Bourbon Names
Posted on 01. Feb, 2012 by admin in Featured, News blog
It’s America’s native spirit, made solely in the US, and pretty much exclusively in Kentucky – apparently 97% of all bourbon is distilled near Bardstown.
A little look into the process of making bourbon offers a little insight into Kentucky’s history, from the name bourbon itself, to why and how it evolved. Even the names are intriguing.
Bourbon
It’s named after Old Bourbon county, Kentucky, the first settled area west of the Allegheny mountains of Virginia. Early settlers found that the limestone provided good filtered water, in turn good for growing tasty corn. So abundant was the crop that early settlers took to distilling whiskey from the leftover crop. Soon the whiskey became a sort of currency.
The county was named Bourbon after the French royal dynasty, a thankyou for its help in defeating the British in the war of independence. Louisville and La Fayette county both owe their names this way. When the first whiskey blends made their way down the Ohio, barrels were stamped Old Bourbon. Consumers liked it – few had ever tried corn-based whiskey, with its distinctive sweet, caramelised flavour, gleaned from being aged in charred oak barrels – and soon asked for bourbon by name. It stuck.
Wild turkey
Kentucky was fabled for its wild turkey flocks in pioneer days (it still boasts the largest US wild turkey population), though they were near-extinct when the Ripys distillery brothers started a distillery in 1869. According to Wikipedia, in 1940, distillery executive Thomas McCarthy took some warehouse samples with him for, ah hem, “lubrication”, on a wild turkey hunting trip in 1940. The next year his friends asked him for “some of that wild turkey whiskey”. A brand was born.
Elijah Craig (Heaven Hill Distilleries)
A Baptist preacher who settled in Kentucky along with a 500-strong congregation trampling over the mountains from South Carolina, Craig was reportedly the first to age the whiskey in charred oak casks, which eventually gave bourbon its distinctive rich colour and unique taste. The 12- and 18-year Elijah Craig bourbons are reportedly among the best.
Basil Hayden
One of the lighter bodied bourbons, part of the Beam Inc distillery, and universally thought to be named after the University of Kentucky basketball player. Not so. It honours the Maryland Catholic who settled Kentucky with a 25-strong group in 1785. Hayden was a distinguished distiller, as it seems was virtually everyone who arrived in early Kentucky.
Jim Beam
So named after Johannes Boehm, part of a German emigrant family who arrived in 1780s Kentucky. The clan anglicised their name to Beam; their first batch in 1785 was named Old Jake Beam, after Jacob Beam. Jim Beam was his son. The rest is history.
Buffalo Trace
Named after the “road” or “path” trampled through the wilderness by the millions of migrating buffalo, and which stretches through Kentucky. Buffalo Trace is the oldest distiller in the US, started in 1773, albeit not actually continuously distilling through this time – Prohibition saw to that. Did you know? The Buffalo Trace Distillery is reportedly home to the world’s smallest bonded storage warehouse, Warehouse V – storing only a single barrel of whiskey at a time.
Knob Creek
Don’t laugh! Especially as Abraham Lincoln was born there. Knobs are small rounded isolated hills that pre-dominate in northern parts of Kentucky. According to the Knob Creek website: “Sticking to history as a muse, when it came time to name Knob Creek®, the answer was nearby. Approximately 20 miles south of the family distillery runs a little creek, the same creek that ran by Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood home. It’s as simple as that.”
Festive Kentucky Flavours
Posted on 30. Nov, 2011 by admin in Featured
Kentucky has incredibly varied and flavoursome cuisine, much of it not seen in the rest of the states, thanks largely to its growing use of its native bourbon and because of its spanning both the traditional northern and southern states. So here’s some festive recipes to get the festive juices flowing.
Maker’s Mark Distillery Eggnog
There’s no better Xmas drink than the traditional American holiday favourite eggnog, this one made Kentucky-style with Makers Mark bourbon.
You will need: 24 eggs, 1.5 cups of sugar, 1 litre of Maker’s Mark bourbon (that will warm you up), 1 quart of heavy whipping cream and a quart of milk.
Just separate the eggs and beat the yolks until creamy; whip the sugar into the yolks. Beat egg whites until they stand in peaks; add half a cup of extra sugar, if needed. Beat yolks and bourbon together and fold in whites. Beat the cream and add with milk. Serve in eggnog cups and add nutmeg for garnish.
Source: Kentucky’s Best-Fifty Years of Great Recipes by Linda Allison-Lewis
White Pillars Bed and Breakfast Pumpkin Crunch
This tasty dessert can be had from Halloween onwards, using the traditional pumpkin so beloved in the states. It hails from a little B&B known as White Pillars Bed and Breakfast in Russell Springs, Kentucky, a fine southern home built in 1876.
Ingredients
2 cups cooked and mashed pumpkin, 12 ounces evaporated milk, 3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup sugar, 4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, half a teaspoon salt, 1 yellow butter cake mix, 1 cup quick cooking oats or 1 cup chopped nuts 2 sticks butter, melted.
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°. Mix pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and salt together. Pour into buttered 13”x9”x2” cake pan. Sprinkle dry cake mix and oats or nuts over top. Pour melted butter over top of mixture. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes.
Serve warm with whipped topping, if desired, enough for 12 people.
For the full recipe, visit: http://www.atasteofkentucky.com/shop/kitchen/kentucky-white-pillars-bed-and-breakfast-pumpkin-crunch-recipe.html
Stuffing for the turkey
For more Xmas recipes, you can no better than visit http://www.inmamaskitchen.com/SEASONS/christhol.html - it has all the xmas staples, from cranberry and marshmallow relish to baked country ham for boxing day, sweet potato biscuits for dipping in the gravy and kentucky corn pudding.
One of the tastiest dishes is the stuffing for the turkey, sweet potato stuffing. Grab the recipe here. Alternatively, if you want to go really southern – and let’s not forget, Kentucky was neutral in the civil war, so the state is open to cuisine from north and south – go for some Confederate Cornbread Dressing. Don’t worry; “dressing” is just another southern word for “stuffing”.
Grab the recipe here, it’s simple.
Punch ball
For a punch type drink with a punch, grab this cranberry and bourbon surprise, it’s tasty, and using the American Xmas staple, the cranberry. It seems a lot of hassle to find the organic cranberries and pick over them but it’s well worth it. (Cranberry is a seasonal fruit, with a short fresh window, so cranberry juice is just as apt)
Recipe courtesy of www.yumsugar.com http://www.yumsugar.com/Recipe-Kentucky-Christmas-Bourbon-Cocktail-6781608
That’s it, happy Xmas! Remember, if you wanna try more Kentucky foods, all year round, then head for this vast repository of tasty ideas at www.atasteofkentucky.com
COLONEL INTERVIEW
Posted on 30. Nov, 2011 by admin in Featured
Visit Kentucky and you might meet one of the fabled Kentucky colonels that isn’t colonel Sanders: Colonel Michael Masters, the smartly dressed, softly spoken, uber-polite Southern gentleman making waves with slow-food in a state long associated with its faster nemesis.
A veteran of American TV’s Food Network and the Discovery Channel, the Colonel hosts with his wife, Margaret Sue, the Kentucky Bourbon Cooking School, bourbon tasting and home cooked Southern food for roaming foodies and tourists at his 18th-century home, Chapeze House , in Bardstown, “capital of bourbon country”.
OK, the colonel isn’t actually a colonel – Kentucky colonels are not former military men (they can’t be, there’s of them already – no army, not even the US’s has that big an army for that many colonels) they are honorary titles, afforded by the state governor in recognition of accomplishments and public service. No doubt colonel Masters got his for being so polite, and friendly, a Kentucky ambassador.
Tonight, the colonel is talking me through Kentucky cuisine and the native American spirit – such as Jack Daniels? Wrong! “JD is sour mash, it’s whisky – there’s additives in the process that can’t make it bourbon,” he says, opening a Rock Hill.
“This is a strong bourbon, with romantic aromas on the nose; but on the tongue it will explode,” he says. “It’s phenomenal bourbon.”
Use the nose, look for colour, oggle the legs. “Bourbon has four or five levels of ageing, of charring – each one representing 20 seconds under a flamethrower,” he laughs.
“Just with brandy, look to the light, roll your glass, find the legs – it’s fun to watch the resins and oils. Your nose is about 100 times smarter than your mouth so stick your nose right in. Pick up the notes; whatever it is, candy, sometimes its cut hay, tobacco, caramel, everyone’s nose if different. Find the sweet senses on the front, bitter at the back, sour on the sides. Then, like we do in Kentucky, take a good long drink!!!”
Around 95% of all bourbon is made in Kentucky, a legacy of the first settlers here, the Irish and Scottish mainly, who crossed the Alleghenies when the redcoats left.
The colonel will off you a selection of great bourbons but don’t forget to let him make you a mint julep – sugar, water, mint and bourbon – a Kentucky institution.
“Cocktails should always be strong – who wants a woosy cocktail,” declares the colonel. He shows me the mix. “This is ‘simple syrup’: one half sugar, one half water. Dissolve it, put some mint in, like tea – I like a minty simple syrup. You want the mint to marry the bourbon, so add a sprig of mint. Don’t bruise it, be romantic. Inside every mint julep is 200 years of Kentucky cuisine, it’s a romantic drink.”
We are served benedictine, a cucumber, onion and cream cheese spread that resembles pistachio ice-cream, served with Ritz-style crackers – an odd sight.
So what is Kentucky cuisine? I ask the colonel. “Pork chops on the grill, with bourbon; oh my, it doesn’t get any better. During the season, wild game, beef tenderloin; medium rare is how we do it. We do a lot with old country ham; that’s ham put on salt aged for six months to two years.
“The essence of Southern cooking,” he says, “is grilling, not frying. Especially barbecuing, it’s huge here.”
A tour of Kentucky holds recurrent themes, fried catfish, green beans, country ham, cheese grits (not nice, but when is polenta?) fried green tomatoes, hickory smoked barbecue, with mutton, bizarrely. And baking is strong, too.”
Tonight for dessert we’re having day-old bread soaked in milk and eggs, and bourbon, baked for 45 minutes, topped with a bourbon sauce. “Oh my. Last night, Margaret Sue did a peach cobbler, flaming with bourbon, with ice-cream; went down well.”
“Southern cooking is humble, simple fare, served with a smile,” says the colonel. “We don’t go big on fancy food.”
PROHIBITION
Posted on 02. Nov, 2011 by admin in Featured
Think about Prohibition and what springs to mind? Wild speakeasy’s and illegal drinking dives, bootlegging and moonshine, the rise of organised crime and gangsters such as Al Capone? Or is it Hollywood films like the Sting and The Untouchables? Probably all of them.
Evidence of Prohibition – the banning of the manufacture, transport and sale of alcohol from 1920 to 1933 – is all around in Kentucky, from derelict family distilleries by snaking country lanes or fabled rooms where bootlegging gangsters such as Al Capone wined and dined.
Prohibition, the “noble experiment” to improve the moral fibber and health of the nation, wasn’t easy on Kentucky: of the 17 bourbon distillers pre-Prohibition, only seven survived its repeal in 1933, including the family-run Heaven Hill in Bardstown which were afforded special licences to distill the spirit for “medicinal purposes” – doctors were allowed to prescribe bourbon. You can visit the distillery for tastings and talks on bourbon history.
Prohibition’s effects ravaged Kentucky. Out of the 17 bourbon and whiskey distillers before Prohibition, only seven survived, including Heaven Hill which you can visit near Bardstown. A drive through the county will yield sights of many an abandoned small-scale distillery.
The changes wrought havoc too on Louisville, the transport and merchant hub for bourbon. Its fabled Whiskey Row, now known as Museum row on West Main, was home to myriad warehouses, shippers, and vendors but the trade collapsed almost overnight in 1920 and it has only just recovered its grandeur.
The street, home to the second largest concentration of imposing ornate cast-iron buildings in the US, lost all its importance and wealth overnight in 1920 but it has recovered its lustre now, regenerated courtesy of the 21C Hotel, the Muhammad Ali Museum, and the growth in bars, galleries and restaurants.
People didn’t stop drinking in Prohibition. Designed to cut beer consumption in particular, it made drink actually more popular, especially spirits. Why? Well, why would the usually law-abiding person sip wine and beer slowly, responsibly, and illegally, when you could get a quick hard slug from whiskey and head home fast. Spirits were also easier to smuggle than big barrels of beer.
Prohibition is often associated with glamour, of upmarket speakeasies and clubs but for most Americans after a drink it meant a much more mundane reality than showgirls and high-fliers.
If they wanted a drink, Americans visited a speakeasy, the glamorous illegal bars for those with money or connections. Many of the gangsters flocked to Louisville, with Al Capone himself a frequent visitor, largely to oversee his distribution racket. You can see the secret dining room where he wined and dined at the Seelback Hotel, and his secret door for slipping away from the cops.
For the working man, speakeasies were out of their range, so they frequented “blind tigers” or a “blind pig”, so named because bar owners circumvented the law by selling tickets to punters to see wildlife, often a pig. With the ticket, you got a free drink. And you could buy unlimited tickets.
The Blind Pig, a new restaurant in Butchertown, Louisville, pays homage to this little known fact, an upmarket diner in the city’s old meat-packing district.
For many, however, it was just as easy to get a drink as visiting a doctor who prescribed “spiritus ferment” for medicinal purposes, aka whiskey or bourbon. The less scrupulous GP would prescribe bourbon for a small “fee” – after all, alcohol wasn’t illegal to possess.
You can buy alcohol across Kentucky nowadays but be warned, some states are dry, with alcohol banned.
Louisville seafood hub
Posted on 03. Oct, 2011 by admin in Featured
Wherever you go in Louisville, the variety of food is astounding. The town is enjoying a renaissance in cooking with many restaurants such as Proof on Main at the 21C hotel leading the charge in cooking the freshest, locally grown, sustainable ingredients. Many are experimenting with bourbon, cooking delicious dishes such as bourbon fried scallops at Bourbons Bistro on Frankfort Avenue.
Freshest, local ingredients? Scallops? Peruse the menus of Louisville’s upmarket eateries and sea fish and seafood, oddly, is everywhere; as common as the pork, beef and even bison meat raised on farms nearby.
Nowhere is it more obvious than at Highlands Fish Market in Louisville’s Highlands district, which sells all manner of seafood and fish, from Carolina garoupa to Canadian lobster tails, Atlantic or Alaskan salmon to Boston scrod and Chesapeake Oysters.
Excuse me, but how can a city nearly 1,000 miles away from the saltwater sea, in the midwest, offer relatively cheap and super fresh seafood and fish?
The answer is a little bit weird. Fabled for bourbon and horseracing, Louisville has bizarrely become just as famous for being a seafood mecca. How? The answer lies above. In the sky.
Crook your head up, to the blue skies above, and you will see a plane either land or take-off virtually every other minute. No ordinary planes, these. They’re freight planes, usually UPS: the postal giant has its main US and Worldport air freight hub here, employing thousands of people.
This means seafood from either the Atlantic or Pacific coasts can be sent to Louisville, stored live and fresh in huge holding tanks and flown out to order, to or from almost anywhere in the world, and everywhere in the states, within hours.
No food is as seemingly ubiquitous on Louisville menus than lobster, a foodstuff famed for being tasty only eaten just after it is cooked live. That’s not a problem in Louisville, with the city sporting some of the wold’s largest lobster tanks.
Food giants such as Clearwater Seafoods, the seafood and fish company based in Bedford, Nova Scotia, have holding tanks here, in Clearwater’s case two huge 25,000-gallon saltwater holding tanks here for lobster near the freight port.
The company trucks in 30,000 pounds of live lobsters each week, by lorry, a journey that can last more than 30 hours, according to the Economist magazine. “There they recover in tanks filled with saltwater … The water is kept clean by being passed through giant versions of the sort of filters and skimmers that keep saltwater aquariums in good shape. When an order comes in, the lobsters are packed in special containers for UPS to deliver.”
Louisville residents don’t have to wait for a plane to land their shrimp, crabs, scallops or lobster – it’s already here, in holding tanks, meaning fresh lobster, even from Nova Scotia, is available quicker, fresher and often cheaper than most other places.
Bon appetite.
September – Kentucky Bourbon Trail
Posted on 01. Sep, 2011 by admin in What’s on
There can’t be many better scenic drives in the world, ambling through the winding country lanes of Kentucky, around lush rolling grass fields, dotted with historic towns such as Bardstown or Elizabethtown, with wooden churches, horse ranches and farms perched atop hills, all surrounded and criss-crossed with white horse fences. Welcome to Bluegrass County, perhaps Kentucky’s most historic region, and home of the fabled bourbon distilleries.
In fact there’s no better way to see the countryside than making for the distilleries, which holds a part of Kentucky history like no other industry. So popular are the drives that Kentucky has dreamt up the bourbon Trail, a handy network of routes linking six of the best distilleries – Jim Beam, Heaven Hill, Wild Turkey, Woodford Reserve, Maker’s Mark and Four Roses – and some of the most historic and picturesque countryside.
Woodford Reserve Distillery rack house
Finding out firsthand the art and science of crafting Bourbon, America’s native spirit, is fascinating – did you know, bourbon got its name from Bourbon county, named in recognition of the military help the Bourbon King Louis of France gave in the war of independence. The drink got it’s distinctive taste from the unique limestone water and ripe corn, and from the oak barrels it was shipped in on the long trip down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans; the oak giving it the distinct mellow flavour and amber colour.
Punters pick up a passport and have it stamped at the six distilleries – do all six and you get the T-shirt; more than 10,000 people sampled all six last year, so you won’t be alone. Just make sure you have a designated driver (not too much of a problem to share days, as it will take two days to tour all six, as although some are just eight miles apart, some are 70 miles away).
Most tours are free, but you have to be 21 under Kentucky law to enjoy the free tastings at the end of each tour. Just go to http://www.kybourbontrail.com/ for more details
KENTUCKY ROUND UP
Posted on 01. Sep, 2011 by admin in Featured
The Perryville Battlefield historic state park
There’s no better time to visit Kentucky than September, it’s bursting with events and activities, honouring the past, present and the future; be it this year’s special homage to bluegrass king Bill Monroe or the anniversary of the civil war battle at Perryville, celebrating the unique Kentucky bourbon experience on the state’s fabled bourbon trail, it’s fabled fried chicken, or looking towards Kentucky’s promising future as a motor racing venue.
First off, there’s the 100th anniversary of bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe’s birth. Events have been taking place all year, celebrating the life, times and music of the king of Bluegrass, but no better an event is the whooping week-long good time to be had from September 27 at the Jerusalem Ridge annual festival, hosted at the home of Monroe and his family near Rosine, Kentucky, the family farm since 1801. It’s worth a trip just for the band names: the Cumberland Highlanders or Phillip Steinmetz and his Sunny Tennesseans.
It’s enough to make you thirsty, so head for the Kentucky bourbon Trail and find out more about Kentucky’s unique spirit with a special mapped out bourbon trail taking in six signature distilleries nestled along winding country roads and soft rolling green hills, through the inviting historic towns and most beautiful scenery the Bluegrass has to offer. The bourbon doesn’t taste bad either. Pop in to each distillery and get your special bourbon passports stamped.
For military buffs there’s the annual historical re-enactment of the Battle of Perryville, where enthusiasts don the grey and the blue uniforms to relive the famous battle fought across the lush green rolling Chaplin Hills, Kentucky’s biggest and bloodiest battle of the American civil war, the tumultuous conflict now marking its 150th anniversary right across the US.
It’s a scenic, almost idyllic drive and walk across the preserved 7,000-acre battlefield that belies any notion of the bloodbath in October 1862. Head there on October 1 and 2 for some serious re-enactments. Don’t forget the small museum – it has great multimedia displays which shed a lot of light on a war we in the UK are largely in the dark about.
It’s taken a long, long time but Kentucky is now on the serious road to becoming a motor racing mecca, the 200-acre big Kentucky Speedway track complex near Sparta – between Louisville and Cincinnatti – now hosting IndyCar and Nascar races.
Fancy taking a seat with 116,000 other petrolheads, with cars racing at over 200mph for as many as 500 laps, all the while tucking into hot dogs and nachos? Then pop down to Sparta. Go on, you deserve it – on October 1 and 2, Kentucky Speedway hosts the fabled IndyCar competitions, the American version of Formula 1. Click here for tickets.
Fun of a lighter kind, although with just as much oil, can be had at the annual World Chicken Festival, smack bang in the beautiful Kentucky mountains, in London, no less, in Laurel County, where Colonel Sanders started his fabled KFC empire in the 40s. Head here for madcap fun with a chicken theme, including the world’s largest skillet (frying pan), the Chick-a-Lympics, the hot wings eating contest, a clucking competition, the run for the roost and the bizarre redneck games. It’s one of Kentucky’s largest festivals, and it’s serious fun. This year’s it’s from September 22-25.
The Other Royal Wedding
Posted on 08. Jul, 2011 by admin in Featured
Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Britain has had enough of royal weddings of late, but not so. Zara Phillips, the horse-mad eldest granddaughter of the Queen, and England rugby star Mike Tindall are due to tie the knot this month.
With Zara and Mike due to tie the knot this July in Edinburgh, the second Royal wedding of the year, Kentucky could be the perfect place for horse lover Zara to spend her honeymoon.
Zara is a top equestrian athlete, a former Eventing Word Champion and schooled, no less with a university qualification in equine physiotherapy. She also designs equestrian sportswear.
And for so equestrian-minded a bride, where better a honeymoon than Kentucky.
The state is horse mad, too, host to the fabled Kentucky Derby in April, host to the finest racehorse breeding studs in the US (all down to the sweeping, lush bluegrass, apparently), the hallowed Rolex Kentucky event and perhaps the biggest-ever World Equestrian Games last autumn in Lexington – the sprawling Horse Park hopes to stage an annual equestrian games each year, so successful was the event – good news, given it was the first time the event has ever left Europe. At Keeneland, also in Lexington, it plays host to fine race meets and unsurpassed horse auctions and sales. A visit to an auction is a must, especially at venerable Keeneland, now celebrating its 75th year.
Kentucky is the US epicentre of the horse business, home to hundreds of studs, vet practices and all things equine, from saddlers to shoemakers. With that CV, Zara could put out some feelers for a job, post-honeymoon, of course.
And for Mike? Being a rugby boy he’d love the bourbon distilleries – Kentucky is home to 95% of the American spirit, it’s lush bluegrass and mineral-rich rivers as good for the drink as it is for horses to graze. Most can be visited as part of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, including the independently owned Heaven Hill (at Bardstown) and Woodford Reserve (at Versailles), all a scenic short drive from Lexington.
As a sportsman, Mike want to try his hand at golf; he’s sure to be invited to the exclusive, Jack Nicklaus-designed, world class Valhalla course near Louisville, which once hosted the Ryder Cup (the US won, calm down Mike) and many a PGA event. And if Mike wants to take part in sport with a more American flavour, why not basketball, possibly Kentucky’s No1 sport, and home of the celebrated Kentucky Wildcats, the most successful basketball team in the college game, based at Lexington’s University of Kentucky, neatly, and somewhat ironically abbreviated to UK.
And where would they stay? Why not the honeymoon suite at the boutique 21c Museum Hotel – Conde Nast Traveller Reader Choice Awards in 2009 and 2010 – on Louisville’s increasingly vibrant Museum Row (Mike, being a bit of a slugger himself, could take a swing in the Louisville Slugger museum, home of the fabled baseball bat, or pop down the road to Muhammad Ali’s award-winning museum). Zara? Well, she could take in the 21C’s hip art attractions and gallery. If the royal couple prefer a bit of history, they could hole up at the more regal Old Seelbach Hilton, once home to F Scott Fitzgerald, who part wrote the Great Gatsby there.
If there are problems with the privacy, they could learn a trick from one-time visitor Al Capone – a secret stairway out of the restaurant. Though Zara and Mark will want to avoid the paparazzi, not the police.
A Honeymoon Fit For A Princess
Posted on 07. Feb, 2011 by admin in Featured
With Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall due to tie the knot this July in the second Royal wedding of the year, Kentucky is the perfect place for horse lover Zara to spend her honeymoon.
Kentucky, like Zara, is renowned for its horses and plays host to a number of huge equestrian events each year, including the Rolex Kentucky and Kentucky Derby. It also hosted the World Equestrian Games in 2010, the first time the event has ever left Europe.
Zara and Mike could celebrate their honeymoon by staying at the boutique 21c Museum Hotel. It boasts a contemporary art museum, award winning restaurant and is located in the heart of Museum Row in downtown Louisville. It has twice been voted the number one hotel in the US by the Conde Nast Traveller Reader Choice Awards in 2009 and 2010.
Aside from the horses there is plenty to see and do in Kentucky including the Bourbon Trail. 95% of the world’s bourbon is produced in Kentucky and it is America’s only native spirit. There are eight distilleries on the trail including Jim Bean, Maker’s Mark and Woodford Reserve, all of which are open for tours and perfect to toast the happy couple.
‘Urbon Bourbon’ won the Apprentice
Posted on 21. Dec, 2010 by admin in Featured
…now take a trip on the original Urban Bourbon Trail in the bourbon capital of the world
We saw the final of the Apprentice bring the heritage drink of bourbon to our television screens with a modern twist. The result was Urbon Bourbon. Now take a trip along the original Urban Bourbon Trail, trying over 50 different types of America’s only native spirit.
The Urban Bourbon Trail hits the big city of Louisville, Kentucky’s answer to arty Hoxton, and stops at nine different bars, hotels and restaurants all serving America’s only native spirit.
Along the trail ‘bourbonites’ will visit historic hotel properties which once served the likes of Al Capone and F.Scott Fitzgerald, to restaurants serving bourbon inspired dining such as mint julep pancakes and bourbon barrel smoked salmon, to bars stocking over 50 classic bourbon labels from Jim Bean Black to Woodford Reserve.
Visit the Old Seelbach Bar, located in the Seelbach Hotel which served as F.Scott Fitzgerald’s inspiration for The Great Gatsby. Passionate bourbon lovers can visit the Bourbons Bistro which is home to over 130 different types of bourbon.
Whether you like smokey and intense or smooth and aromatic, experienced staff in each establishment can explain the differences between each bourbon and serve up the official drink of the World famous Kentucky Derby – the mint julep.
For more information about Kentucky and the Urban Bourbon Trail visit www.kentuckybourbon.co.uk