Bardstown
Bardstown, Kentucky is on the warm side at this time of year, about 100 last week, but the self-proclaimed “Bourbon Capital of the World” is ready for visitors.
More or less 20 miles off Route 64, south of Louisville, and for my daughter and me 5 hours East of St. Louis, Bardstown is home to some 23 bourbon distilleries and a neat downtown which reminds us that old little towns in the East pretty much look the same. Two story brick buildings with nice shops and restaurants line the two streets of town which meet in a small square with the Bardstown Welcome Center in the middle. It could have been Middlebury, Vermont but hotter.
We stopped at the Bourbon Heritage Center at the Heaven Hill distillery. An infomercial movie reviews the history of bourbon and of the distillery, and the main gallery has displays of old stills, photos, recipes and bourbon lore. What we have forgotten, but they have not is that Prohibition ruined the economy of the entire county in the name of someone’s zealotry leading to a Constitutional amendment. And for what? 14 years later it was repealed, but the county’s capital investment had been ruined, and the people of Bardstown had to start over, victims of a social experiment.
In the case of Heaven Hill distilleries the starting over was by Louisville merchants, the Shapira family, 5 brothers who purchased the property at the end of Prohibition and re-started the business which the family still owns. Reviewers generally consider the Heaven Hill bourbons to be ordinary, except for the Elijah Craig 18 which is the oldest bourbon available, and some of the single barrel varieties. I don’t like bourbon much, but I got two bottles, one for a friend to celebrate the end of chemo this Fall and one for a talking souvenir.
Not too much time to spend at Bardstown. We had another 5 hours to drive through the Cumberland Gap to Johnson City Tennessee to watch the Single A Cardinals play the Kingsport Tennessee. Mets. #2 son’s former American Legion teammate plays for Kingsport. Almost 600 miles on a Tuesday from St. Louis to Bardstown to Johnson City. Beats working.
More or less 20 miles off Route 64, south of Louisville, and for my daughter and me 5 hours East of St. Louis, Bardstown is home to some 23 bourbon distilleries and a neat downtown which reminds us that old little towns in the East pretty much look the same. Two story brick buildings with nice shops and restaurants line the two streets of town which meet in a small square with the Bardstown Welcome Center in the middle. It could have been Middlebury, Vermont but hotter.
We stopped at the Bourbon Heritage Center at the Heaven Hill distillery. An infomercial movie reviews the history of bourbon and of the distillery, and the main gallery has displays of old stills, photos, recipes and bourbon lore. What we have forgotten, but they have not is that Prohibition ruined the economy of the entire county in the name of someone’s zealotry leading to a Constitutional amendment. And for what? 14 years later it was repealed, but the county’s capital investment had been ruined, and the people of Bardstown had to start over, victims of a social experiment.
In the case of Heaven Hill distilleries the starting over was by Louisville merchants, the Shapira family, 5 brothers who purchased the property at the end of Prohibition and re-started the business which the family still owns. Reviewers generally consider the Heaven Hill bourbons to be ordinary, except for the Elijah Craig 18 which is the oldest bourbon available, and some of the single barrel varieties. I don’t like bourbon much, but I got two bottles, one for a friend to celebrate the end of chemo this Fall and one for a talking souvenir.
Not too much time to spend at Bardstown. We had another 5 hours to drive through the Cumberland Gap to Johnson City Tennessee to watch the Single A Cardinals play the Kingsport Tennessee. Mets. #2 son’s former American Legion teammate plays for Kingsport. Almost 600 miles on a Tuesday from St. Louis to Bardstown to Johnson City. Beats working.
posted by Contraria | 6:24 PM
|
0 comments
