Woodford Reserve and Maker's Mark

Another Day another Bourbon tasting!

Day 2 has brought us to the beautiful Woodford Reserve distillery.  Woodford was founded in 1996 by the conglomerate Brown-Forman.  Originally founded as the Old Oscar Pepper Distillery in 1812.  The site has not been a continuously operational distillery since then.

Oscar Pepper died in 1867 the distillery was passed to his son James Pepper. 

The Pepper family sold the property to Leopold Labrot and James Graham in 1878, who owned and operated it (except during Prohibition) until it was sold to Brown-Forman in 1941. 

Brown-Forman operated it until the late 1960s, then sold the property and its accompanying acreage to a local farmer. Brown-Forman re-purchased the property in 1993, and brought it back into operation with Woodford Reserve debuting in 1996. 

Fermentation Tanks

Copper Distillation

Destined for a Princess cruise ship

After an interesting Bourbon tasting, we were off to Maker's Mark.  

Maker's Mark's origin began when T. William "Bill" Samuels Sr., purchased the "Burks' Distillery" in 1953. Production began in 1954, and the first run was bottled in 1958 under the brand's dipped red wax seal. Currently owned by Beam-Suntory group, the Samuels family continues to be involved in the distillery.  

 

Bubbling cauldron of corn and grains

Each bottle is hand-dipped.  Every so often the dipper will dip deeper into the wax and create a unique, larger seal on the bottle.  We were told that Bourbon "nerds" look for this!

Glass ceiling created by Dale Chihuly

The inevitable tasting of Bourbon at the end of the tour.  

On our way out of town, we passed the Jim Beam Distillery--closed on Monday and Tuesday, but photo-ops are free.  We are off to Louisville, two more distilleries, and the Louisville Slugger museum.  Cheers!