Kentucky Bourbon Trail
The Kentucky Bourbon Trail is a tourist route through the US -Bundesstaat Kentucky to bourbon whiskey to promote. The trail leads almost 100 kilometers through the hilly Kentucky landscape along the Bluegrass Parkway through central Kentucky between Louisville and Lexington , Kentucky. Waypoints are nine whiskey distilleries and visitor centers. The Kentucky Distillers Association (KDA), an industry association of Whiskeybrener in Kentucky, created the route in 1999 and took over the concept of different Wine Trails through the Napa Valley , which had helped to popularize wine from California. Hundreds of thousands of visitors a year visit the trail.
history
In 2009, the Sazerac Company and the Kentucky Distillers Association fell out over how to use the brand. Sazerac wanted to advertise his two distilleries, which were then on the Bourbon Trail, with Buffalo Trace Distillery on the Bourbon Trail and Tom Moore Distillery on the Bourbon Trail , which the KDA saw as an attack on its own trademark rights on the Bourbon Trail. The dispute ultimately led to Sazerac's withdrawal from the KDA in January 2010 and the exclusion of the two distilleries from the official Bourbon Trail. Various legal disputes subsequently led to a settlement in 2011 that left the "Kentucky Bourbon Trail" brand exclusively with the KDA, while Sazerac can advertise the more generic "Bourbon Trail".
Inspired by the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, Louisville's city marketing department began an Urban Bourban Trail in 2008 , which runs through the city and for which visitors can get a pass at the various stations and receive a small souvenir at the end.
Route and waypoints
The Bourbon Trail mostly visits waypoints in and around Louisville. It is possible to cycle the path and the KDA has several suggestions for a bike tour along the trail.
| image | Surname | Location | Type of Institution | owner | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bulleit Experience | Louisville , Kentucky | Visitor center | Diageo | Building of the former Stitzel-Weller Distillery. | |
| Cox's Creek Warehouses and Bottling | Cox's Creek , Kentucky | Warehouse, bottling plant and visitor center | Four Roses / Kirin | ||
| Evan Williams Bourbon Experience | Lexington , Kentucky | Visitor center | Heaven Hill | ||
| Four Roses Distillery | Lawrenceburg , Kentucky | distillery | Kirin | On the National Register of Historic Places | |
| Heaven Hill Bourbon Experience Center | Bardstown , Kentucky | Visitor center and warehouse | Heaven Hill | ||
| Jim Beam | Clermont , Kentucky | distillery | Beam Suntory | ||
| Maker's Mark | Loretto , Kentucky | distillery | Beam Suntory | ||
| Town Branch | Lexington , Kentucky | Distillery and brewery | Alltech | Microdistillery attached to a larger brewery. | |
| Wild Turkey | Lawrenceburg, Kentucky | distillery | Davide Campari-Milano | ||
| Woodford Reserve | Versailles , Kentucky | distillery | Brown forman |
All distilleries offer a guided tour, some have their own visitor center. Whiskey can be sampled in all of them, either for free or as part of the tour or for a fee. Visitors who visit all nine distilleries can have a passport filled out and receive a Sourvenir T-shirt.
The two Sazerac distilleries dropped out of the Bourbon Trail after the dispute.
Both are, however, along the route and continue to offer guided tours and tastings.
Craft Trail
Bourbon whiskey has had a boom since 2000, especially in the premium segment, and the success has meanwhile resulted in several hundred microdistilleries. The Kentucky Bourbon Association responded by creating a "Craft" trail in 2012 that runs along seven microdistilleries. These are:
- Barrel House, Lexington, Kentucky
- Corsair Artisan, Bowling Green
- Limestone Branch, Lebanon
- MB Roland, Pembroke
- New Reef, Newport
- Old Pogue, Maysville
- Silver Trail, Hardin
- Wilderness Trail, Danville
- Willett, Bardstown
In 2013, 62,000 visitors visited the Craft Trail. While the waypoints of the Great Bourbon Trail are all in a relatively small area in the heart of Kentucky, the craft distilleries are spread across the state.
Visitors
Between 2005 and 2009, a total of 1.7 million tourists visited the trail. In 2010, 6,000 visitors submitted full trail passes, meaning they had visited all of the official waypoints that year.
Remarks
- ^ Southern Living: Kentucky's Bourbon Country
- ↑ Associated Press: Sazerac Company sued by Kentucky distillers' group over trademark , May 3, 2010
- ↑ Chuck Cowdery : Dispute Between KDA And The Sazerac Company Is Settled. , The Chuck Cowdery Blog November 17, 2011
- ↑ a b Michael R. Veach: Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey: An American Heritage. University Press of Kentucky, 2013, ISBN 978-0-8131-4165-7
- ^ A b Forbes Travel Guide: Sipping Whiskey On The Kentucky Bourbon Trail , Forbes.com April 8, 2013
- ↑ a b NEW RIFF DISTILLERY JOINS KENTUCKY DISTILLERS 'ASSOCIATION, KENTUCKY BOURBON TRAIL CRAFT TOUR ( Memento of the original from December 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , KDA press release
