Making the Most of Maker's Mark
And taking advantage of the most expensive free tour we've ever taken
In Mission: Wanderlust, I write and podcast about our family’s travel adventures and the things that we have learned along the way.
Our summer vacation in 2021 couldn’t have come at a worse time. We had started discussing our plans in late 2020, as my sister-in-law started making her own plans for a camping sabbatical across the United States. By the time she was ready to make the itinerary in early 2021, our lives had exploded in our laps. We made the decision to move back to Indiana less than two weeks before we were supposed to leave on vacation. In short, it was a disaster, and with focus on moving when we returned, all I could really write about it was a quick summary. Now that I have time, I’m going back to write more reflectively about each of our major stops. You can find the original summary of our whole vacation here.
In the summer of 2014, my husband Jeff and I took a weekend away from the kids to tour part of the Bourbon Trail in Kentucky. Jeff loves a good bourbon, and I was along for the ride, enjoying the Kentucky countryside, learning the history of a liquor I have no desire to drink, and taste-testing bourbon balls when they were offered at some of the six distilleries that we visited on that particular trip.1
One of our favorite stops on that trip was Maker’s Mark. While it isn’t Jeff’s favorite bourbon, it is definitely on his short list of choice bourbons, and the tour itself is spectacular. We both enjoyed our visit and Jeff signed up for the Ambassador program with plans that we would return for our free tour as soon as his Ambassador bottle was available.2
Except, then we moved to Texas and we couldn’t have his bottle shipped to our house. We had no idea how or when we were going to get there.
When my family decided to have a short family reunion camping in Indiana, one of my selling points to Jeff was that we could make a stop in Kentucky as part of our vacation. Jeff already wasn’t super excited about a family vacation east, and this was before we made the decision to actually move back to Indiana. Going to Maker’s Mark together was going to be his win for the trip, and with grandparents and an aunt along to entertain the kids for the afternoon, it was a nearly perfect plan.
Except I hadn’t accounted for two things: COVID and the popularity of the tour. I hadn’t booked weeks in advance. I had spent the weeks in advance making drastic plans to move our family across the country, not to schedule a single distillery tour. When I checked online, the ambassador tours were booked. I did what I rarely do anymore and got on the phone. I needed to get us on that tour. Jeff had spent the last six months holding our family together. He had been my rock and had been asked to do more heavy lifting, both emotionally and physically, than he had ever had to do before in our marriage.
When I finally got a hold of the guest services, I begged them to save both our vacation and my marriage. She got us onto a tour immediately and we could make plans to visit the day after our family visited Mammoth Cave.
Phew.
I was so excited to arrive at Maker’s Mark. Not only was it just as beautiful as I had remembered, over the seven years since the last time we visited, they had made renovations to at least one building and added a couple more, all of them embracing the history of Kentucky straight bourbon and the surrounding natural landscape.
I love the tour of the distillery. While the company wasn’t started until 1953, the beautiful grounds represent the past, present, and future of distilling in Kentucky. And while I may not enjoy the smell of mash or the taste of the final product, I love walking into a warehouse full of bourbon barrels. The rich scent of the angel share permeates every square inch and I breathe in the aroma of spirits, charred oak, and wood beams that have aged over the decades.3
One of my favorite parts of the tour this time was the new limestone cellar, a building erected along a limestone wall with a living roof. The cellar was built specifically for the aging of both Maker’s Mark 46®️ and Private Selection®️ and utilizes natural cooling to minimize the environmental impact of the building.
Of course, the inside was just as stunning as the outside, and full of information on how the Maker’s Mark company is working to be eco-conscious in the production of a high-quality product.
One of my favorite parts of Makers Mark is the gorgeous artwork throughout the buildings and grounds. These pictures just highlight some of the local craftsmanship one can see at the distillery.
Finally, we had to stop at the gift shop so Jeff could get a single bottle of the standard Maker’s Mark®️ with his name on it and a bottle of the 46®️ so that I could also participate in the wax dipping of the bottles.
Our stop in the gift shop probably made our trip the most expensive free tour we have ever taken, but I still believe the entire experience was worth every penny.
On our way home, we stopped at a tire repair place to get the nail removed from our flat tire that our son had discovered the previous day.4 Now we knew that we would at least be able to get our camper safely to Brown County State Park just a few hours north the next day, where we would be meeting my family.5
Despite all of the troubles that had faced us both before and during our vacation, I was thankful for this single day for us to escape and explore with just the two of us. And if you are ever in the region, I cannot recommend enough a stop for a tour of the grounds.
Note: You can also learn more about bourbon from this fellow Substack writer.
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I do not like straight hard liquor, but I was willing to at least sip all of the white dog offered me at all of the distilleries. But bourbon balls, with their bourbon-infused chocolate, are a different story. If distilleries want to mix bourbon and chocolate, I’m good with that.
Go here to learn more about the Makers Mark ambassador program. Since we’re back in Indiana, we’ve decided that we are going to sign up both of our kids for the program when they turn 15, which will give us a chance to take them down to the distillery to celebrate their 21st birthday. We want them to see turning 21 as a step forward in maturity and responsibility, and what better way to do that than to take them someplace where they can appreciate the good stuff.
Distillers call the evaporated alcohol from years of aging the angel share, because it goes up to the angels.
This was the sixth camper mishap of the trip that had turned into a serious comedy of errors, only it wasn’t funny to us.
I love seeing the mash barrels full as opposed to the empty ones we saw. Great photos! I really enjoyed reading about your experiences there and thanks for the link to my bourbon history post.
Oooooh, I'd been looking forward to this, Sarah, ever since you'd tipped me off about it in the comment of a previous post! What a great account of a brilliant experience, and your pictures of what is clearly a gorgeous place are wonderful! I love that your kids are going to sign up as Ambassadors when they're older - what a great idea.