskey experiences. The distillery itself is tiny. They only have about 1000 barrels currently aging in rickhouse/storage. The entire distillery itself is all contained in a big barn that sits out in the middle of a field past a cow pasture and feed barn at the end of a sketchy winding farm path.
If you go on a Friday or Saturday afternoon, they have Adirondack chairs set out looking over the pastures, live music, a bar for cocktails and even a food truck for a bite to eat. Unlike the sterile mechanical tastings and tours of the big corporate distillers, Whiskey Thief is a wide open party. Everybody is mingling and having a good time. It is glorious.
The operation was previously known as Three Boys Farm Distillery, but the new owner (Walter) changed it back to its originally intended name "Whiskey Thief". It is named after the long copper instrument that you stick in the barrel to draw out tasting samples. In line with their name, they pull out 10 barrels and split them up into 2 tasting areas with 5 barrels each.
None of the 10 barrels are the same mash bill or expression. If you buy a tasting, you get a small etched glencairn glass and 5 samples from whichever barrels you want to try. Fair warning if you ever go there for a tasting, you need a designated driver because the nature of a whiskey thief is NOT conducive to small pours for samples. This is the only distillery in the US, if not the world, that you taste their whiskey at full cask strength, straight from the barrel. Folks wander around to the tasting stations and choose which barrel they want to sample. The staff then use the copper whiskey thief in each barrel to pour you a long, neat pour straight from barrel of high proof whiskey. And if you find a barrel you really like (and you will - their whiskey is phenomenal), you grab an empty bottle (they have several types and sizes to chose from) and you can fill your own bottle from that barrel by hand using the whiskey thief. My buddy Chris let one of the staff fill his bottle, because he did not want to spill a lot and catch hell from us about it.
But the funniest thing was how this all came about. We had no plan to visit this distillery. But the father of one of my son's hockey teammates had told me about it 2 years ago. He had met what turned out to be the PRIOR owner and they became friends. The prior owner sent him a bottle from a honey barrel, and he shared some with me at a tournament one time and it was fantastic. So I knew from his stories that it was near Frankfort. We were on our way back to Frankfort after touring Michters, and we had some time to kill before our dinner reservation. We decided to swing by Whiskey Thief on a whim. We got there about 30 minutes before it closed, and we missed the last "tour". We declined to buy the tasting, because we knew they were supposed to close in half an hour and we were heading to dinner shortly. But we were welcome to look and hang around. So we did, and I ended up talking to a tour operator and telling him about my buddy that knew the (what I thought to be the current) owner. I learned that the place had been sold, so I realized it might not be the same guy. About that time, a guy comes walking out of the office area, and the tour operator told me that was the owner, Walter. So I go up to Walter and introduce myself. I tell him the story about my friend that introduced me to their whiskey, and that I loved it. I also point out my buddies (also hockey dads) that were about 20 feet away and we chat about that for a minute. But it turns out that my friend met the OLD owner, not Walter. But Walter was very happy to hear that I liked their whiskey, so he tells me "You have GOT to try this barrel over here", and points me to one of the tasting stations. I tell him that I'd love to, but we did not actually book a tour or buy a tasting, that we just wanted to stop in and look around because we heard it was a great place. I told him that we were actually just kinda crashing the party. Walter looks at me, smiles and says "John, just because you drink MY whiskey, it does not mean that I have to charge you for it." And he turns and calls out to one of the staff and says "hey, get us some glasses over here!" I look over and my buddies, and they are walking over to see what is going on. I introduce them to Walter, and the girl comes back over with a box of tasting glasses. Walter hands each of use a glass, grabs one for himself and leads us over to this set of barrels. He then grabs the whiskey thief on barrel #1 and personally gives us each a pour. And not a small pour either. He pours himself a stout pour too, and we discuss the tasting notes and nature of the barrel as we do so. Then, we spent the next hour and a half drinking whiskey straight from the barrel with Walter matching us glass for glass. Despite the fact that it was past closing time, he even gave us our own private tour and explained some of their processes regarding their mash and some experimental mash bills. Luckily, one of our guys was not drinking much, so when we left, he could drive us to our dinner reservation safely. Come to find out, by Kentucky law, you can only have 5 samples at a commercial whiskey tasting. But if you are not at an official tasting, and you are just friends hanging out after closing and drinking with the owner of the distillery...
Eventually we had to go in order to meet our reservation, but I wish I'd stayed longer as hearing Walter talk about the distillery processes, the business and the culture was fascinating. I am glad that we did not set up some rigid schedule of tours because if we had, we would never have had the free time to stop by Whiskey Thief and we would have missed out on what turned out to be the best experience of the whole trip.
