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Lobby Bar

Sip bourbon in the opulent, marble-floored lobby of the Brown Hotel, an Old Louisville institution. 502-583-1234; www.brownhotel.com; 335 West Broadway, Louisville; 4pm-2am

SLEEP

Gratz Park Inn

Draw the brocade curtains and fall asleep on a 19th-century poster bed in Lexington’s historic district. 859-231-1777; www.gratzparkinn.com; 120 W Second, Lexington; r from $170

Meeting House

The quirky antiques at this Federal-style bed-and-breakfast speak of the owners’ fascination with local history. 502-226-3226; www.themeetinghousebandb.com; 519 Ann St, Frankfort; r from $115

USEFUL WEBSITES

www.bluegrasskentucky.com

www.visitlex.com

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LINK YOUR TRIP www.lonelyplanet.com/trip-planner

TRIP

64 The Bourbon Trail opposite

65 My Old Kentucky Home

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Return to beginning of chapter

TRIP 64

The Bourbon Trail

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WHY GO “There is a bourbon that’s perfect for everyone,” says Dixie Hibbs, Kentucky bourbon historian and the former mayor of Bardstown, the “Bourbon Capital of the World.” Visit Dixie’s favorite distilleries and taverns in the rolling hills of Bluegrass Country, and you’re sure to find the one that’s right for you.

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TIME

3 days

DISTANCE

165 miles

BEST TIME TO GO

May - Sep

START

Bardstown, KY

END

Bardstown, KY

ALSO GOOD FOR

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A golden inch of bourbon, silky and mellow with notes of wood and vanilla, is Southern living in a glass. Legend has it that bourbon was first distilled by a Lexington-area Baptist preacher in 1789. Between 80% to 90% of the world’s supply is still produced in the state. “If it’s made and aged in Kentucky, it’s called Kentucky bourbon,” explains honey-voiced Dixie Hibbs, bourbon expert extraordinaire and author of several books on Kentucky culture. In fact, no other state is even allowed to put its name on a bottle before the word “bourbon.” While all bourbons are whiskey, all whiskeys are not bourbon, Hibbs points out. True bourbon must be made with at least 51% corn, and aged for a minimum of two years in a charred, new, white oak barrel.

Hibbs suggests you start a tour of central Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail in her native Bardstown. The first major Catholic settlement west of the Alleghenies, Bardstown is located in central Kentucky’s luscious, green Bluegrass Country. “Walk up and down the streets and just get a feel for a 1780s town,” Hibbs suggests. With its weathered red-brick Georgian churches and fairytale stone cottages, Bardstown does seem to belong to a different era; an era of train travel and general stores, of mud-splattered frontiersmen, and of Civil War widows knitting by the fireplace.

For an overview of bourbon history, head to the Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History, housed in a former Civil War hospital-turned-orphanage. See a mock distillery assembly line, collections of “medicinal purposes only” bourbon bottles, and an ax once belonging to infamous prohibitionist Carrie Nation, who used it to vandalize taverns. Don’t miss the genuine moonshine stills - Kentucky moonshiners would mix their paint-peeling hooch with tobacco juice and pass it off as bourbon, Hibbs explains.

Half a mile away, Keene’s Depot is a general store and tackle shop where locals have been dropping by to shoot the breeze for 60 years. “It was a place where you went to get your fishing supplies, your country hams,” Hibbs reminisces. Now housed in a large contemporary building, Keene’s is the go-to shop for bourbon barbecue sauce, chocolate bourbon balls and bread made from leftover grain mash from bourbon production.

Grab dinner at the Old Talbott Tavern, welcoming travelers since the late 1700s. The gray stone building was the oldest Western stagecoach stop in America - Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Boone and Jesse James all supposedly rested their heads here. After a meal of country ham and chess pie in the dimly lit restaurant, relax at the bar with a bourbon