We took a day trip to Kentucky while we were up in Nashville.
I’ve always wanted to go to the Maker’s Mark Distillery and this was the perfect opportunity to go!
We got up early and made the drive to Maker’s Mark in Loretto, KY.
It took us about 3 hours to get there.
The first thing we noticed was how beautiful the property was.
We bought our distillery tour tickets. It cost $9 for the tour and a tasting at the end.
We didn’t have to wait. We walked up and went straight into the tour.
The mash is fermented in giant cypress wood vats.
They let us stick our finger in the mash – it didn’t taste good!
Watch the video to see it bubble like crazy!
They hand make all the labels for the bottles on site.
Do you know what the logo “S IV” stands for?
Samuels 4th generation – the family that started Maker’s.
Also notice that they spell whiskey – WHISKY. That is a traditional Scottish spelling.
Bourbon aging in the barrels.
They hand rotate all the barrels – moving the barrels on the bottom to the top and visa versa.
That takes a ton of time and hard work.
Bourbon barrels are only used once.
Maker’s sends the barrels to Scotland where they use them to make Scotch.
We went on the tour on Saturday, so they weren’t bottling any bourbon.
I was sad I didn’t get to see them dipping the bottles!
They go through 700,000 lb of wax a year.
Next time!
After the tour we went into a super nice tasting room.
We tasted 4 Maker’s.
Maker’s White – they only sell this at the distillery. It is somewhat of a novelty item.
This is bourbon that hasn’t been aged.
Maker’s Mark Fully Matured – what you get in the stores.
Maker’s Mark Over Matured – they let you sample this so you can see why they don’t age the bourbon longer. Some people think the longer the better. The over matured bourbon wasn’t as smooth.
Maker’s 46 – the new bourbon. This was my favorite.
When we left the tasting room we walked by the Ambassador Barrels, and if you look up you can see an these amazing Chihuly sculptures.
The angel represents the “angel’s share” – the evaporating bourbon as it ages.
We bought a bottle of Maker’s 46 and I got to dip the bottle!
We stopped in the cafe for lunch before he hit the road.
The food was really good. I got the Bourbon Pork Tenderloin Quesadilla.
Chicken Legs got a Turkey, Bacon, Swiss Sandwich.
We couldn’t resist the Bourbon Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookies.
We stopped at the National Corvette Museum on our way back to Nashville.
It cost $10 to tour the museum.
LOVED this mural made up of all the corvette pictures.
You may have heard about the sinkhole in the museum.
You can’t really appreciate it until you see it in person.
The hole is HUGE!
8 cars got caught in the sinkhole.
A few had minor damage and the rest were totally destroyed.
A couple were unrecognizable.
Chicken Legs dream is to buy a corvette and take delivery at the museum.
There were several corvettes that were getting ready to go home!
CONNECT WITH PLAIN CHICKEN
I am glad you got to see some of my beautiful state. Loretto was a great start but there's lots more. You need to plan another trip! PS: would love to see to see some recipes incorporating bourbon/whiskey in them. Did you try any bourbon balls when you were here?
I'd love to go to the museum one day! My dad had a Corvette until I was born … then he had to trade it in. 🙂 I remember reading about the sinkhole when it happened and feeling just SICK about it … all those beautiful cars (I'm kind of a car slut). But now it's a part of the museum's history, and I love that they've incorporated it. Seems fitting.