GolfWiz Blog: Buffalo Trace: The Hallmark Of Kentucky Bourbon

If you think Kentucky is famous only for its horse racing and college basketball, you’ve missed a lot. It’s most famous product is Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey. Known the world over for its fine quality, 95% of all bourbon is made in the Lexington, Kentucky, area. Here, a half dozen distilleries (all within an easy drive) have formed a “Kentucky Bourbon Trail” where visitors can spend a day or more visiting various facilities and learning about (and taste) Kentucky Bourbon. The trail consists of six well-known bourbon distilleries., Four Roses, Heaven Hill, Jim Beam, Maker's Mark, Wild Turkey, and Woodford Reserve. See .

Buffalo Trace, a bourbon maker located near the state capital city of Frankfort, is the oldest continually distillery operating in the United States. Just a short distance from Lexington, it offers daily (except Sunday and holidays) tours of its operations. Buffalo Trace Distillery welcomes visitors for tours and shopping in our Visitor Center year-round. Gift Shop hours are

Monday through Friday: 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.Saturday: 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Tour hours are

Monday through Friday 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. departing every hour. For further information see: www.buffalotrace.com

According to historians whiskey and other distilled spirits, such as rum, played an important role in both the American colonies and in the new democratic union. As early as 1657, a rum distillery was operating in Boston. It was highly successful and within a generation the production of rum became colonial New England's largest and most prosperous industry.

Even before the American Revolution, whiskey had become the preferred way to use surplus grains in the frontier settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains. The expansion of a corn belt in Kentucky and Ohio had created a corn glut. It cost more to transport corn or grain than it could bring on the eastern markets, so farmers distilled it into "liquid assets" that could easily be shipped or bartered. Practically every farmer made whiskey.

A whiskey tax led to the first test of federal power, the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794. It was put down by federal troops ordered in by President Washington. After serving as president, George Washington became probably the new nation's largest whiskey distiller.

Its believed by 1810 there were at least 2,000 distillers producing more than 1.76 million gallons of whiskey. Annual alcohol consumption (including wine, beer, etc.) may have been as high as 8 gallons per person. I’ll drink to that.