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lexingtonplasticsurgeryky · 1 year

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The Best Things to Do in Lexington, Kentucky

Located in the state of Kentucky, Lexington is a city known for its thoroughbred racetracks, horse farms, and historic sites. This area is also home to the Kentucky Horse Park, which features the International Museum of the Horse. The city is also home to Lexington Cemetery, where 1800s politician Henry Clay is buried. The cemetery features a Romanesque gatehouse and an arboretum.

Mary Todd Lincoln House

Located in Lexington, Kentucky, the Mary Todd Lincoln House is one of the oldest structures in the city. It is a Federal style house dating from the early nineteenth century.

The house was purchased by the state in 1967. It is now operated by the Kentucky State Parks Department. The Mary Todd Lincoln House is open to the public Monday through Saturday. It has an impressive gift shop with items from the region. It is also partially wheelchair accessible.

The house is decorated with furnishings from the 19th century. There is a special children's tour of the house. Visitors can also play trivia games, compose Mary-inspired treats, and listen to period music played by violinist Brice Farrar.

Bluegrass BBQ Fest

Featuring a bevy of bluegrass musicians and a slew of barbecue contestants, the Bluegrass BBQ Fest is an annual event held in Lexington, North Carolina. The show, aptly named, is a two-day event that features the best of the best from the region's best barbecue spots.

The Bluegrass BBQ Fest, which runs on both Saturday and Sunday, is free to attend and is a fun day out for the whole family. There are dozens of food vendors setting up in and around the event, with the best ones invariably located by the main stage.

Gratz Park Historic District

Gratz Park is a historic neighborhood in Lexington, Kentucky. It is a neighborhood that is home to sixteen large historic homes and a city park. The historic district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The neighborhood has a rich history, and many houses are open to the public.

Gratz Park was originally built as a lot for the early settlers of Lexington. It was also the location of the city's first public library. After the Civil War, the area fell into neglect.

Keeneland racecourse

Located in Lexington, KY, Keeneland racecourse is a famous thoroughbred racing facility. It is home to four annual auctions, which attract owners from all over the world.

Keeneland is a National Historic Landmark. The facility was created by a group of horsemen, including Jack Keene, Hal Price Headley, and Major Louie Beard. They wanted to improve the sport of Thoroughbred racing. They also wanted to establish a training center. The property that Keene purchased included a mile-and-a-furlong private racetrack and roadway, as well as land for future stables.

West Sixth Brewing

Whether you are a Lexington local or just visiting, West Sixth Brewing is a must. They're located at 501 W 6th St, Lexington KY and have a ton of different types of beer on tap, as well as a plethora of collaborations.

They have a cool, albeit small, barrel room, complete with floor-to-ceiling barrels, clay floor tiles, reclaimed wood accents, and a beer garden. The space is a great location for meetings, parties, or simply a nice relaxing beer.

They have a lot of different types of beer to choose from, including their flagship Amber, as well as seasonals, IPAs, and the Pennyrile Pale ale. They also have a cool little walk/run club, which is great for getting in some exercise.

Kentucky Straight High Rye Bourbon

Using a mashbill of 65% yellow corn, 30% rye, and 5% malted barley, Blue Run Kentucky Straight High Rye Bourbon has been aged in both Bardstown and Frankfort, Kentucky. It is a spirited bourbon, brimming with baking spices, stone fruit, and black pepper.

This bourbon was selected as a finalist at the 2021 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. It is bottled at 111 proof. The mashbill has a sweet aroma, with hints of brown sugar butter, vanilla bean, and ripe fig. It also has rustic notes of fresh cut hay from high rye.

Bluegrass Distillers

Located in Lexington, Kentucky, the Alltech Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company is a newer distillery that produces Town Branch Bourbon, Town Branch Rye Whiskey, Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale, and several others. They also produce a variety of gin, including their popular Town Branch Gin, which is made with Kentucky Bourbon. They are now also making a variety of corn whiskeys and spirits.

The Lexington Brewery and Distilling Company is located in a newly renovated distiller's house in Lexington, Kentucky. The distillery produces a variety of distilled spirits and offers guided tours. The company has plans to release several new products, including Lone Whisker Bourbon and Tanner's Curse Bourbon. It will also release a new wheat whiskey.

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greatdrams · 5 years

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The GreatDrams Bourbon Lover’s Guide to Whiskey Tourism in Kentucky

Here at GreatDrams we'll be focusing on Bourbon over the next two weeks. What better way to get started than with a whiskey holiday!

Now, I don’t know about you but I’ve wanted to visit Kentucky for years. To make the pilgrimage, to visit the distilleries, to meet the people and to enjoy fantastic bourbon… and finally this happened in September 2018. Here is The GreatDrams Bourbon Lover's Guide to Whiskey Tourism in Kentucky.

GETTING THERE

If you’re travelling from the UK, I found flying from Manchester to Heathrow to Chicago and on to Lexington the easiest way, although choosing to fly with British Airways was definitely not the best as they failed in pretty much every way both ways, across all five flights but the rant about that will stay to Facebook and their complaints email address.

There are other travel options when visiting Kentucky from the UK;

London Heathrow to Atlanta and on to Lexington

London Heathrow to Chicago and on to Cincinnati and getting a $110 cab to Lexington

London Heathrow to New York JFK and on to Lexington

And many more.

It will take time to get there, but like all good pilgrimages, you get out what effort you put in and I was truly rewarded with brilliance during my time whilst visiting Kentucky.

WHERE TO STAY

I stayed at the 21c Hotel in Downtown Lexington, a museum hotel that was somewhere between inspiring and mightily random - for example there were big, 4ft blue plastic penguins everywhere and in all the corridors, and the maid (I assume) even put one in my room one morning - but incredibly comfortable and with a great local beer and whiskey menu… and the food was fantastic, so well worth a stay if you’re in the area.

GETTING AROUND

Distilleries in Kentucky are, like Scotland and Ireland, relatively well spread out so you will need a car to get around and I would highly recommend hiring a driver or asking who you are with REALLY nicely to be the designated driver as, whilst not all distilleries let you sample their whiskeys, you might pick up a sample or pass a bar along the way you want to try some wonderful Bourbon, Rye, Wheated Bourbon or concept whiskeys in.

Two of the days I was in Kentucky I had meetings so was very fortunate that one of the people I was seeing, Brian, was awesome enough to drive me around to various distilleries, he then arranged a private tour for my final day with a company called Bottled in Bond Tours.

Bottled in Bond Tours is owned by a well-travelled chap named Nate who is one of the most fantastically enthusiastic people about all things Kentucky, Bourbon and whiskey that I’ve met. A really nice guy who tailors your time with him to exactly what you want to do, see and experience. Nate also has connections in most of the distilleries so can get you to access things you probably would not otherwise be able to on your own.

THE BARS

I did not have a lot of time to explore the bar scene due to my schedule but did enjoy a couple of fantastic bars in Lexington, Kentucky.

The Bluegrass Tavern

Address: 1303, 115 Cheapside, Lexington, KY 40507, United States

Website: http://www.thebluegrasstavern.com

Opening Time: 5:00 pm

What a bar! Owned by a great guy named Sean who, along with the previous owners of the bar, have amassed an 800+ bottle strong collection of Bourbon ranging from the classics to the rarest and the obscure.

Make sure you go to this bar, it is affectionately described by their bartenders as a 'bourbon-centric dive bar’ and man did it deliver not only the American bar experience I love, with good local beers and superb Bourbon, but the guys there are awesome. Bartender Austin in particular was great at showing me superb whiskeys they have in that I would not be able to try anywhere else and it was great just to spend hours chatting about Bourbon and Kentucky with him. Whilst there I tried some belters including:

Chicken Cock Bourbon (chosen for the name, chosen again for how great it tasted)

Weller 12 Year Old

Wild Turkey Decades

Wilderness Trail Single Barrel

Wilderness Trail 4 Year Old Rye

Russell’s Reserve Bluegrass Tavern Barrel Select ‘Gobble Gobble Gulp’ exclusive to the bar

Cathop

Not a Bourbon bar at all, in fact I’m not sure I saw a Bourbon on the bar whilst there, but they had around a hundred, maybe more craft beers on tap ranging from all different styles and flavours.

The food here was great too, I had the Vladimir Poutine - essentially chips, gravy and cheese curd with a bit of brisket on top… a Canadian delicacy that I had not had in a couple of years so fancied tucking in again.

Bourbon on Rye

Address: 115 W Main St, Lexington, KY 40507, USA

Website: https://www.facebook.com/bourbononrye/

Opening Time: 4:00 pm

Simply put; this is where great Bourbon lives. A must visit.

THE DISTILLERIES

In the three days I was in Kentucky I managed to visit nine distilleries in total, each and every one I would recommend that you all visit too. One thing that did annoy me about a bunch of them was how little you are able to sample and to try at the distilleries, apparently a few of them pulled back on samples as people turned up and drank loads then went away again - personally I think that is a bit of a smokescreen as you should want people to try your stuff as they are more than likely to then buy something from the store. Here they are, in the order I visited them as it would be rude to rank them:

Castle & Key

Address: 4445 McCracken Pike, Frankfort, KY 40601, USA

Website: https://castleandkey.com/

When I visited this distillery was not open to the public, fortunately I was able to walk around it for an hour and a half or so with one of their top dogs, Brett, who took me through the whole story, the history and the vision for the place. When open this will be one of the nicest distilleries on the planet. Make sure you also try, and buy, their gin - phenomenal.

Maker’s Mark

Address: 3350 Burks Spring Rd, Loretto, KY 40037, USA

Website: https://www.makersmark.com/

Opening Time: 9:30 am

An icon of the Bourbon world, this distillery was great to see in person and I loved the small design touches around the place including the bottle outline being built into the window shutters, the red accent detail from the wax being included tastefully throughout the site and ability to wax dip your own bottle… which I dutifully did.

Heaven Hill

Address: 528 West Main St. Louisville, KY 40202

Website: https://www.heavenhill.com

Opening Time: 9:00 am

I only popped into the ship at this one as my time was pressed, but managed to pick up a single barrel Old Fitzgerald 14 Year Old and a McKenna (won best American single barrel whiskey this year).

Willett

Address: 1869 Loretto Road Bardstown, Kentucky 40004

Website: https://www.kentuckybourbonwhiskey.com/

Opening Time: 9:30 am

Did the full tour here and it was great, a really small distillery given the amount of brands and product they churn out but the tasting here was lovely as was the walk around the site… their distillery cat was cute too, and enjoyed a little tickle between stops on the tour.

Wilderness Trail

Address: 4095 Lebanon Rd, Danville, KY 40422, USA

Website: http://wildernesstraildistillery.com/

Opening Time: 10:00 am

These guys are incredible, distillers Pat and Shane have created something special here - their background in yeast cultivation and process efficiency for others has set them and their distillery up to be über successful as they have done from filling just one barrel of spirit a day in 2013 using a single pot still to 220 barrels being filled a day in 2018 to become the 14th biggest Bourbon producer in the United States. Incredible how these guys have done it and what they are on the cusp of achieving. Definitely check them out - they sell a single barrel exclusive in the distillery shop too which is fantastic.

Buffalo Trace

Address: 113 Great Buffalo Trace, Frankfort, KY 40601, USA

Website: https://www.buffalotracedistillery.com/

Opening Time: 9:00 am

Like Maker’s, an icon of the Bourbon industry and one you just have to visit even if it is just for the photo in front of the iconic water tower. One of the best and most historic distilleries I visited, and the tour guide Lee had great stories and fascinating tales. A good guy too. The tasting at the end of the tour was basic but good. One let down here was that there were no distillery exclusive whiskies to buy - a HUGE missed opportunity in my opinion, as always - and no premium whiskies either. There was a bottle of Blanton’s, but I had seen it elsewhere too.

Wild Turkey

Address: 1417 Versailles Rd, Lawrenceburg, KY 40342, USA

Website: https://wildturkeybourbon.com

Opening Time: 9:00 am

Great distillery, a nice - and reasonably priced - tasting bar downstairs and lots of random things to buy in the store including a gobbler - see my instagram. Their main corridor includes a nice way of explaining their history too.

Woodford Reserve

Address: 7855 McCracken Pike, Versailles, KY 40383-9781

Website: https://www.woodfordreserve.com

Opening Time: 9:00 am

Like Buffalo Trace and Maker’s, an icon of the Bourbon industry and one of the quaintest and truly American-designed distilleries I’ve visited. A great tour too, albeit quite stage-managed and overly scripted, that finishes with a basic tasting.

Bluegrass Distillers

Address: 501 W 6th St #165, Lexington, KY 40508, USA

Website: https://www.bluegrassdistillers.com/

Opening Time: 10:00 am

An unexpected one this, and one that is within walking distance from the hotel I stayed in (roughly 25 minutes each way). This was the smallest distillery of all I visited, but one of the coolest as you get to bottle your own Bourbon (or rye) right there in the distillery shop - something none of the others offered at all, and was an instant sale. Well worth checking them out. They produce Wheated Bourbon too, which you can bottle, and is akin to Pappy and Weller in base flavour profile and character.

The post The GreatDrams Bourbon Lover’s Guide to Whiskey Tourism in Kentucky appeared first on GreatDrams.

from GreatDrams http://bit.ly/2UQAM7Z Greg

#whisky #GreatDrams

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chuckiecampbell · 2 years

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Now, it’s time to give up the ghost! Last night was truly amazing on so many levels. I want to thank everyone who touched the stage last night and everyone who gave up their Saturday night to spend it with us: Dave Stewy, Ian Gabriel, Ziere Rodolph, and DaTrumpetman Virella! It was truly remarkable coming back to Richmond, KY and seeing how we were embraced. I want to shout out a couple of people: Susan Cintra, who is running for Senate; Paul Reed Jr, who has been a life-long friend of mine; Bob Wason, who I’ve known probably since I was in sixth grade; John Q Campbell, my brother and one of my best friends and most formidable role models growing up; Martina Jackson, of which who is doing God’s work in RKY and changing some of the parts of the community that have sorely needed change for so long; Mark Feather, who has welcomed us into his home and been so incredible through all these years (your friendship extends beyond words); and so many more names! Oh, and Colbert Gautreaux, I appreciate you, sir! I can’t leave you out! I’ll throw in a shout for the love of life, Chantal Michaux, also, who supports me and my dreams even they require great sacrifice. And while providing support and taking care of everything and everyone back home, she takes the time to book hotel rooms and talk me through my frustrations and anxieties as they arise. I love you so much and will be home soon. Tonight we are in Lexington, KY for The Boom Bap & Bourbon Tour: Lexington at Horse and Jockey! If you missed Paddy Wagon, here’s your chance to make it right. The Boom Bap and Bourbon Tour is sponsored by Three Chord Bourbon! These events are affiliated with Automatic Records! #buffalohiphop #buffalony #buffalomusicscene #richcity #kentuckyhiphop #kyproud #chuckiecampbell #finelytunedtaste #threechordbourbon #boombap #bourbon #boombapandbourbontour (at Richmond, Kentucky) https://www.instagram.com/p/CdCT2jVp-yh/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#buffalohiphop #buffalony #buffalomusicscene #richcity #kentuckyhiphop #kyproud #chuckiecampbell #finelytunedtaste #threechordbourbon #boombap #bourbon #boombapandbourbontour

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tsglexingtonkentucky · 4 years

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Support Lexington Cancer Foundation at Zachys

Bid high on a four-day world-class 2021 Kentucky Derby experience with LCF at Zachys, #1 auction house in the world, June 4th online auction!

With the 2020 Kentucky Bluegrass Wine Auction & Derby Gala cancelled this year, the Lexington Cancer Foundation (LCF) needs your support now more than ever!

LCF is honored to be included in Zachys online auction June 4, 2020. Don't miss the opportunity to bid on LOT 874! This is not just the Derby but – a world class wine auction, exclusive behind the scenes Bluegrass experiences, visit triple crown winners and experience the 146th Run for the Roses – and you are off!

As guest of the Lexington Cancer Foundation, two lucky winning bidders will experience the most unprecedented hospitality in the Bluegrass! Only a few rare have had the access that this winning pair will experience. Here is what is included:

2 Exclusive Invitations to the Kentucky Bluegrass Wine Auction & Derby Gala long weekend experience

2 Seats to a Private Vintner Dinner Wednesday, April 28, vintner and location TBD

2 Tickets to an exclusive ‘behind the scenes’ experience at Buffalo Trace Distillery, home to Pappy Van Winkle on the late morning of Thursday, April 29

2 VIP tickets to the Kentucky Bluegrass Wine Auction & Derby Gala, event evening of Thursday, April 29…20 of the best wineries showcased on one of the most beautiful Kentucky horse farms with exclusive live/silent auction lots, delectable cuisine and exciting entertainment

Private Tours of Ashford Stud to see American Pharaoh and Justify! Plus a VIP tour of a Kentucky Bourbon Distillery, morning of Friday, April 30

Private VIP Vintner and Patron’s dinner at the Apiary in downtown Lexington, evening of Friday, April 30

2 Exclusive finish-line tickets to the Kentucky Derby, Saturday, May 1

1 Room at the award winning 21C Museum Hotel, Lexington, Kentucky, four nights

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Create a login at the Zachys website by clicking above. On June 4, 2020 at 10:00 am EST onwards login and watch the gavel fall.

Click here to download the auction catalog. There are numerous wine lots, but purchase of those will NOT benefit LCF. ONLY the KY Derby lot.

How it will work is, once you’ve won the lot, you’ll make the payment directly to the organization so that you can take advantage of the tax deduction. Call 859.388.2620 or email, [email protected].

Absentee portion of this auction is open for bidding. The first session will start live bidding on June 4, 2020 at 10:00 am.

Thank you as always for your generous support of LCF.

Stay safe,

Brenda Rice, President

Kristi Martin, Executive Director

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thebourbontruth · 7 years

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Doing the Bourbon Trail 2017

A lot has changed since my last Bourbon Trail post so it’s time. http://kybourbontrail.com What I’ve noticed is people tour under very different time constraints and whom your accompanied by. Solo vs a family trip with the kids and grandparents has much different needs and results. First off do the trail sober. The Kentucky Bourbon Distillers has been enlisting the help of Uber and Lyft. There are taxis and private and public tour groups. Plan ahead for not driving when you shouldn’t be or have a DD.

Logistics As of 2016 there are over a million visits a year visiting Kentucky for “ bourbon tourism” and growing. In 10 years the number has tripled to where it is. That’s a lot. During peak days or times you will NOT be able to get a tour unless you preplan and reserve well in advance. http://kybourbontrail.com/kentucky-bourbon-trail-barrels-past-1-million-visits-2016/

The unofficial and official trail extends well north starting in Newport Kentucky (outside Cincinnati) where New Riff (craft) is to Bowling Green (almost the Tennessee boarder) where Corsair (craft) is over a 3 hour drive so limits are usually present. Most other Distilleries average a 45-60 minute drive apart but Buffalo Trace, Woodford, Wild Turkey, and Four Roses are within half an hour of each other. Regardless of the distance your not getting to them all, possibly not even all the major ones. Secondly, (I’ll say it again) during peak days and times you might not be able to tour at all or need to wait without reservations so make reservations. Another General recommendation is that you and certainly kids have a three distillery attention limit. Things will start blending in and looking the same after that. Pick carefully because if Beam is at the top of your list, do it first. If you put favorite or must see’s at the end you may never make it. If you do more than 3, make that a daily limit. If you don’t want to drive, Mint Julep Tours has some great private and public options http://mintjuleptours.com https://mintjuleptours.com/public-bourbon-tours/

Weather The summer is hot and steamy, sometimes too hot. Bring lots of water in a cooler if you can. The summer may also have distilleries that are closed or not distilling so if you really want to see a special distillery make sure they are operating the days your planning to be there. Winter has ice and when roads are icy the distilleries have been known to close completely. Pets in the car don’t mix well if hot or cold.

Where to sleep? The nicest national hotel chain in Bardstown is the Hampton Inn. There are a few bed and breakfasts but if you want central location, choice and some luxury, Louisville is your best bet (about an hour from most things). Use this as your central hub. Places like the Marriott East (Eastern suburb to downtown Louisville) are a bit cheaper than the regular high end places in downtown and a bit closer to Frankfort area Buffalo Trace, Woodford and Lawrenceburg for Wild Turkey and Four Roses. If your going to be further South, besides Bardstown, Elizabethtown is another option.

If you’re a couple or buddies or a couple touring, I’d recommend Louisville for the bars, Resturant’s and Whiskey Row attractions. Night life is practically non existent other than Louisville. I have regretted Lexington stays as its too far from most places. If your willing to switch hotels in/from other cities/towns that’s a different matter. I personally stay at the Marriott Residence Inn in downtown Louisville when staying downtown. It’s a 50 foot walk/stumble to the best Whiskey bar in Kentucky (Haymarket, a fun dive bar open late). Wandering the streets of Louisville at night, potentially drunk, when not in a group isn’t recommended.

Family trips You better pick just Three-Four distilleries or your going to hear whining. Mix things in like Mammoth Caves, Underground Zip lines, Lincoln Boyhood home, museums, rides on the river in Louisville etc.. The Beam Urban Stillhouse and Evan Williams Experience http://evanwilliams.com/visit.php in Louisville are good for kids so I don’t count those as part of your 3. If you only have two days stick to those close to the Bluegrass Parkway. Buffalo Trace to Bardstown.

Solo or Couples Pick 5 places unless you have more than two days. At five you’ll also start to get the “distillery burnout” and a potentially unhappy spouse. If your going to do more than 5 anyway try to split it up maybe with Cincinnati, Louisville, Lexington, Nashville touring. Visit the races, horse farm etc. you’ll need a break.

Smaller Distilleries Craft and lesser known names I wouldn’t try too hard to get to unless its Willett or on the way with burnout considered.

Cost Plan on about $5-20 per adult per Distillery. Buffalo Trace has the only free tours that I recall. I’ve even heard that Makers Mark is currently charging to get in even with no tour. Don’t know if this is temporary. Other Visitor Centers/Gift Shops at this point are still free to get in but tours are the extra charge. Some might offer Discounts for DD’s, Military, Seniors, Law Enforcement and First responders so ask. Children are usually free to a certain age.

The Distilleries By rough geography. If I miss or skip a distillery it’s not necessarily a skip, I personally haven’t been or not enough there to warrant the extra time to get there. Some distilleries may have a distillery exclusive bottle. I’ll try to note these. Keep in mind that by law any Kentucky retailer can carry these also but they rarely do or can get them before the gift shop gets them all from distribution. They are part of the three tier system so even the distillery exclusives technically need to go through a third party distributer.

Louisville Angels Envy The newest tour in Downtown Louisville across from Slugger Baseball Stadium. A beautiful great tour. If you can’t see the rest of the Bourbon Trail this is a great option. Nothing I could see in the Gift shop different than what you can get at home but I’d go back again. They did have their Rye which is often sold out back home. Note that tours do get sold out on weekdays off peak as they were when I was there.

Bulleit Experience If your not a Stitzel Weller geek skip it. If you don’t know what Stitzel Weller is, again, skip it. More or less a Diageo ad for Bulleit that has never had or has a current real Distillery there although one is due to open soon in Shelbyville that might have public tours.

Copper and Kings is a Brandy distillery in Louisville if your into that and have time.

Evan Williams Experience A mini distillery and showcase of distilling and history. A fun time. They have a few exclusives like a 12 year and 23 year Evan Williams.

Frankfort area

Buffalo Trace http://www.buffalotracedistillery.com/visit-us/our-tours Not an official part of or member of the Bourbon Trail. Free tours and you should reserve Hard Hat Tours as opposed to the regular hourly tours. They split production and maturation into roughly two tours so you could end up there most of the day to get tour bookend Hard Hat type tours in. This is a whiskey factory. Not much for kids but a not to be missed option. Don’t expect any bottles you can’t get at home of Whiskey, nothing special.

Woodford Reserve https://www.woodfordreserve.com/distillery/tours/ Very pretty and fairly quick tours. Drive through horse county to the nicest Distillery in Ky. A couple releases you can only find at the distillery. Real nice gift shop packed full. Usually two unique Whiskeys in .375 size avail each only there. A must stop.

Castle and Key Beginning tours soon. Read up on Old Taylor History (what used to be here) and check it out. Down the street from Woodford. If and when tastings are offered in the near future it will be new booze and young aka not too good. Keep this in mind for any newer distillery only bottling their own make.

Four Roses http://fourrosesbourbon.com Another great stop but no bottling or maturation is done here (see below). That is a separate facility near Beam that you can tour. A whiskey factory that’s a great stop for a Four Roses lover. Bottles selected by Brent Elliott the Master Distiller in the nice large gift shop usually.

Wild Turkey http://wildturkeybourbon.com/visit-us/ New distillery, visitor center and bottling. Feels a bit sterile. Tours stop at lots of windows you can only look through like the distillery. A nice stop and Master Distillers Eddie or Jimmy Russell are often hanging out signing things. Usually no special bottlings are for sale there but a good fun stop.

Bardstown They are adding lots of distilleries but the ones there are Willett and Barton. Don’t stop at Barton if you’ve been/going to one of the whisky factories. Ugly, nothing you’ll want in the giftshop.

Willett https://www.kentuckybourbonwhiskey.com/visit-willett-distillery/# You MUST get a reservation early at Willett to be safe. Its small and very very popular. A recent Saturday out of season had 500 people and they stopped counting. Willett often has private bottling you can’t get elsewhere of advanced age. They are fleeting though. A 14 year old bottling could show up without notice then be sold out within an hour. Don’t expect it will be while you are there but and a big but- If you are on the tour and ask nice you never know. Willett Family Reserve is one of the hardest to get due to the value on the secondary market. They do have their other retail brands and sometimes Rye there regularly. Great people. Expanding Giftshop about to have a bed and breakfast onsite summer/fall 2017 most likely. Periodically will have things you can’t get elsewhere at random. Still have bottles of allocated things from back home you might not see.

Makers Mark If you want to make the trip on Loretto Rd that passes Willett, Makers Mark is ½ hour each way. A cool nice Distillery if you have time. Pretty and complete tours. Can get real busy. Usually one or two things in a large gift shop you can’t get back home.

There is practically nothing but windy roads and little or no cellular coverage. It’s worth the trip but consider it’s a half day excursion. Great Giftshop. The most educational tasting of different stages of maturation, big Giftshop with some private things you can’t get elsewhere and chance to wax dip your own bottle.

If your out this way consider stopping at Independent Stave in Lebanon where they make new Whiskey barrels. Two tours a day, reservations a must. Worth a stop if you have time. http://www.iscbarrels.com/tours/

Wilderness Trace also (see below)

Heaven Hill’s maturation and bottling are here in Bardstown. If you’ve seen or will be seeing these at other places no real draw for me to recommend the tour. The Louisville distillery is not open to the public but the Evan Williams Experience fills in with a mini distillery and nice facility. http://heavenhilldistillery.com/bourbon-heritage-center.php?utm_source=BHC&utm_medium=Redirect&utm_campaign=BHCRedirect&bhc=1

The Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center and Giftshop is a great stop however with frequently special bottlings you can’t get at home or tightly allocated.

Four Roses Maturation and Bottling is near Beam and Bardstown. If you’re a fan of Four Roses or want to see these production pieces in depth, stop. It’s 5 minutes from Beam but hours are a bit more limited. Navigation will often send you to the wrong Four Roses address so make sure you enter the address so don’t trust your navigation to suggest an address. Tour cost are Interchangeable so a receipt for the distillery gets you into the other. The last tour of the day departs the Visitor Center at 3:00 p.m. 624 Lotus Road Cox’s Creek, KY 40013

Beam http://www.jimbeam.com/en-us/visit-us/book-a-tour They did a good job here setting up a complete experience. Maybe one of the best. I will say this is the tour from the Barrel picking experience so the regular tour may include other parts of the real distillery operation. You should check. Good for kids and has micro tastes of products and a couple whiskeys unique to the huge American Still House gift shop.

Wilderness Trail This is another extreme distance but worth the trip if you have lots of time and want to see a nice craft place.

Craft distilleries Remember burnout. If you want to indulge check out http://kybourbontrail.com/craft-tour/

I want more If you want even more or more on-depth experience Moonshine University runs courses from a day to 5 day Distiller classes. Also a Stave and Thief Whisky Society Certification. They are in Louisville. If you arrange your trips around their schedules it gives you this extra option. https://moonshineuniversity.com/courses/

Lastly, in the next couple years many new attractions and distilleries will be opening in downtown Louisville and it’s Whiskey Row so check to see what they have opened. Here are some suggested driving times and map http://kybourbontrail.com/map/

Enjoy your trip and be safe.

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newstfionline · 7 years

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A Road Trip Through Rusting and Rising America

Thomas L. Friedman, NY Times, May 24, 2017

OAK RIDGE, Tenn.--In his Inaugural Address, President Trump painted a picture of America as a nation gripped by vast “carnage”--a landscape of “rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones” that cried out for a strongman to put “America first” and stop the world from stealing our jobs. It was a shocking speech in many ways and reportedly prompted former President George W. Bush to say to those around him on the dais, “That was some really weird [stuff].”

It was weird, but was it all wrong?

I just took a four-day car trip through the heart of that landscape--driving from Austin, Ind., down through Louisville, Ky., winding through Appalachia and ending up at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to try to answer that question.

Trump is half right in his diagnosis, but his prescription is 100 percent wrong. We do have an epidemic of failing communities. But we also have a bounty of thriving ones--not because of a strongman in Washington but because of strong leaders at the local level.

The big divide in America is not between the coasts and the interior. It’s between strong communities and weak communities. You can find weak ones along the coast and thriving ones in Appalachia, and vice versa. It’s community, not geography.

The communities that are making it share a key attribute: They’ve created diverse adaptive coalitions, where local businesses get deeply involved in the school system, translating in real time the skills being demanded by the global economy.

They also tap local colleges for talent and innovations that can diversify their economies and nurture unique local assets that won’t go away. Local foundations and civic groups step in to fund supplemental learning opportunities and internships, and local governments help to catalyze it all.

The success stories are all bottom-up; the failures are all where the bottom has fallen out.

I started in one of the bottomless places: Austin, Ind., a tiny town of 4,000 off Interstate 65, which was described in a brilliant series in The Louisville Courier-Journal “as the epicenter of a medical disaster,” where citizens of all ages are getting hooked on liquefied painkillers and shooting up with dirty needles.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that Austin “contains the largest drug-fueled H.I.V. outbreak to hit rural America in recent history.” Its 5 percent infection rate “is comparable to some African nations.” Austin, the newspaper noted, doesn’t just sit at the intersection between Indianapolis and Louisville but at the “intersection of hopelessness and economic ruin.”

I chose to go there to meet the town’s only doctor, Will Cooke, whose heroic work I learned of from the Courier-Journal series. Cooke’s clinic, Foundations Family Medicine, sits at 25 West Main Street--opposite Marko’s Pizza & Sub, a liquor store and a drugstore.

For generations Austin’s economy was anchored by the Morgan Foods canning plant, but, as The Courier-Journal noted, “then came a series of economic blows familiar to many manufacturing-based communities. The American Can plant next to Morgan Foods shut its doors in 1986 after more than 50 years in business. A local supermarket closed. Workers left along with the jobs and poverty crept up among those who stayed.”

Austin, Cooke explained to me, got caught in the vortex of declining blue-collar jobs, leading to a loss of dignity for breadwinners, depression and family breakdown, coinciding with doctors’ and drug companies’ pushing painkillers, and with too many people in the community failing to realize that to be in the middle class now required lifelong learning--not just to get a job but to hold one.

“Thirty percent of students were not even graduating from high school,” said Cooke. “Then you take high unemployment, generational poverty, homelessness, childhood abuse and neglect, and cloak that within a closed-off culture inherited from Appalachia, and you begin to have the ingredients that contributed to the H.I.V. outbreak.”

Austin’s insularity proved deadly for both jobs and families. “The close-knit, insular nature of the community worked against it, with the C.D.C. later finding up to six people shared needles at one sitting, and two or three generations--young adults, parents and grandparents--sometimes shot up together,” The Courier-Journal reported.

Lately, though, Cooke told me, the town’s prospects have started to improve, precisely because the community has come together, not to shoot up but to start up and learn up and give a hand up. “The local high school has introduced college-credit classes and trade programs so people are graduating with a head start,” said Cooke. Faith-based and civic groups have mobilized, celebrating social and economic recovery, providing community dinners called “Food 4R Soul” and even installing community showers for people without running water.

Addiction is often a byproduct of social breakdown leading to a sense of isolation. Cooke feels hopeful because he sees the tide slowly shifting as “social isolation gives way to community.”

“Only a healthy individual can contribute to a healthy family, and only a healthy family can contribute to a healthy community--and all of that requires a foundation of trust,” said Cooke. “That kind of change can’t come from the outside, it has to be homegrown.”

I shared with him the business philosopher Dov Seidman’s admonition that “trust is the only legal performance-enhancing drug.” Dr. Cooke liked that a lot and only wished he could prescribe it as easily as others had prescribed opioids.

But just 40 minutes down the highway from Austin, I interviewed Greg Fischer, the mayor of Louisville, a city bustling with energy and new buildings. “That ‘Intifada’ you wrote about in the Middle East is happening in parts of rural and urban America--people saying, ‘I feel disconnected and hopeless about participating in a rapidly changing global economy.’ Drug-related violence and addiction is one result--including in a few neighborhoods of Louisville.”

But Louisville also has another story to tell: “We have 30,000 job openings,” said Fischer, and for the best of reasons: Louisville has “a vision for how a city can be a platform for human potential to flourish.” It combines “strategies of the heart,” like asking everyone to regularly give a day of service to the city; strategies of science, like “citizen scientists” bearing GPS-enabled inhalers that the city uses to track air pollution, mitigate it and warn asthma suffers; and strategies for job creation that leverage Louisville’s unique assets.

One job-creation strategy led to a slew of new businesses that make “end of runway” products for rapid delivery by leveraging the fact that Louisville is UPS’s worldwide air hub; “bourbon tourism” that leverages the fact that Kentucky is the Napa Valley of bourbon; a partnership with Lexington, home of the University of Kentucky, has created an advanced manufacturing corridor; and by leveraging Humana’s headquarters in Louisville, the city has unleashed a lifelong wellness and aging-care industry.

Show me a community that understands today’s world and is working together to thrive within it, and I’ll show you a community on the rise--coastal or interior, urban or rural.

I found more such communities as I moved south on Interstate 75 through Tennessee to Oak Ridge, home of the Manhattan Project facilities where the enriched uranium for the “Little Boy” atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was produced.

Today, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which sprawls across two counties, is still involved with nuclear weaponry, but its supercomputer, one of the world’s most powerful, and its hundreds of scientists help drive a broad array of research in energy, materials science, 3-D manufacturing, robotics, physics, cybersecurity and nuclear medicine--research it now actively shares with the surrounding Appalachian communities to spawn new industries and jobs.

Sitting on the spot where the K-25 Manhattan Project facility once stood, I interviewed Ron Woody, county executive for Roane County, where Oak Ridge is partly located, and Steve Jones, an industrial recruiter hired by the city of Oak Ridge to seek out companies interested in investing in the region or leveraging spinouts from Oak Ridge’s labs. That kind of active entrepreneurship is a new thing for Roane County, where generations of people have known only a government job.

“Back in the 1980s you had the T.V.A. [Tennessee Valley Authority], and it had over 50,000 employees. Now it has 10,000 employees,” explained Woody, so “we were not diversified in our employment. We had to convince the public that we can’t rely on the Oak Ridge lab and T.V.A. The Cold War is over. So our communities had to make a big transition from a lot of government programs to very few.”

It’s starting to work, said Woody, “but progress is slow.” One of those success stories was luring a former three-time Tour de France winner, Greg LeMond, to open a 65,000-square-foot factory for his new company, LeMond Composites, for making lightweight carbon-fiber bikes, based on new materials pioneered at Oak Ridge.

“The research Oak Ridge has done is going to change the way we make things,” LeMond explained to me, as we sat in his new factory. “It is a really exciting future. My goal is that you will be able to go on my website and design your own bike out of carbon fiber.”

But just because there are workers looking for employment and there are new jobs opening, it isn’t automatic that local people work in those jobs, explained Jones, the recruiter. Because of the opioid crisis, many people cannot pass the mandatory drug test--and years of working for the government has left them unprepared for the pace of today’s private sector.

“The two biggest issues we are dealing with are the soft skills and passing the drug test,” explained Woody. “I thought the problem was that people needed more STEM skills.” But that’s not the case.

It turns out that it’s not that hard to train someone, even with just a high school or community college degree, to operate an advanced machine tool or basic computer. “Factory managers would say, ‘I will train them and put them to work tomorrow in good jobs” requiring hard skills, said Woody. “The problem they have is finding people with the right soft skills.”

What are those soft skills? I asked. “Employers just want someone who will get up, dress up, show up, shut up and never give up,” Woody responded without hesitation. And there are fewer workers with those soft skills than you might think, he added.

When new companies come into the area today, noted Jones, who grew up on a farm, they ask specifically for young people who were either in a 4-H club or Future Farmers of America (now called FFA) because kids with a farming background are much more likely to get up, dress up, show up on time and never give up in a new job.

Soft skills also include the willingness to be a lifelong learner, because jobs are changing so quickly. For instance, the Oak Ridge lab is partnering to embed top-level local technical talent as entrepreneurial research fellows in advanced manufacturing who want to start companies in this realm. Every summer Oak Ridge’s M.D.F.--Manufacturing Demonstration Facility--hosts 100 young interns to learn the latest in 3-D printing, and its experts coach teams from local high schools for national robotics competitions.

The beauty of 3-D printers is that any community can now go into the manufacturing business, explained Lonnie Love, a corporate fellow at Oak Ridge, as he showed me around the M.D.F., where whole car bodies and car parts are being “printed” on giant 3-D printers.

“Traditionally to make a car part you first had to build a die, and those dies cost anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million to make,” Love said. Every die consists of a female and a male die, and the way you made a car part was to stamp them together. There are hundreds of dies needed to make a car, and that was why an assembly line for a new car model in Detroit could cost upward of $200 million--and take two years to build. Sadly, that die-making industry actually moved out of America to Asia over the last 15 years, leaving only a dozen such companies in the U.S.

No more. “Large-scale 3-D printing is enabling us to re-shore that industry,” explained Love, who then offered this example: “The naval air station at Cherry Point, N.C., repairs all the aircraft for the Navy on the East Coast. About a year ago their head of engineering called me on a Monday and asked if we could print a die mold for them and I said, ‘Sure, just send me the digital model of what you want printed.’

“We got it by email that afternoon, and by Friday he had the mold to make the new part. And it only weighed about 40 pounds because with 3-D printing we could make it stronger but lighter weight by hollowing out the inside. The following Monday he calls and asks me how much did it cost and how long did it take me to make? I told him it took me longer--and was more expensive--to ship it to him than it was make it.”

Think about car dealers in the future who, instead of needing a huge lot with hundreds of cars in inventory, will just custom print the car you want. “Our only inventory is carbon fiber pellets that cost $2 a pound, and we can make any product out of them,” said Love. “You won’t need inventory anymore.”

Over the last 100 years, Love concluded, we went from decentralized artisan-based manufacturing to centralized mass manufacturing on assembly lines. Today, with these emerging technologies, we can go back to artisans, which will be great for local communities that spawn a leadership and workers able to take advantage of these emerging technologies. We are going to see a world of micro-factories, and you can see them sprouting around Oak Ridge already.

“There’s a new wave of kids coming up who love this stuff,” said Love. “We can create mini-moonshots all over the place.”

The same applies to the design of the parts. Thom Mason, the director of the Oak Ridge lab, explained to me that high-performance computing “allows you to design and test out all the parts on the computer and only make those that you know will work. It is totally speeding up the iteration loop of physical manufacturing. You move all the trial and failure into the digital world--so you don’t need to do all that costly tooling of prototypes--and then go straight to manufacturing.”

But the state of Tennessee has also had its thinking cap on about the fast world. In 2014 it decided to make tuition and fees free for high school graduates who want to enroll in any state community college or technical school--on the condition that they maintain at least a C- average, stay in school for consecutive semesters, contribute eight hours of community service each semester and meet with a volunteer coach/mentor who will help them stay on track to get their degree. Starting in 2018, Tennessee adults who don’t already have a two-year degree will be able to go to any state community college and earn one free as well.

I ended my little tour in Knoxville, Tenn., where I met with the mayor at a restaurant in the newly rejuvenated downtown square, a beehive of restaurants, public art exhibitions, theaters, shopping and museums.

“Until the mid-1980s, the old economic development model here was low wages and no unions. That model wasn’t sustainable,” said Mayor Madeline Rogero, the first woman mayor of Knoxville and a former organizer for Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers union. “We wanted better schools, and you cannot build a great school system on the back of low-wage workers. So we started thinking about what are our unique assets and stopped selling ourselves as a low-wage town.”

This is the real picture of America today. It’s cities and regions rising together to leverage their unique assets from the bottom up--living side by side with distressed and lost communities where the bottom has fallen out. It’s not your grandparents’ America, but it is also not Trump’s America--that land of vast carnage and an industrial wasteland. The picture is much more complex.

Bill Clinton once famously observed, “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right in America.” That has never been more accurate--and necessary--than it is today.

What is wrong with America is that too many communities, rural and urban, have broken down. What is right with America is the many communities and regions that are coming together to help their citizens acquire the skills and opportunities to own their own futures. We need to share and scale these success stories.

Only strong communities, not a strong man, will make America great again.

#communities #American cities #Austin Indiana #Louisville #oak ridge national laboratory #Thomas Friedman

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lexingtonkentucky-blog · 6 years

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The Sights, History and Fun of Lexington, Kentucky

As soon as inhabited by varying Native American people, Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 60th biggest in the United States; and when it pertains to land area, the 28th biggest city in the country.

This city is called the "Horse Capital of the World," as it holds a fertile soil with outstanding pastureland, where stock and horse farms are plentiful. It is also called the Bluegrass region, where dark green reigns over the natural landscapes thanks to this specific kind of lawn. Bluegrass grows beneath the soil surface area, and it plays a major role in the development of champion horses, which is why many horse racing occasions are arranged at Keeneland throughout the years.

Citizens of Kentucky are attentive and predominantly kind, and the majority of them concur that the Kentucky Burgoo is one of the best dishes they have actually ever tasted, as it is a standard spicy stew made with pork, chicken, or mutton. An elusive social meal most people in the area are eager to.

" Unbridled Spirit," Colonel Sanders, Burgoo, Derby Mint Julep, Hot Brown, The Dude, BBQ, and bourbon, are aspects that comprise the magic of Kentucky, so if you ever visit the state, make certain to consume and drink as Royalty, and also visit Lexington City, ranked 10th by Forbes among the cleanest cities of the world.

If you need a little inspiration for your next journey to Lexington, here are the leading historical sites suggestions to visit:

Kentucky Theatre

The Kentucky Theatre Grand Opening took place on October 4, 1922. Quickly it became the preferred place in Downtown Lexington to delight in a fantastic night and remain approximately date with the cinema world. Long coats, long gowns, suits, and fancy shoe ware waited in line to experience what then, was the gem of Lexington, and still is.

You can still take pleasure in particular showings at this renowned location, which is mainly open all week from 6:00 pm to midnight.

Location: 214 E Main Street, Lexington, Kentucky

Gratz Park Historic District

Downtown Lexington is not just about city advantages, but likewise holds a great deal of natural areas where you can take a walk, sit calmly, admire gorgeous architecture, and overall, feel the beauty that defines the whole Gratz Park Historic District, where you'll find this and more, a sanctuary inside a cityscape.

From 19th century townhouses to famous buildings, such as the Carnegie Library, belong to this fantastic area.

All parks are open from dawn to dusk, unless posted otherwise.

, if you want to examine the maps of each park click here.

Aviation Museum of Kentucky

For all aircraft and air travel enthusiasts, the Bluegrass Airport is just the best place to visit and it's created to provide all visitors a fundamental education on the air travel market; and obviously, motivate all the dreams for future aviators. The Aviation Museum of Kentucky also houses a Kentucky Aviation Hall of Popularity, so anybody can learn about Kentuckians achievements in this area.

Place: 4029 Airport Road, Lexington, Kentucky

Mary Todd Lincoln House

To explore, learn, and stroll through the floorings where when the terrific Mary Todd stood, tours are available for the general public. Check out the youth of the female who would later end up being the spouse of the Sixteenth President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.

Slave Quarters, Outdoor Cooking Area, Wash House, Smoke House and more, is what you'll find when visiting this historic and stunning website.

The Mary Todd Lincoln House opens Monday to Saturday from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm Tours are limited for 15 individuals.

Area: 578 West Main Street, Lexington, Kentucky

Raven Run Nature Sanctuary

If your desire is to step right into the history of Lexington, as well as exploring a best scene of green and nature, then you should go to Raven Run Nature Sanctuary, a 734-acre sanctuary which primary purpose is to maintain the Kentucky River Palisades, streams, meadows, and remnants of early settlers from the 19th Century.

Bird enthusiasts can likewise get thrilled, as the location accommodates over 200 species of birds throughout the year.

The initial step prior to visiting this nature marvel is to sign-in at the nature center, which is located at the beginning of the trail system.

Location: 3885 Raven Run Method, Lexington, KY 40515

The University of Kentucky (UK).

Tall buildings, an outstanding student real estate location, many meeting room, huge outdoor patios, the University of Kentucky Art Museum including changing displays such as paintings, sculptures, drawings and more, comprise this amazing location, which was developed in 1865.

Found at the heart of the Bluegrass region, the University of Kentucky has handled to keep all students in a consistent environment of the neighborhood, which is strengthened with multidisciplinary studies that offer the Institution the reputation it should have.

Significant law firms like the CIR Legal team finished from the UKY College of Law. Founded in 1908, the College of Law was one of the first state law schools, where the first school trial practice program was implemented in 1913.

Go to the official UKY site and schedule a visit if you want to arrange a campus go to with a details session of 30 minutes before the tour!

#Places in Kentucky #Lexington #Travel to KY

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