• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

Buffalo Trace offers three free tours focusing on architecture, bourbon production, and distillery history.   (Photo: Courtesy of Buffalo Trace)

Watch oak barrels being hand-assembled at the Brown-Forman Cooperage, founded in 1945 (mintjuleptours.com). The steamed barrel staves emit fragrant notes of vanilla and caramel before being charred in a 482-degree flame. The deeper the char, the more intense the flavor.

Maximize your time and tasting moxie by narrowing down Bardstown’s distillery tours. Start at Woodford Reserve’s five-hour Bourbon Academy class ($150). It’s conducted by master distiller Chris Morris and includes multiple tastings, a bourbon-inspired lunch, and a production tour. Learn Heaven Hill distillery’s system for aging bourbon in oak during the Bourbon Heritage Center’s Behind the Scenes Connoisseur Tour ($25), then sip 27-year-old Parker’s Heritage (which runs $189 a bottle) in the barrel-shaped tasting room. Buffalo Trace’s free private tours feature moonshine tastings and a close-up look at the bottling process.

Peruse thousands of rare bourbon bottles, moonshine stills, and pottery jugs dating back to pre-colonial times at Bardstown’s Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History. The spot hosts frequent auctions, where visitors can bid on antique liquor and bourbon artifacts.

Published on Mar 24, 2010 as a web exclusive.