My first post revisiting our trip last summer on the
Kentucky Bourbon Trail was devoted entirely to the Jim Beam distillery in Clermont. The second post of the series
will be devoted to two more brief stops along the way – the first being the
Heaven Hill Distillery and Bourbon Heritage Center in Bardstown, and then the
Maker’s Mark distillery near the small town of Loretto.
After we left the Jim Beam distillery, Punky and I headed
to Bardstown where we checked in to the historic Talbott Inn (more on that in a
future blog post), got our bearings and determined we could fit in one more
stop along the trail before closing time.
I found it a little odd that even at the height of a tourism weekend,
many visitor’s centers along the trail close at 5 p.m. or even earlier.
Fortunately, Heaven Hill was just minutes away on the
south edge of Bardstown. All it took was
a drive past My Old Kentucky Home State Park and historic site, then south on
Ky. Hwy. 49 past the state park’s campground and once the woods clear …
… you’ll see rows and
rows of rickhouses in the fields and on the surrounding hillsides. With all this bourbon being stored and aged
around you, the name Heaven Hill seems fitting.
