Visiting The Kentucky Bourbon Trail - Tips, Tricks, and Trip Recap To Help You Plan Your Trip

In this video, we share tips and tricks from our four-day trip to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail in order to help you plan your own visit. We give you distillery reviews, restaurant reviews, and suggest the best places for you to shop for bourbon while in Kentucky. And as you would expect from our channel, we provide a good dose of history about the places we suggest you visit. Contact us for inquiries or potential collaborations at [e-mail]
0:00 Intro
1:39 Visiting Bardstown, Kentucky
3:34 The Heaven Hill Bourbon Experience
9:10 Bourbon Shopping in Downtown Bardstown
10:58 Shopping at Total Wine in Lexington, Kentucky
14:55 Dinner at OBC Kitchen (Old Bourbon County)
16:50 Three Tips from Day One on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail
18:35 Booking a Tour at Buffalo Trace
21:07 Buying Allocated Bourbon at Buffalo Trace
24:06 Touring Buffalo Trace with Freddie Johnson
29:45 My Purchases at Buffalo Trace
30:44 Visiting Frankfort Cemetery with Col. E.H. Taylor Jr.
34:18 Visiting Castle & Key Distillery
36:55 My Purchase at Castle & Key
38:00 Visiting Woodford Reserve Distillery
39:58 Visiting Keeneland Racecourse
43:04 Visiting the Kentucky Horse Park
44:54 Meeting a Kentucky Derby Winner
47:52 Visiting the Real Cocaine Bear
51:53 Visiting Justins’ House of Bourbon
56:32 My Purchase at Justins’ House of Bourbon
57:26 Visiting the James Pepper 1776 Distillery
58:21 Lunch at Goodfellas Pizza
58:53 Buffalo Trace Bourbon Ice Cream at Crank & Boom
59:27 Visiting Thoroughbred Park
59:58 Shopping at Liquor Barn
Heaven Hill Gift Shop Walk-Through Video: • Heaven Hill Bourbon Ex...
Bottle Hunting at the Blind Pig Bourbon Market Video: • Bottle Hunting at the ...

[@ProudlyRetired]

I work at BTD and shared your wonderful comments with Freddie, he was truly touched by your kind words, keep drinking good bourbon and making great memories with those you love

[@Boone-nt6ot]

Thanks for this very entertaining and informative video. I was lucky to have Freddie guide my tour at Buffalo Trace a few years ago. He was fantastic, very entertaining and an incredible wealth of bourbon knowledge.

[@historynerdsmancave7567]

Your comment is giving me the itch to make another trip to Kentucky. Thanks for watching!

[@thomasaccuntius9946]

BT has changed their tour reservation process since your visit. I have taken all their tours several times each. And I have had the honor of having Freddie guide several of these. Freddie is such an icon. I was there Oct 23 and with the help of a nice lady working in the visitor center snagged Freddie who signed a new hat for me. We had met 7 years ago and talked privately after a tour . BT is by far the distillery to see. And meet Freddie if you can.

[@MattD86]

I actually watched the whole video while working today. Sounded like an excellent trip and great video!

[@baseballeyeballs3126]

Perfect thank you. Stetson straw fedora arrived today. Wife and i headed for this years 150th derby and we have a whiskey trail tour booked.

[@alancornettateatkentucky3199]

Thanks for stopping by Justin''s. It was great to chat. Enjoy that ECBP!

[@ashythedon]

You my friend were thoroughly entertaining and very informative! What a great video!!!

[@AmericanGunChic]

This is a cool ol bird. He’d be a great guy to be on these tours with!

[@waynepollard7823]

I live in frankfort, and its amazing how much the boubon industry has grown. Use to weller was always on the shelf, you didnt have to have reservations for a tour of Buffalo trace. Living here i easily forget why people travel here. If you do take a tour there they always save back the bourbon of the day for tour people to buy afterwards in case you dont get any before the tour

[@adamr9215]

No they don’t. The one time I have been or ever will go, all they had was a horrible rye and an even worse vodka. I would have been happy with just a Buffalo Trace, but I left empty handed because they had nothing worth buying. We were about to buy about $700 worth of stuff from the gift shop, but decided to buy nothing when they insulted us by not having any whiskey for sale. Did the tour and didn’t get a shot at buying any bourbon at all. I wouldn’t recommend buying hat anyone waste their time with going to that distillery.

[@dragoon6016]

Just superb stuff, Pally. Love the mix of histories, Bourbon and American; Of course one is a subset of the other! Well done...

[@drrjohn2020]

We just enjoyed our trip to Buffalo Trace Distillery (My Unicorn Distillery Tour)! The Trip to Kentucky Derby was our week long vacation and the most enjoyable time was my tour of BTD. Woodford Reserve I agree is a last minute trip to spend a couple hours. BTD is the Unicorn of Distillery Tours and it’s free if you can get in.

[@FamilyMan1911]

Awesome information, I think as much as I love the experience and the collecting and tasting, the history is my hook as well into bourbon. I was also on the edge of my seat when you held up that card and was smiling saying, Freddi. Thank you for the great sharing and stories I think that is the best part of bourbon.

[@TryinitwithOliver]

If Got a chance to meet Freddie Johnson I may cry. I’ve watched Neat many time with my Father in Law of 20 years and sipped a glass 🥃 of bourbon. Jimmy died last year and I miss him very much. You remind me of him. Thank you for the video

[@historynerdsmancave7567]

Freddie was awesome, and I, too, have watched "Neat" more times than you can shake a stick at. Thanks for the kind words. Condolences for your loss, Bubba.

[@tuckerbutz]

I love the long form video. So much depth and help for planning my trip. Thanks

[@historynerdsmancave7567]

Many thanks. Enjoy your trip. I've done the bourbon trail twice...and I plan to do it several more times in the future.

[@2361cjs]

Awesome. Thank you for everything!!!!!

[@bigbossman3806]

So your wife thinks you are strange, she needs to understand she is married to a very enthusiastic and knowledgeable gentleman. Thanks for a fantastic video.

[@jeffmyers1197]

Thanks for the tips. Mammys was great. We got lucky at both Heaven hill with Two Granades and 3 Blantons at Buffalo Trace. I know it sounds crazy but there was Blantons on the shelf when we left at 4:30 today. The ladies at the check in said they couldn’t believe it because of how busy it was. Thanks again!

[@historynerdsmancave7567]

You're a lucky dog. I was hoping beyond hope that Heaven Hill would have a couple of grenades when I was there, but the bourbon gods frowned upon me that day...

[@bpait79]

Such an amazing and awesome video! Thank you for sharing the experiences and the decanter. Is the gentleman statue a decanter as well? I now have a few new places to go visit!

[@historynerdsmancave7567]

Comments like this make the effort worthwhile. Many thanks for watching!

[@michaelfitzell2741]

Good information.

[@dwaineesch1344]

I love your video of the Kentucky trip. I also live in Alabama and know how difficult it is to find particular brands. I am currently planning a trip and was searching for ideas on what places to visit which is how I found your experience. Thank you for the information.

[@historynerdsmancave7567]

Glad you found it helpful. That's why I made it. Thanks for watching!

[@KennethLaughlin]

You'd love a weekend at Keeneland when there's racing.

[@thejeffmoore]

Hey there from out west! Recently I had scare of possible skin cancer on my ear. Dr said no more ball caps. In looking for advice on brimmed hats for big dudes with big noggins who went to high school in the 70s/80s and are intrigued by history and love the taste of bourbon and watching Justified, I ended up at the History Nerd’s (some would say I check the box in that category as well) Man Cave. I’ve seen most of your posts and thoroughly enjoyed them all. I’ll probably never make it to the Bourbon Trail, let alone Kentucky (you probably know Justified was filmed just outside of LA in California) this recap of both was awesome! Thank you! Already looking forward to your next post/ review!

[@historynerdsmancave7567]

Many thanks for the kind words. Comments like this one help keep the channel going.

[@evelynmueller6523]

I did just that...stopped your video and watched the movie. Now I feel I need to meet Freddie! I plan on doing some sort of tour this October on the way to TX.....thanks for this!

[@historynerdsmancave7567]

Your comment alone made making this video worthwhile. Thanks!

[@kengarrett8657]

Wow You are a neat guy !

[@chrisb48907]

my first stop by the channel !! thanks for sharing ! I think we could be ! bourbon buds ! haha bourbon, miss elizabeth...i am in ! cheers from Alberta, Canada ! Home of Brett the Hitman Hart !

[@historynerdsmancave7567]

Thanks for the kind words...and always remember that "Bret screwed Bret" at the '97 Survivor Series.

[@deankruse4491]

Most liquor stores around my house here in CA carry the Heaven Hill bottled in bond for around 50 bucks

[@historynerdsmancave7567]

It's still allocated in Alabama because all but a handful of liquor stores are run by the state government. I know HHBiB still hard to get in some other states, as well. It's just like some states almost always have various Weller bottles on the shelves while it's rarer than Bigfoot sightings in other states.

[@bandman322]

I totally disagree with your dismissing Woodford Reserve. We spent a week on the trail and Makers Mark and Woodford Reserve were by far the most educational. They limit the number of people on the tours which allows you to ask questions. You were correct about Woodford being a beautiful campus, as was Makers. Buffalo Trace was very interesting with an excellent tour guide. We were there on the day that Jim Beam released their most recent Bardstown Collection. Baker Beam, Fred Noe, and Freddie Noe signed our limited edition bottles. They only released 125 and we got four of them.

[@kellymcclanahan6998]

Woodford double oaked is mighty tastety

[@wildmanwv]

What does bonded mean? Thanks so much for putting this together and educating us. Me and a friend are wanting to do this same tour. All input is appreciated

[@historynerdsmancave7567]

Bourbon that is "Bottled In Bond" has to meet specific criteria outlined by the federal government, so it must be 100 proof, aged at least four years in a government bonded warehouse, and distilled by one distillery in one distilling season. The law was passed back in the day when rectifiers would dilute bourbons with various additives that made it subpar, so if you bought a "bottled in bond" whiskey that met government guidelines, you knew it was good quality.

[@Hal-Larson]

Did you do the Trace tour or the Taylor tour? Also, I am seeing that you can schedule 2 months out for tours, did they change the process since you’ve posted? Is it still the first Tuesday of every month where they put out the times to book?

[@jordansinko]

can anyone confirm on recent trips of "skipping the giftshop line" is still valid? My mother-in-law called for a trip they are planning and they said they do not allow that for tour members.

[@Chevyguy93]

I went to Heaven hill to, they had heaven hill 7 year bottled in bond of the shelf?

[@historynerdsmancave7567]

No, as I said in the video, the guy at the register went in the back and brought out a bottle when I inquired nicely if they had anything special. HH BiB is allocated here, in Alabama, where I live.

[@adamr9215]

@@historynerdsmancave7567That’s crazy. Here in Texas, HH BiB is on the shelf everywhere. Some places charge too much, but you can usually find it for under $50.

[@jw-lk1pe]

massive line = not doing that

[@robertsmithUH60driver]

Roll Tide