Love bourbon? Come with me on a Kentucky Bourbon Trail Tour (plus my favorite off-trail distillery)! The Bourbon Trail is easy to navigate and a fantastic getaway for bourbon lovers.
If you're a bourbon-fan, make sure to check out these posts too: The BEST Bourbon Recipes and How to Drink Bourbon: A Beginner's Guide
What Is the Kentucky Bourbon Trail?
If you, like me, enjoy tours of vineyards, distilleries, and breweries — listen up!
Most people know that the winery clusters in California, Italy, and France make for spectacular vineyard-hopping getaways.
But wine isn't the only beverage that has outstanding geographic regions! Major bourbon distilleries are also clustered together. These form the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, which has been growing by leaps and bounds in popularity recently.
Kentucky's native limestone rock makes bourbon production easier, and 95% of all bourbon is made in Kentucky.
A Kentucky Bourbon Trail Tour
Several years ago, the Bourbon Trail had only nine member distilleries. Then it increased to 18, and now it has ballooned to several dozen, including many smaller craft producers like Whiskey Thief, James E. Pepper, and Log Still.
In this post, we'll be focusing on some of the largest and most famous distilleries, which are often the ones that newbies and visitors want to start with.
So here are some tips to help you plan a visit through nine distilleries on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, and one that's off-trail!
What else is nearby? While you're visiting Kentucky, make sure to go hiking at Natural Bridge near Lexington! If you're exploring during early summer, check out Woodstock Lavender Company near Somerset.
Bourbon Trail Tours: Are They Expensive?
Tours, as of early 2024, run in the $15 to $30 range per person. Specialty tours and tastings cost more.
If you're on a tight budget, I recommend visiting Buffalo Trace. They're off the official trail, but they had a fantastic tour.
How Long Do the Bourbon Tours Take?
Most tours are around an hour and tend to run on a set schedule.
Online reservations are highly recommended (and sometimes required).
How Many Distilleries Can I Tour in One Day?
Plan on doing 1-3 distilleries per day, since most of them require some driving to get to.
What's the Best Time + Day for a Kentucky Bourbon Trail Tour?
The best bourbon tours I've had, with smaller crowds, have been on weekdays. Especially the first tour of the day.
Whatever you do, remember that the first weekend in May is Derby Weekend.
If you plan your trip then, be prepared for major crowds. Book your hotel FAR in advance, and call the distilleries ahead to find out what their touring schedule is for that weekend.
Keep in mind that distilleries can get quite warm in some sections, and so a mid-summer tour could potentially be a bit uncomfortable if you're sensitive to heat.
How Much Bourbon Will I Get to Taste on a Tour?
It depends on the distillery, but somewhere from 3 to 6 tastings. Kentucky law limits the amount they can give out.
Some of the tours give you loot in addition to the tastings.
You might get a bourbon ball candy, a souvenir glass, or even a bourbon bottle label.
Do I Have to Be 21 to Go on a Bourbon Trail Tour?
U.S. law says you have to be 21 to drink alcohol, so any tastings obviously require you to be old enough to drink.
Many distilleries do still allow underage people to tour, sometimes at a cheaper price. (They just aren't allowed to drink anything!)
Their websites will let you know for sure when you're booking a tour.
1. Lexington Brewing & Distilling Co./Town Branch (Lexington)
$13 tour and tasting
The Town Branch distillery is small, but it's one of my favorite tasting experiences.
The short tour includes not only the distillery but also Lexington Brewing Co. across the street, where they make Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale.
The tour includes four tokens that let you choose which drinks you want to sample, from both distillery and brewery drinks.
I’ve visited this distillery three times, and it’s still one of my favorites!
This is a nice stop if you’d like to shake up your bourbon experience with some local brews.
2. Woodford Reserve (Versailles)
$35 tour and tasting; $25 for tasting only; specialty tours and tastings available.
Woodford Reserve is like the country club on this distillery tour.
The distillery grounds are gorgeous, with limestone buildings and lush green countryside.
The tour takes you through the large distilling area and the rickhouses (where they store the bourbon barrels).
At the end of our tour, we enjoyed four tastings and a bourbon ball. For a more detailed look at the tour, see our full guide to Woodford Reserve.
3. Wild Turkey (Lawrenceburg)
$25 tour and tasting; specialty tour and premium tastings available.
The Wild Turkey Distillery is surrounded by beautiful Kentucky countryside.
The tour we took several years ago included four samples, and we went home with an extremely high-quality, heavy-bottomed tasting glass.
As for the tour itself, we had bad timing – a Saturday afternoon in August, just as university students came back into town.
Our tour group was huge, and the tour guide was pretty soft-spoken with a broken microphone.
I’d definitely recommend heading to this extra-popular spot on a weekday morning. And now that the new visitor center is open, there's even more reason to check it out.
I’ll be back, Wild Turkey!
4. Four Roses Distillery (Lawrenceburg)
$22 tour and tasting; $16 for tasting only.
The Four Roses Distillery, unlike most Bourbon Trail stops, doesn’t actually age ANY of their bourbon at this location.
This location distills the grains, and then they’re aged at the Four Roses Warehouse. So you'll see the distilling vats, but not any rickhouses or aging barrels.
We were able to sample three bourbons and keep the tasting glass.
Four Roses Warehouse
$22 tour and tasting; $16 for tasting only; specialty tastings available.
The Four Roses warehouse is where Four Roses ages all their bourbon.
It’s located near the Jim Beam distillery.
We opted for a 30-minute tasting here, which included three bourbons and the tasting glass. It was short, sweet, and a nice side trip while we waited for our Jim Beam tour.
5. Maker's Mark (Loretto)
$26 tour and tasting; specialty tours available.
In my opinion, Maker’s Mark was one of the best tours of the actual distilling process. Here is a more in-depth post on the tour.
Our tour included a walk-through of the large distillery area, a chance to taste the mash of fermenting grains, a view of the production line, a bottle label, four tastings, and a chance to hand-dip a bourbon bottle in their signature red wax.
Quick Tips: This is one of the most popular spots on the Bourbon Trail – if you can go on a weekday morning, I’d recommend it. I also recommend checking the Maker’s Mark website for directions, because our GPS took us the wrong way.
6. Heaven Hill (Bardstown)
Tasting $25; specialty tastings available.
Heaven Hill does not have an on-site distillery, but you can learn about the history of Heaven Hill, see the on-site rickhouse, and (obviously) have a bourbon tasting.
On a recent visit, we decided to go for the connoisseur experience. It included a brief video "tour", five tastings and a bourbon ball.
This stop was really just a tasting and not a full tour, and we were only there about 30 minutes.
7. Jim Beam (Clermont)
$30 per person tour and tasting; specialty tastings available.
The Jim Beam Distillery was one of the most well-run, informative tours on the trail.
If it's been a while since you've visited, know that Jim Beam has opened an expanded visitor center, with new tasting rooms and a restaurant!
The tour included their distillery and rickhouses, a chance to taste the mash of fermenting grains, and a chance to smell or taste undiluted bourbon straight from the barrel.
We could also clean an empty bourbon bottle (by washing it with bourbon, of course), set it on the bottling line, and then add the wax seal, if purchasing a bottle.
Jim Beam definitely had the most tasting options— including their classic bourbons, single barrel bourbons, and flavored whiskeys.
The tasting glass is included in the tour price.
8. Bulleit (Shelbyville)
$25 per person tour and tasting; $20 per person for tasting only; specialty workshops available.
We went to the Bulleit Distillery on a Monday morning, and had a tiny tour group and a fantastic tour!
The most enjoyable part (other than sampling four bourbons) was listening to the guide tell us about the history of the bourbon industry.
I’d highly recommend this tour!
9. Evan Williams (Louisville)
$20 tour and tasting; specialty tastings available.
Evan Williams provides the most unique Bourbon Trail tour I’ve been on.
There’s no large distillery on site, and you only get a brief glimpse of the small artisan distillery. Even so, it's an enjoyable, incredibly interesting tour.
The entire tour felt like walking through an interactive play, with rooms turned into reproductions of old Evan Williams buildings and historical Louisville. A lot of the tour was via videos shown as the guide led you from room to room.
The tasting included three bourbons and a bourbon ball.
The Speakeasy experience was sold out when we got there, but seemed similar to the Heaven Hill connoisseur tour (which makes sense, because Heaven Hill is the parent company for Evan Williams).
You’ll see a lot of the same bourbons available to buy at both locations.
Other Major Distilleries on the Bourbon Trail
Before we get to my favorite off-trail experience, here's a round-up of several more large-scale distilleries in the state.
Michter's (Louisville)
$25 tour and tasting at Fort Nelson Distillery, specialty tours available.
Stitzel-Weller (Louisville)
$25 tour and tasting; specialty tastings and classes available.
Old Forester (Louisville)
$32 tour and tasting; specialty tour available.
Rabbit Hole Distillery (Louisville)
$25 tour and tasting.
Angels Envy (Louisville)
$28 tour and tasting; specialty tours and tastings available.
Bardstown Bourbon Company (Bardstown)
$24 tour and tasting; specialty tours, tastings and classes available.
Specialty tastings and programs available at new Louisville tasting room.
Lux Row Distillers (Bardstown)
$15 tour and tasting; specialty tour and tasting available.
Wilderness Trail (Danville)
$15 midweek tour and tasting; $23 weekend tour and tasting; specialty experiences available.
Green River (Owensboro)
$20 tour and tasting; $12 tasting; specialty tour and tasting available.
10. Off-Trail: Buffalo Trace (Frankfort)
While I was researching the Bourbon Trail, one distillery kept popping up – the Buffalo Trace Distillery. It wasn’t on the trail, but it did look exciting!
I contacted Buffalo Trace, and they had me over for a tour and for one of their über fancy Craftsman Dinners.
It’s in an incredibly nice area downtown, perfect for strolling and visiting local shops.
All the tours at Buffalo Trace are – get this – FREE!
And of course, you get to sample a few spirits, and Buffalo Trace’s version of Irish cream. (Faaaabulous!)
Complementary tours and tastings in this day and age almost seem too good to be true — but it IS true, and that's why the Buffalo Trace calendar books up ridiculously quickly when a new month's worth of tours are released. If you're not able to snag a spot, you can go on the waitlist.
What Tours Does Buffalo Trace Offer?
Buffalo Trace has THE BEST tour variety of any other distillery we visited.
They have a standard Trace tour, a Hard Hat tour, a Historic Landmark tour, and the Old Taylor tour.
We did the Old Taylor tour, which included a tour of the archaeological ruins of an old bourbon distillery! It was – without question – the most unique distillery tour I’ve been on!
I will be back, Buffalo Trace! I’ve got my eye on the hard hat tour!
What about you? Have you been on a Kentucky Bourbon Trail Tour? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!
Want to see EVEN MORE bourbon? Browse all of my bourbon recipes!
↓ Bourbon Trail Basics ↓
Cynthia Rusincovitch says
This sounds like an amazing adventure. My hubby and I would have a blast.
Melissa says
Ok, I honestly didn't even know this existed! My hubby would LOVE to do something like this (although quite a ways for us from Canada lol) Perhaps an anniversary gift!!!
champagne-tastes says
Ooo it's so fun!! It would be an amazing anniversary trip! (Actually- it's one of our top anniversary vaca spots lol)
Veena says
Ah you love Bourbon too! It's not always that I find my women friends who like bourbon. Such a cool post. <3 Such a cool trail.
champagne-tastes says
Haha yes I do!!! And thanks!
champagne-tastes says
Go check it out!!
Lisa | Garlic & Zest says
Sarah -- I had no idea they gave tours of the distilleries in Kentucky, but now that I know, it's a destination spot for me. My extended family is from Martinique in the Lesser Antilles and it's where the acclaimed Rhum Agricole is distilled. We were there a few years ago and did rum tours for a solid week. It was so much fun. I would love to experience this tour -- and the countryside looks beautiful!
champagne-tastes says
Ooo rum tours in the islands sounds amazing! And yes!!! Come on over and tour the distilleries here- it’s so much fun! (And I’m partial but I’ll agree that the countryside is gorgeous ????????)
Dawn - Girl Heart Food says
How fun is this?? Hubby really enjoys bourbon and I do too! The prices for the tours are really reasonable too ????
Patty says
Such a very informative item you did here Sarah. My husband and I love bourbon from time to time, especially Four Roses, we would love to visit the distillery. The surrounding countryside looks beautiful too, seems like a wonderful journey to make.
Leah says
This has always been on my bucket list, and someday it will happen, right?! Thanks for sharing all this information, and I will be keeping it it mind for when we finally do go! Bourbon lovers unite!
champagne-tastes says
Make it happen Leah!!! lol
Tina says
I haven't heard of this before. It sounds fantastic. I'm with you on the hard hat tour. Exploring is probably my favorite thing to do of all time so if it requires a hard hat, I'm there. Do you go underground for that tour?
Megan Marlowe says
Holy cow, I had no idea the Kentucky bourbon trail existed. I mean I knew you could tour some distilleries but I didn't know there were several! This would be a fabulous, romantic trip for my husband and I (we love brewery tours) and we have always wanted to go to Kentucky and check out the scenery, eats and people! Thanks for planning out next vacation!
Amy Nash says
I had no idea that 95% of bourbon was produced in Kentucky! That's kind of amazing! I think these kinds of tours, especially being able to see behind-the-scenes, are a great experience and so fascinating to learn about. Especially since the bourbon production must have significantly shaped the culture of the surrounding area! Love the pictures you shared!
Amanda says
I have wanted to do this for SO long! This is such a fantastic guide and I'll definitely be referencing it when I finally plan my trip. I can't believe how affordable it is, too! I assumed the tours and tastings would be much more expensive. I absolutely love that little perk at Maker's Mark where you can have your name engraved in a barrel. How fun is that?!
champagne-tastes says
It's super fun! We signed up for the barrel engraving.. but I have no idea how many years I have to wait LOL
Rachel says
Hi there - Handful of questions:
What did you do for transportation? Did you hire a driver?
Where did you stay? Any recommendations?
And do you have any more recommendations on where to eat?
Thanks!
Sarah says
Great questions!! I'll see if I can help 😀
1- We drove. They don't give you more than maybe one shot total (if that) at any of the distilleries (the samples are pretty small, maybe 1oz). Most of the distilleries have really pretty grounds or neat gift shops, so you could always walk around in there for a little while before driving again!
2- Most of the distilleries are nearby either Louisville or Lexington. Louisville has some really cool old (but expensive) hotels, like the Galt House, the Brown, and the Seelbach. If you're on a budget, I'd look for a deal on a hotel in Lexington for part of the time, and Louisville for other half of the distilleries.
3- It depends on what you're looking for! There's a little Korean place in Lexington that I LOVE (Han Woo Ri), but there's also some cool chef dinner experiences at a few of the distilleries (I know Maker's Mark and Buffalo Trace both do them).
I hope that helped a little!! Let me know if you've got more questions 🙂
Rachel says
Thanks so much! I'm planning a big group trip for Memorial Day Weekend and these tips will go a long way as I narrow down our itinerary.
Sarah says
Have fun!!! Try to book distillery tours online where they let you- that’ll be a busy weekend. Let me know if you have more questions!