|
On the Bourbon Trail
A Brief History of
Bourbon
How Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Is Made...
See our Perryville, Loretto & Bardstown stops on a Google Map!
Interested in the Civil War? Read more about an excursion to the
Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library in Springfield, Illinois
Other Excursions:
Bourbon Trail
Klondike Days
Taliesin
Nokomis & Point Beer
Loon Capitol
Cars, Trains, Ducks
Far End of the Lake
Madison, Wisconsin
Fireside Theater
U505 Submarine
Berghoff & Blues
S.S. Badger
Mars Resort
Cranberry Harvest
Musky Hunt
Manitowoc
Fishing Museum
Green Lake, WI
Chicago River
Leinenkugel's
Little Norway
Green Co, WI
Zephyr Dinner Train
Are We There Yet?
|
Next
morning dawned bright and blue... the temperature
however, hovered at a brisk 31 degrees and a heavy frost
covered my windshield; a pesky northeast wind did not
help matters. Even so, this was a far better scenario
than the last two days of downpours! The road to
Perryville was, to say the least, scenic (always
pronounced "sken ik" by my sister) as we
wended our way west. As yet, I have allowed it to
remain unmentioned, but perhaps one of the most
impressive features I have seen -- at least in this part
of Kentucky -- is the limestone walls that grace both
sides alongside many of the
 roads...
for miles at a time. There is plenty of
limestone in Kentucky, to be sure. But keep in mind
that all of these had to be erected by hand.
The amount of labor necessary is mind-boggling to say
the least. The resulting look and feel though, is
stunning and impressive. The ride to Perryville took
only about an hour or so and the entire way was one
vista after another, the farms of Kentucky sprawling on
either side of the two-lane road. We soon reached the
small town and followed the signs to the site of the
historic and bloody battle.
 The
bright sun and green grass almost covered two
things on this March day: the biting wind with its
resulting frigid chill, and the eerie sense that there
were screams and desperate cries that accompanied the
roar of cannon and flash of muskets still carrying
across the valleys and gently sloping hills of the
Perryville battlefield today. There was even a group of
ROTC cadets that had camped the previous night and were
reenacting a portion of the battle. Cadets and
instructor alike were wearing the Union Blue of the
federals; as they received the command to "fix
bayonets", I felt a chill run through me... and it
definitely was not the cold of the March air. There are
more than seven miles of trails, marked with signs and
explanations, and I would have preferred to walk. But
the wind and cold were more than I could deal with, so
we drove along a gravel road to reach the top of a hill
with several gun emplacements, where I read an account
of what happened on October 8th of 1862 at Perryville.
I was appalled, especially at the staggering loss of
life: 13% of some 58,000 soldiers present.
 Never
having been much interested in the Civil War, I thought
that perhaps I would be unmoved by the site, mostly
empty but for the few old cannons and a small museum
where lots of memorabilia: swords, musket balls, mortar
shells, doctors' implements, flags, maps and much more
were exhibited. I couldn't have been more wrong. This
is our history, and it is as important as
any you will ever encounter. For here is an example of
a disagreement in which we didn't just agree to
disagree. Brothers fought brothers... and we killed each
other over a concept that, at its best, is just innately
wrong. By
 some
estimates, over 650,000 men lost their lives in the
Civil War -- 2% of our entire population at the time.
As I left the battlefield, I couldn't help but wonder
about about that war and the time during which it was
waged. Over one hundred years later, we apparently
still haven't learned how foolish we can be. And
Perryville is a place that, like many other similar
sites, is eying development in the near future. I hope
that Perryville says no. It is definitely a place that
you should surely visit soon... just in case Perryville
doesn't prevail. Read this article:
www.pbs.org/civilwar/war, or Visit
Perryville for an annual reenactment of the battle, and
then see how you feel about history and the Civil War:
www.perryvillereenactment.org.
 Our
last stop on the trip was Bardstown, Kentucky. But just
about twenty minutes to the south of it -- and not far
off our intended path -- was another land-mark (pardon
the pun...), and I just couldn't resist the temptation
of a visit so I could compare
Maker's Mark to the other distilleries which I had
toured and bourbons I had sampled. Located in Loretto,
Kentucky (population about 650) on the banks of Hardin's
Creek, Marker's Mark is arguably one of the prettiest
spots at which to locate a distillery. Brown-painted
buildings (to signify the amber color of their bourbon)
and red shutters (signifying the red wax seals on the
bottles) with cut-outs in the shape of a Marker's Mark
bottle add to an almost quaint setting that is
immediately friendly and inviting. From its humble
beginnings as a grist mill/distillery in 1805, Maker's
Mark is proclaimed to be the oldest working bourbon
distillery in the nation, also receiving the distinction
of being named a National Historic Landmark in 1980.
 Whisky
making has been in the blood of the family since 1784,
when Robert Samuels, a Scottish-Irish Immigrant, arrived
in Kentucky and started making Whisky -- mostly for
himself and friends. In 1840, T. W. Samuels (Robert's
grandson) built a commercial distillery at Samuels Depot
in Nelson County, Kentucky and used a recipe that would
be passed through six generations. Somewhere in the
late 1940's to early 1950's, Bill Samuels Sr. (Roberts
great, great, great grandson) decided to (1) reopen the
distillery that had been closed by Prohibition, (2) move
it to Loretto, (3) produce a new and distinguished
bourbon and (4) set fire to the six-generation old
family recipe (the new version he discovered in the
kitchen -- not the distillery -- by baking bread using
the gentler flavored red winter wheat instead of rye).
Bill's wife came up with the idea of placing a symbol --
a "mark of the maker" -- on the bottle as a tribute to
the excellence of the maker and character of the
new-recipe bourbon. And thus the name, Maker's Mark,
was born at the distillery of the same name in 1953.
 The
tour of the facility was similar to others we had taken,
but as is the case with all bourbon distilleries, each
has one or more twists in the process that set them
apart from competitors. Maker's Mark is no different.
Although they too use cypress wood fermenting barrels
(originals with some planks over 100 years old) and
copper distilling apparatus, they use an old style
roller mill to crush the grain, they propagate their own
yeast, use limestone spring water from their own lake
and -- from their own web site --
"red winter wheat from specially
selected small farm cooperatives, all of which are
located within the limestone geology near the
distillery. This wheat gives our whisky its soft,
mellow taste."
 Maker's
Mark prides itself on being a small distillery that
makes small batch bourbon... totally by hand. Even the
bottle's label was originally penned by hand by Bill's
wife (an amateur calligrapher). At every step in the
process, it can truly be said that this bourbon is hand
made, right down to hand-dipping every bottle
produced. And at the end of the tour, we had the
opportunity to sample the results of Bill's special
recipe. And I truly liked its mellow taste. So I
bought a bottle in the gift shop and hand-dipped it
myself, sealing the top with the trade-mark red wax
found on all bottles of Maker's Mark.
 There
is another distillery (Heaven Hill) not far away in
Bardstown that one can tour. Actually, there are many
interesting
things to do and see in Bardstown and the immediate
surrounding area. But it had been a very busy four days
for us and our preference at this point was to take some
time to unwind and digest what we had seen and done. We
stopped briefly at the Old Talbott Tavern -- perhaps the
oldest western stagecoach stop in America -- and the
Jailer's Inn Bed and Breakfast right next door, part of
which was still in operation as a jail... as recently as
1987! The Tavern supplied us with what was to be my
last bourbon "tasting" on our trip; the remainder of the
day and evening proved uneventful, as our scheduled
dinner on My Old Kentucky Dinner Train fell far short of
our expectations. We retreated to the
Best Western General Nelson
in town and, as had been the case for the last several
nights, fell quickly asleep.
The drive back to the Chicago area seemed short;
conversation turned repeatedly to our many stops and
event-filled days. I now know that I must return to
Kentucky; there is so much more to see and do. I
wish to leave you all with one final observation that
was reinforced at every place we visited, at every stop
we made: Kentucky is without a doubt populated with
some of the nicest, most sincere, gracious and polite
people anywhere I have ever been. They are the main
reason that I would go back at the drop of a hat. My
advice? Discover the beauty, excitement and hospitality
that are the distinctive trademarks of the great
commonwealth of Kentucky; plan your trip today.
Special Thanks to:
|
|
