A Trip Down Whiskey Row
Day 2: Michter's, Angel's Envy, and the Evan Williams Experience
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This is Part 2 of our Bourbon Trail travels. To start from the beginning, start here:
Because my sister and brother-in-law had to head back to Indianapolis on our second day of distillery tours, we decided to make our way down Whiskey Row in downtown Louisville, which would give them a head start on their way home.
The Bourbon District takes visitors down a one-mile stretch of a revived downtown Louisville. It is block after block of distillery tours, tasting rooms for spirits distilled outside of Louisville, and historic sites. Louisville sits right on the Ohio River, and the introduction of the railroad through Kentucky helped make it the capital of Kentucky’s bourbon empire during the 19th century. By 1900, more than 100 whiskey-related businesses resided along a 10-block stretch of Main Street, making it the biggest concentration of whiskey companies in the world.
Remember, all bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon.
With only a handful of Kentucky distilleries remaining in business during Prohibition, Whiskey Row dried up.1 Fifteen years ago, as the popularity of bourbon and whiskey again surged, various companies started buying up dilapidated buildings in downtown Louisville and the rebirth of the city’s downtown began.
We picked three places to tour during our visit.
Michter’s Distillery
Jeff had never had Michter’s and neither had our brother-in-law, but they had heard good things and wanted a reason to try it. That was enough for me to reserve it as our first tour of the day.
The majority of Michter’s production takes place at their Shively location, away from the downtown Fort Nelson location, but we still got to see the full distilling process in the back-half of the historic building. Unlike every other distillery we visited, Michter’s puts their bourbon in the barrel at 103 proof instead of 120 or 125. This means they choose to water down the liquor at the beginning of the aging process instead of the end.
I’m no bourbon expert. As I’ve said, I don’t love bourbon and I’m not going to choose it for a drink, probably ever. However, I believe that process pays off because it was the only tasting experience where I didn’t make a face with each sip on my tray. It was smooth and didn’t burn and I’m going to attribute that to the way it enters the barrel. I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am.
Also, my sister and I both appreciated the vanilla jelly bean we all were given to eat at the beginning of the tasting. It was a definite bonus.
Angel’s Envy
After lunch at Against the Grain, connected to Slugger Field, we headed across the street for our tour of Angel’s Envy.
In 2016, Angel’s Envy became the first distillery since Prohibition to open up for full production along Whiskey Row. The facility is stunning, and while the process isn’t much different from the other distilleries we visited, the compact production is impressive.
And for those who don’t like bourbon, this tasting was accompanied by three different chocolates to enhance the taste of each of the bourbons we tried. It was a nice bonus.
Evan Williams Experience
Evan Williams is part of the Heaven Hill family, so we had already been to the main location, but the Experience in downtown Louisville includes historical background on Evan Williams (Kentucky’s first licensed distiller), the history of bourbon in Louisville, and a short explanation of the distilling process. The downtown location has several different options for experiences, including a speakeasy tasting experience that sounded like a lot of fun, but we only had time for the basic package. It was a good final stop before we headed back to the campground, and we learned more about bourbon along the river than we had at the other distilleries, so that was a bonus.
Talon Winery
I had been a good sport for two days, so Jeff decided we could stop at Talon Winery, a local winery in Shelbyville before we settled in for the night. It was close to the campground and literally on our way “home.” I enjoyed six wines and some time sitting on their deck out back. The Kentucky winery scene is exploding to keep up with the bourbon, which we learned on our stop at Chicken Cock the day before. Seriously, if you are making time to do the bourbon trail, take an hour or two to also check out the local wineries for the non-bourbon drinkers in your group.
It was a good day. A long day, but a good day. We needed a little time to relax and pack up before we made our final tour push the next morning. And now I’ll leave you, dear readers, with two other fun pictures I took while we walked around Louisville.
Ready to plan your own trip?
I’ve created a Bourbon Trail planning spreadsheet for Google Sheets. Feel free to make a copy and use it for your own planning purposes.
Here is the live video I made after our first day of travels.
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There were six distilleries that were still allowed to stay in business, for medicinal purposes.
Super cool! I’m going to have to forward these to my wife so she can put a trip like this together for us. 🤣
Also, regarding the burning taste of bourbon and whiskey: my wife is the same way and we learned this really cool trick while we were in Ireland to avoid it. I’ll try to write or talk about it soon and remember to share it with you.