Another Day in Louisville

Shepherdsville, KY - Tuesday, August 3

This morning, as I was walking the dogs, I noticed that the whole herd of donkeys, etc., was grazing by the fence closest to us at the campground. Of course, Beasley was barking at them the whole time we were out there. I brought the dogs back to the motorhome and got the camera and Kathy. We went back out by the pasture to see if we could get any good pictures of the animals before the ventured back to the middle of the pasture. The link to these pictures appears, below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/GrandmaSFarmAnimals?feat=directlink

After photographing the animals, we checked with the Cummins dealer, where we are going to have the final repairs done on the motorhome, so see if the parts from Tiffin had come in. They had not, so we decided to do a bit of sightseeing along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. This is the highway where 6 bourbon distillers are located. Because we got a late start this afternoon, we only got to tour one distillery, so we chose to visit the Maker's Mark Distillery , which is located in Loretto, KY. The other distillers include: Heaven Hill, Jim Beam, Four Roses, Wild Turkey, and Woodford Reserve. These can all be found along, or not far off of, Route 245.

Our tour of Maker's Mark was very interesting and informative. This distillery only uses the barrels the bourbon is aged in ONE TIME! They are then sold to a company in Scotland. Another fact we learned about Maker's Mark is that each bottle is hand-dipped into RED wax heated to 360 degrees to seal the bottles. The reason for this goes back to when the Samuels family began to produce bourbon in the 1800's. Mrs. Samuels was very fond of French Cognac, and those bottles all bore a wax seal. In addition, when you see Maker's Mark on the shelf, the bottles resemble French Cognac bottles in shape. Another fact we learned is that all the employees in the bottling plant of the distillery switch jobs every half-hour.

Our tour ended in the tasting room, where we got to try two samples, one of each variety of bourbon, Standard and #46. The "Standard" version is 90 proof, while the "#46" version is 94 proof. We liked the "#46" version, so we purchased a bottle at the store counter. We have not opened it yet, but I fear that it will get opened before this night is over!!! I only hope that we have some left when we get home, so we can offer some to whomever would like to try it..
OK, here's the test to see of you might be worthy of sampling this bourbon. I have included a picture of the bottle of #46 we purchased. I would like you to study the picture and let me know, either by commenting on the blog, or via e-mail, the ONE SIGNIFICANT and DISTINCTIVE feature of Maker's Mark. Hint: study the label very closely! On second thought, maybe the print is too small to read, so I'll just say, if you happen to see a bottle of Maker's Mark somewhere, study THAT label - they all have the same distinctive feature. Also, notice the RED wax and how if hardens on the bottle. That's why no two bottles of Maker's Mark are the same, because of the wax.

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/TheKentuckyBourbonTrail?feat=directlink