Maker's Mark Distillery, Loretto, Kentucky

After visiting two distilleries in Scotland, we were interested in visiting a distillery in the US so we drove to Loretto, Kentucky to visit Maker's Mark (http://www.makersmark.com/). Maker's Mark is the oldest continuously operating distillery in the US. The distillery was worth the tour just for the drive. We drove through many beautiful rolling hills in Kentucky on our way to Loretto.

We got to Maker's Mark around 1:30 so we decided to have lunch at the Toll House Cafe and then catch the 2:30 tour. We enjoyed pork and chicken cooked in BBQ sauce made with Maker's Mark. When we finished lunch, the women working at the cafe came over and congratulated us. We won a free lunch in honor of the 135th running of the Kentucky Derby since we came in at 1:35 on Derby Day.

After our wonderful free lunch, we took the tour and enjoyed the tasting. The tour started in the home of the founder and ended, as do most tours, in the gift shop. During the tour we visited the building where the grain is milled, then mashed, then fermented. We were allowed to dip our fingers in the fermentation vats for a taste. The copper stills and the spirit safe were also in this building.

After a lesson on the distillation process, we went to visit the bottling and packing facility. The workers on the bottling line rotate between the various stations every 30 minutes. One of the rotations is to hand dip the top of the bottle into the red wax.

The last stop before the gift shop was one of the warehouses where the bourbon is aged. Maker's Mark is the only distillery that rotates its barrels in the warehouses while it ages. The reason given for the rotation is to ensure consistency due to the changes in the weather. Barrels are initially stored in the top of the warehouses due to the heat at the top then rotated down during the 6 years they are aging.

Finally the gift shop and tasting. Since it was Derby Day, in addition to a sample of Maker's Mark, we were given a sample of a mint julep. Unfortunately, the mint julep was not in a tall frosted glass like at the derby.