Maker's Mark Whisky

On our way home yesterday we took a detour to Loretto, KY a small town in the middle of nowhere to visit the Maker's Mark Distillery. I was looking forward to the tour, but was surprised at the end how much I truly enjoyed it!

We found it! Seemed like it took forever on those long windy country roads...

The buildings were all painted "Bourbon Brown" with Red shutters that had the shape of their bottle carved out in them.

This is inside the fermentation room- these vats are 12 feet around and 12 feet tall! They take the cooked corn, wheat, and barley mixture and add the yeast and it sits here in this room for 3 days. Pretty nasty looking- and to top it off the tour guide had us each stick our finger into this vat and another one to taste the difference from day one to day three.

Steve and I in front of two of their stills... If you look in the glass area you can kind of see the liquor- it's crystal clear and colorless at this point (and pretty strong tasting- we got to sample this "white dog" as well as the finished product at the end of the tour).

The bourbon is stored here in these barrels for seven years where it ages and gains it's amber color.

Bottling and Labeling (we saw their printing press where they still print their labels "by hand" on an old fashioned printing press). Pretty Cool!

Dipping souvenier bottles that we purchased in the gift shop with their trademark Red wax.

Steve's turn...

The proud dippers in all our protective gear- aprons, sleeves, gloves, and saftey glasses. Our three dipped bottles are cooling over my shoulder...