Who am I kidding? It works at the end of pretty much any day. Or at lunch (just kidding about that part).
Anyway, a few Fridays ago, Bryan and I took off work so he could attend a conference in Midway, Kentucky. I just tagged along, did some shopping, took a walk, read a book. It was the last day of our child-less week as Jonathan was in WV visiting my family. The conference just lasted a few hours and, since we are not often in that part of the state, we decided to visit the Woodford Reserve distillery. Interestingly, although Bryan has lived in Kentucky all of his life and loves bourbon, he'd never been to a bourbon distillery.
Bryan was in charge of the pictures and he did not disappoint. Our tour guide was a bit too cheesy for my taste, but I suppose that it's required for the job.
Action shot of us walking to the bus. I think it was walkable but I just rolled with it, bourbon trail style.
Fun architectural detail:
The first building we went into smelled very strongly of mash. This is our guide demonstrating how kids react when they get of whiff of this aroma.
Ahhh...fermentation.
The storage house for all of the barrels. Hands down the coolest part of the tour.
Look, everyone--Bryan is artistic! See, bourbon is delicious AND a good portrait subject.
In true Kentucky random alcohol rule fashion, you can't actually buy bourbon by the drink at Woodford Reserve. Rather, they ration out this much to each person:
The do, however, allow you to make a whole bottle purchase in the gift shop. Which, of course, we did:
Hmmm...this post has made me quite thirsty...
4 comments:
OK, where are the pictures of the following things I found to be significant about our visit:
1) the bus
2) the people on the bus with us
3) the people, not on our tour walking by the bus
4) the outside of the cool warehouse
5) I think there was even one of the bus driver
6) the large Copper kettle things (Its what sets Woodford reserve apart)
7) Picture of how the bourbon made you turn red, oh just the cutest shade of red.
You put me in charge of pictures and then give the world only 20% of my photographic genius. I weep.
JBF
I think the picture that are here are great. Good job Bryan!! I need to go to something like that. The only thing that sucks is I can drink but John can't because he has diabetes.
Scott loves touring distilleries. Woodford is by far the best, although Heaven Hill (in Bardstown) isn't bad, either. When we took the tour at Woodford, though, I had to leave the last room fairly quickly because the smell and the heat of that room almost made me hurl.
I'm no great fan of bourbon, myself, but I love love the smell of the warehouses. And, after living in Bardstown for 10 years, the smell of the 'mash' still reminds me of home.
Great post!! (And great pics, Bryan.)
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