Bourbon Trail Tales (Part 2!) - Louisville (Michter’s, Evan Williams, Angel's Envy)
Background
Quick background- our whiskey group here in DC (J St Whiskey) was fortunate enough to partner with some local establishments (shoutout to District Liquors, Show of Hands and Cinder BBQ) to head out to Kentucky and pick a Peerless Bourbon barrel recently. As a few of our picking crew had not been out to the promised land yet, we decided to build in a fair amount of tours and stops. I wanted to share some of my takeaways from our experiences throughout our trip, with the hope being that others heading out to KY find some of this useful, and am planning to do it in three parts:
Part 2: Louisville
In each of these posts I’ll break things down by distillery, tour, and also note some interesting stops we made along the way! We already covered Bardstown in Part One, now onto our first stop in Louisville!
Michters: Gift Shop Stop
Price/Length: N/A - we arrived there at open to see what they had.
Details: This was our first stop getting into Louisville. Some of you likely already know, but Michter’s is a little bit sneaky with their releases at Fort Nelson. Pro tip- show up about say, 30 mins before open, get in line, and ask when open if they have any spots available to fill your own bottle. They (often? occasionally? Fellow redditors- weigh in) release them morning of to those first in line. We decided to try our luck Sunday morning at 12:30 open after leaving Bardstown that morning. While they did not have any fill your own bottles OR anything special at the gift shop at open… Kentucky is not legally allowed to sell booze until 1 on Sundays. On a hunch and a hat tip from a kind employee, we waited around until 1 and sure enough- sneaky, sneaky Michter’s!- combo packs of Michter's Small Batch Bourbon and Barrel Strength Bourbon were wheeled out for purchase ($184 total after tax, no you couldn’t buy them separately).
Overall Thoughts: Not a ton for me here given we just popped in. Cool gift shop, and apparently the bar has some well priced flights (apologies, I did not write down the exact costs or contents). While I understand distilleries bundling allocated products with base ones… it still doesn’t mean I love it. I think Michter’s Small Batch Bourbon is kind of bad, so being required to take on a bottle to get Barrel Strength Bourbon was an unfortunate price of doing business. Funny note- my buddy gave his standard Michter’s bourbon to his Uber driver as an extra tip.
Notable Gift Shop Offerings: Roughly ~30 combo packs of Small Batch and Barrel Strength Bourbon.
Evan Williams Bourbon Experience: Speakeasy Tasting
Price/Length: $25+ taxes and fees. 45 minutes.
Details: In comparison to the almost castle-like building of Michter’s Fort Neslon location, you could almost call the Evan Williams location a bit of an unassuming storefront if not for basically a fathead style window decal of a large Evan Williams bottle. Anyways, for the Speakeasy tour we head down the basement where one member of the tour knocks on an old bank vault door. From there, the Speakeasy opens up and lets you into a lovely, 1930s style bar area. You’ll sit down and enjoy five pours while your barkeep gives you a lovely walkthrough of bourbon history up through prohibition. The pours rotate, but ours were: Square 6 Rye, Evan Williams Bottled in Bond, Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel, Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond, Elijah Craig Barrel Proof. We were also told that, while those bottles might not be displayed in the gift shop, because we attended that tour we were able to buy any of them upstairs so long as they had not already sold out.
Overall Thoughts: Look this is admittedly maybe a mind set and setting situation, but I’m going to admit I was a wee bit hungover from some late night Bardstown shenanigans. Sitting in a cool, dark basement drinking some solid whiskey while our barkeep/tour guide very earnestly and performatively gave us some history was JUST what the doctor ordered. I loved this. The bar ambience was perfect, the seats comfy, the whiskey tasty… no complaints. I alluded to this in Part 1 on my Bardstown Bourbon Company thoughts, but one of my main pieces of advice to those looking to make a number of stops along the bourbon trail is to mix up the experiences. Don’t book all standard tours, mix in some pure tastings and if you can afford it, the occasional premium experience.
Notable Gift Shop Offerings: Evan Williams 12 Year (I believe $150, I did not purchase), the aforementioned offerings from the tasting.
Angel’s Envy: Signature Tour
Price/Length: $25 + taxes and fees. 1 hour.
Details: Angel’s Envy is the first operating distillery on Main Street in Louisville since Prohibition, and the Signature Tour is their standard tour of the space. You’ll start the tour getting a walk through of the ABCs of Angels Envy Bourbon (and bourbon in general, really) before a bit of a Willy Wonka moment opening two, large, angel’s wings adorned doors that swing open at the push of the tour guide’s button. Once inside, you’ll walk through a start to finish (literally in Angel’s Envy’s case, they’ll show you port and rum barrels) tour of production. You’ll have the option to taste the distiller’s beer (chunky!) and white dog as well.
Once the tour is complete, you’ll head into a room to taste three pours of whiskey paired with some chocolate. Two pours (one with rocks, one neat) of Angel’s Envy Bourbon, and a pour of Angel’s Envy Rye. The bourbon was paired with a lovely orange infused milk chocolate, the rye paired with white chocolate. The tasting rooms are conveniently on the same floor as the bar, so once you’re done you can stick around for additional pours at the bar.
Overall Thoughts: First and foremost, it’s a beautiful space. A huge cathedral dedicated to whiskey making. It is, candidly, a pretty corporate experience- that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It is impressive to see how the sausage gets made. Our tour guide, Amelia, was top notch. The odd thing to note was that the bar was honestly pretty lacking in what pours you could buy. From what I remember it was basically the standard bourbon, rye, and then a single barrel selection that was available in the gift shop. I don’t recall seeing limited releases such as Ice Cider or Cask Strength on the menu. Again it’s a cool space, but having some type of limited release flight or a standard bourbon, single barrel bourbon, and cask strength flight seems like a no-brainer.
Notable Gift Shop Offerings: Distillery only Single Barrel Selection.
Notable Stops
A few cool spots within Louisville we hit up:
Evergreen Liquors on Market Street: Great pours and, at least compared to DC, great prices. 18 year King of Kentucky for $80/oz or Old Forester President’s Choice for $30/oz for example. But they have plenty of delicious picks and pours for significantly cheaper than that, those are just two knockout pours we’re hard pressed to find here in the District.
La Bodeguita Cuban Restaurant: Not whiskey related at all! But you have to eat somewhere when you’re in town right? Fantastic food, highly recommend for dinner.
Louisville Cream: I mean you just had awesome Cuban food, why dont you walk across the street for ice cream?
