Bourbon Country

Just a few miles out of the city signs of the best of the bluegrass region become more apparent, it would be difficult to forget where you are. Tourism signs abound pointing out equestrian and bourbon attractions left and right. Our road to Maker's Mark is due to be a long one, but it doesn't take long to come across one distillery, then another, and another. The first is the home of Jim Beam bourbons. The distillery looms in a picturesque valley with industrial authority that cries out "Beam is here." The distillery of a lesser known bourbon, Four Roses, hides down a small, windy road canopied with oak and black walnut shortly before we make an approach to Bardstown. Beany points out a back road that also leads to Bardstown where you'd be able to find the original homesteads of the Samuels and Beam families. Always neighbors and good friends, these families and many of the other bourbon families are close and have relied on each other throughout generations. In Bardstown we pass the two brick homes, side by side, where the Noe family resides and Beany notes that if "Freddy were in town we'd probably be playing pool upstairs."