Almost as soon as we arrived home from our whirlwind tour of Michigan and Indiana, we hopped back in the car over to Kentucky for Thanksgiving with my uncle and aunt! My parents picked up another uncle and joined us for a wonderfully abundant Thanksgiving dinner. Then, to work off our meal, we hung out in the basement playing pool and catching up!

We woke up to a beautiful landscape. Kentucky is remarkably hilly, especially compared to Charleston. There’s something so refreshing about country air, when the weather is cold and crisp.

The next morning we were out the door early, starting our Bourbon Trail distillery tours – Buffalo Trace, the oldest continuously operating distillery in America. Mike and Kim (my uncle and aunt) live just a few miles away. We’ve toured this distillery before, so we didn’t do a full tour, but they let us see some of their barrel storage.

We made sure to stop by the gift store to pick up some of their acclaimed bourbon. Kyle bought a bottle of Eagle Rare for his dad, as a tiny way of saying thank you for giving us access to his marina and workshop.

We followed that up with a tour of the Wild Turkey distillery. First they showed us the vats of mash, then the tall vertical distiller.

As we left the mash building, there was a great photo op with the Wild Turkey mural. I didn’t notice Dad doing the…is that a wild turkey dance? until I was looking at the photos later! Hilarious!

After that it was off to the barrel storage warehouses. All the warehouses – and any buildings near a distillery – are covered in black whiskey fungus, a growth that feeds on the small amount of bourbon that evaporates from the barrels as they age. It’s very dramatic looking at the distilleries, but I’d hate to have to powerwash my house regularly to get rid of it.

We arrived back at the visitor’s center to find flights of bourbon ready for tasting. I’m going to be brutally honest here: bourbon (and anything under the whiskey umbrella) is not my thing. I don’t like the taste and it doesn’t agree with me. So I won’t give you my opinion on the flight, but Kyle wasn’t a huge fan of anything he tried. We didn’t buy anything there. It was a good tour though.

I love this photo – Dan is trying to pick out a bourbon to purchase, and Mike and Kim are patiently talking him through the merits of each of the options.

As the family finalized their bourbon selections, the head distiller walked in. Jimmy Russell is the longest tenured Master Distiller…anywhere, between him and his son they have over 100  years of distilling experience. His brother is Mike and Kim’s neighbor, so while Jimmy signed bottles for the family, they chatted.

We stopped at home for a late snack lunch – Mike and Kim have an extensive produce farm and they raise their own livestock for meat, so every meal was jam-packed with homegrown or homemade goods. Kim even shared her sourdough starter with me! I had asked for a sourdough starter for Christmas last year but didn’t receive one, so Kim shared her 7-year-old sourdough and gave me tips and recipes for using it!

After lunch we headed out to our final distillery, Jeptha Creed. Unfortunately their 4pm tour was booked up, and they weren’t sure if there would be another one even though 5pm is supposed to be the last tour. Looking around the gift shop, nearly all the gifts were for women. I noted that to Kyle and he said it was the owner and master distiller is a woman. Makes sense! Another unique fact about Jeptha: they grow the ingredients themselves, or source them locally. The larger distilleries have all the grains brought in from out of state.

We went out for dinner and then played more pool. We took off the next morning, since we’re supposed to be working on boat projects instead of touring distilleries right now. Of course, Kim wouldn’t let us leave without packing us a full Thanksgiving meal to eat when we got home. Thank you again for such a wonderful visit!