Looking for a true Kentucky experience? Visit Woodford Reserve Distillery.
Updated 2022
Eager to get a true Kentucky experience, my friend Becky and I hit just one distillery along the famous Bourbon Trail. Our visit to Woodford Reserve Distillery was the first stop on a whirlwind tour of the Lexington, Kentucky area.
I really had no desire to visit all the places on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail as we are total newbies with this smooth whiskey only produced in this area of Kentucky. We choose Woodford Reserve Distillery based on the suggestion from our host. She suggested Woodford Reserve for its great tour and picturesque scenery.
I was sold.
I was familiar with Makers Mark, Wild Turkey, and Jim Beam, so I wanted to do a lessor known tour (at least to me), for my introduction into the bourbon world. Also, Woodford Reserve is the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby.
Taking the Woodford Reserve tour
We arrived around 10 am, and after taking a photo of the metal horse near the parking lot, we entered the visitors’ center to purchase our tour tickets. What was immediately clear were all the guides around to direct you to where you need to go. We asked a nice gentleman for guidance and he told us where to go and offered to take our picture at the entrance!
We could purchase our tour tickets without a wait in line. Bonus for arriving before the afternoon crowd. When our tour was over and we came back to the main building, there was quite the line waiting for tickets and the whole waiting area was full.
Woodford Reserve Distillery tour details
The tours begin at $25 for a half hour mini tour (mostly a tasting by an informative guide) to a 70 minute Portfolio Tour for $280. We chose the 70 minute introductory Path To Flavor Tour. You tour the grounds, learn about the history, and how their unique taste is acquired. You get a tasting at the end of the tour (21 and older). NOTE: I checked the website and currently this tour is booking 3 months in advance! This tour runs on the hour Monday thru Saturday from 10am-3pm. Sunday (March-December) 1pm-3pm. There are other tours available on select days and times in different price ranges. Check out their tour page for more details and to book a tour online.
Since we had about 45 minutes to kill before our tour began, we headed to the gift shop located right in the visitors’ center to look around. As you would expect, there were many bottles of bourbon for purchase, but I immediately zero’d in on a box of bourbon truffles that I knew I would not leave without!
Our tour began right in the visitors’ center with a brief history of the distillery. The present day distillery sits on the site where Elijah Pepper began making his whiskey in 1812. Woodford Reserve Distillery is one of Kentucky’s smallest and oldest distilleries.
The rich tradition of bourbon making is clear at every turn during the tour from the huge 100+ years old cypress wood fermenters that hold the sour mash (we could sample some of this sour mash), to the outside barrel run that takes the full barrels from the distillery to the barrel house to cure.
Did you know that bourbon gets its flavor from these 5 sources?
- Water-This is the key to the bourbon crafted in this area. This area sits on a limestone shelf unique to the area. Underground water goes through a natural filtering process, making the water virtually iron free. This makes for some tasty bourbon!!
- Grain-The combination of corn, rye, and malt go into the bourbon. You can taste the grain when you sample the sour mash, especially the corn.
- Fermentation-This is where those cypress fermenters come in.
- Distillation-After the fermentation process, the mash goes into giant copper pot stills.
- Maturation-This is where the barrel becomes an important part. Did you know they char the barrels on the inside? I’m sure you know this if you are well versed in whiskey making. The charring process opens up the wood in the barrel, causing chemical reactions in the wood. This is where the vanilla, toffee, and caramel flavors come from. The longer a barrel is charred, the higher the level of vanilla flavor. The soft wood also contains fibers that, when heated to high temperatures, produce wood sugars. As the bourbon cures in these barrels, it absorbs these sugars, which is where the toffee and caramel flavor comes from. And that’s my science lesson for today!
That pretty much takes you through making Kentucky bourbon. After we saw the fermentation and distilling process, we saw how the barrels get filled (each barrel is used once) and then loaded onto the barrel run to make their way into the barrel house for curing. Let me tell you, they can store a lot of bourbon! They stacked the barrels from floor to ceiling.
After the barrel house we went into the packaging area and witnesses how the bottles are filled, boxed, and ready to be shipped out.
Finishing with a tasting
After seeing the packaging process, it was time for our bourbon tasting. We went back to the barrel house where there were tasting stations set up on bourbon barrels. There were four stations to a barrel, so Becky and I split up and they put me into a group of three people for Australia! I introduced myself, and our guide, then walked us through the tasting. We tried the regular Woodford Reserve, and the double-barreled version. I immediately liked the double barrel version since it was smoother than the regular reserve. I had fun doing the tasting with my new Australian friends and I enjoyed chatting with them and asking how they are enjoying the US during their three week vacation.
During the tour, our guide added in bits of history and other interesting facts. Before we knew it, the tour was over and we returned to the visitors’ center.
Visit the gift shop to purchase that fabulous Woodford Reserve Kentucky Bourbon.
We wandered back into the gift shop and I bought a box of those bourbon truffles and bought a mint julep gift set containing a smaller bottle of bourbon, two copper julep cups and copper straws. After that, we were a little hungry.
Hoping we could have a taste of some bourbon ice cream (we were at a bourbon distillery after all!!) we checked out Glenn’s Creek Cafe located right inside the visitors center. Score! two kinds of bourbon ice cream!
The cafe also serves Bourbon Chili, salads, and sandwiches. I had the Bourbon Ball ice cream. Becky had the Bourbon Honey. Mine was excellent, with chocolate chunks and nuts on the bottom.
It was a warm sunny day, so we relaxed and ate our ice cream out on the patio. Woodford Reserve Distillery sits on a beautiful piece of property with rolling green hills and a stream meandering through it. The patio was the perfect spot to sit and relax while we enjoyed our ice cream.
You can also enjoy a tasty crafted cocktail from the cocktail bar!
Our bourbon distillery experience was worthy of a five star review! I would highly suggest visiting Woodford Reserve Distillery if you had to pick from the handful of bourbon distilleries in the area. Not only will you get a great tour, but you can say you visited the distillery, which makes the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby!
Buy Woodford Reserve Bourbon online and then enjoy their old-fashioned recipe.
Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear if you have done this tour or other bourbon tours!
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