American whiskey (Bourbon) lovers will tell you they’ve been around longer than their Yankee oenophile (wine lover) counterparts. After all, George Washington was making spirits on his Mount Vernon Estate before Thomas Jefferson tried to cultivate French wine grapes in Virginia.
And they’ll also say there’s only one place where you can get the cultural, drinking and good times experience that’s truly all-American. That’s Kentucky, known these days as Bourbon Country (www.bourboncountry.com).
As San Francisco is the urban gateway to the wine lover’s hallowed territory of Napa and Sonoma, Louisville opens the door to a similar connoisseur culture—and plenty more for everyone to experience.
“Louisville is not only the gateway to the Bourbon Trail, we’re also home to the Kentucky Derby and Churchill Downs, Louisville Slugger, the original cheeseburger, Colonel Sanders, and Muhammad Ali,” says James Wood, president and CEO of the Louisville CVB. “We’re a city with unique, world-class museums, and more art galleries than coffee shops.”
Even if they don’t imbibe, many visitors like to sample the culture along Louisville’s Urban Bourbon Trail, he says, before they venture into the distilleries along the I-64 and I-65 corridors. The city’s half dozen or so bourbon bars stock at least 50 bourbons, some as many as 130. Four of them are in restaurants like Bourbons Bistro, Maker’s Mark Bourbon House & Lounge, and Proof on Main, where diners savor bourbon-inspired cuisine from some of region’s most creative chefs.
Out and about, tour and event staging options associated with the bourbon culture abound. At Heaven Hill, America’s largest independent family-owned distillery, visitors hear about the bourbon birthing process and the Baptist preacher—Rev. Elijah Craig—who accidentally discovered around 1789 that if he charred oak barrels in which he stored his moonshine, the liquor they yielded was smoother and more palatable. After their Heaven Hill tour and education, visitors sample the product out of tiny glasses inside a dramatic barrel tasting room.
Jim Beam bills itself as the world’s largest bourbon distiller, and the family’s seventh generation is in charge. On its grounds are the historic T. Jeremiah Beam home, one of the oldest known moonshine stills, and an 1880s cooperage museum with every antique tool used in the barrel-making trade. Maker’s Mark is a National Historic Landmark site, established in 1805 as a gristmill/distillery. Each bottle of Maker’s Mark is hand-dipped in signature red wax, and those who buy can hand-dip their own bottles.
Bourbon isn’t the only way inside Louisville’s soul. Sports history can be found all around town, too, headlined by horse racing’s annual crescendo, the Run for the Roses. Derby Day, held the first Saturday in May, is the best time to observe local bluebloods—on two or four legs—at Churchill Downs.
For glimpses of Thoroughbred horses in their native habitat, groups can visit luxurious farms and tracks in the nearby Lexington area, home to famed Keeneland Race Course and the 1,200-acre Kentucky Horse Park.
Back in Looavull, Luhvul, Looaville, or Louisville—however you say it!—there’s a unique American meld of the bourbon, bluegrass and bluebloods to enjoy, along with a little business in between.
