Attending the second straight day of the Kentucky Bourbon Festival on Saturday. Made a few mistakes on Friday and tried to learn from them on Saturday. The one thing we didn’t learn was the temperature was going to be hotter then Saturday and was not prepared. Lesson here is to look at the temperature for the day and make adjustments or have items in your car and a plan to withstand the heat.
On Friday arrived 15 minutes to open and were two blocks from entering the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. Today arrived 90 minutes early and was about 100th in line. This is a win. However the line was not in the shade and the sun was beating down on you on the black top and this made for the wait a bit hot. Found the food trucks and drank plenty of water during the wait. While in line talked with two very nice couples making the time pass. They were from Florida and was nice to hear about certain allocated bourbons in Wisconsin that they can get regularly by them. Buffalo Trace and Eagle Rare are very difficult to get in Wisconsin but, they stated relatively easy by them. Must be the distributors or something.
The 90 minutes did go pretty quickly and while we were waiting we made a bit of a plan to get in where we wanted to go first. We were going to hit Makers Mark and see if they had the Hearts Release for tasting or purchase. This is one of my favorite distilleries and wanted to see what they had. Makers didn’t have the hearts release but, did have a bottle of the Toasted Marshmallow so picked that bottle up.
Then we wanted to hit Green River and followed Kentucky Bourbon Girl to get a Glencairn glass carrier. They also had an Espresso martin for sampling which was very tasty.
After this went over to Woodford Reserve to see if we could get the 121.2. Was able to get a taste but, they were not selling. Ended up heading over to Evergreen’s tent and purchased a bottle of 121.2.
After getting these samples and bottles we decided to take everything back to the car and grab some lunch. The heat was getting to us and thought a break and some AC would help. Hit the foot tuck and got a spicy chicken bowl that was very good. The little break helped, and we walked back to the grounds.
Once back in we headed over and picked up a lemonade at four roses and walked over deploymentcigars.com and picked up a pack of cigars. This is a company owned and operated by veterans. They send cigars to chaplains across the globe for every cigar you purchase to share with active duty members. Easier to talk to a chaplain when you are having a smoke. Just two people chatting over the smoke. Enjoyed one of the cigars dipped in Angel Envy’s and chatted with one of the workers while sipping on our cocktail. Was a great smoke and great conversation.
After this the heat was getting really bad and we walked through the craft area again and tried the Town Branch Bourbon and Cherry Cola. Maybe it wasn’t chilled enough or just a bit flat but, was not a fan. Then tried a NULU bourbon that was decent but, can’t remember the name.
After a couple of laps in craft and nothing else grabbing attention decided to head out. Left a bit earlier than planned but, was the right thing to do with the heat and just was full and time to go. Was a blast to be at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival and will return again in 2025. The dates have been released and they are September 5th – 7th. Till we meet again.
