Willet Distillery

Another great distillery along he bourbon trail is Willet, pretty much the opposite of the sprawling city of a complex you find a t Maker’s Mark, this is a family owned facility, and the tours are given by the wife of the owner, and often accompanied by the family cat.

It is a beautiful setting, with quaint, hand-operated machinery, nestled under the Kentucky sky.

On the tour they explain he different types of grain that go into their bourbon, and even let you taste the sour mash by sticking your finger into the large open container from the second floor. They of course aren’t worried about germs or backteria contamination because the process involves distilling.

They still use the old original still, the shape of which inspires the design of their most famous bottle. They have a with a network of pipes above that make the actual separation happen, and the alcohol is collected down below.

Unlike the mechanized Maker’s Mark, the folks at Willet still roll the barrels by hand out of the barreling faculty to the storage warehouses via a set of old, wooden traintracklike rutters.

The barrels are aged for six years in new oak like most bourbons, and the results, as we experienced in the tasting room, were phenomenal!