6/22/2023

Hello Blog Readers,

This past week in Louisville has been a blast! I’ve been looking past the grimy and sketchy parts of downtown and making sure to explore things both in and out of the city; I’ve been getting used to the warm weather and humidity that seems to get so thick in the afternoon that it will start pouring rain out of nowhere for about 10-20 minutes each evening; and my cousin has been a great host showing me some awesome places and bars around the town.

My work conference ended yesterday (I’m not sure that it provided the morale boost that I was searching for at the beginning of the week…but that’s okay), which meant that it was time to start the fun part of the trip: Getting back on the infamous Bourbon Trail of Kentucky!

My last trip on the Bourbon Trail occurred in 2021. At that time, I went to Woodford Reserve and Maker’s Mark, and it’s definitely worth reading the blog entry from that trip. This time around, I toured Angel’s Envy and the Kentucky Artisan Distillery. These two distilleries could not have been more different from one another, and yet each offered its own amazing experience. It also taught me a lot about the sort of people who end up in the bourbon world. So without further ado, let’s take a trip once again along the Bourbon Trail!

Angel’s Envy Distillery, Louisville

Angel’s Envy is located in the heart of downtown Louisville, directly across the street from the city’s ballpark. It was about a half mile away from my hotel, so after my work conference I casually made the walk across downtown and over to the distillery. As I grew close to the distillery, the humid Kentucky air started taking on the familiar, sweet smell of bread and alcohol vapors that emanate from all distilleries. It’s a heavenly, comforting smell.

Angel’s Envy itself is a bit of a paradox. It’s only been around since 2011, but in spite of being such a young company, it has already garnered an almost legendary status among bourbon connoisseurs. Part of that is because Angel’s Envy is not really a young company, but the brainchild of Master Distiller Lincoln Henderson, who in his prime helped develop the modern day recipes for Woodford Reserve and Gentleman Jack. Retired in the 2000’s, his son Wes approached him one day and asked if he would be willing to help Wes start a new “family” distillery. Lincoln agreed to the proposal, and acting as a consultant, he and his son started a company and they found real estate in a dilapidated, historic factory building in Louisville – the former Vermont American Power Tool Factory. Even earlier in Louisville history, in the early 1800’s the site was a racetrack frequented by gamblers and merchants. Oddly, they didn’t race horses back then, but rather…billy goats.

Angel’s Envy’s signature whiskey is aged in new charred American oak and former port casks, giving it a signature sweet, smooth taste that’s enjoyed by both new and old bourbon drinkers and that goes really well in cocktails. More recently, Angel’s Envy released a rye whiskey which it ages in new charred American oak and former rum casks. The latter release might be heaven – it’s smooth, syrupy, and its flavor notes carry all of the best tastes of both high quality rum and bourbon. Pair it with white chocolate, and it’s perfect.

Due to a huge amount of investment and being as young as it is, the Angel’s Envy distillery is refined, hip, modern, and upscale using state of the art technology. It’s a really cool place to visit! And as for the name? As much as 1/3 of the alcohol in a whiskey barrel escapes as vapor during the aging process. The escaped vapor is called the “angel’s share.” A little tongue in cheek, Lincoln and Wes decided that the angels might have their share, but what remains in the barrel is what the angels truly envy.

Kentucky Artisan Distillery, Crestwood

From a cultural sense, the second distillery that I visited is the complete opposite of Angel’s Envy. If Angel’s Envy Distillery is hip, modern, urban, and filled with top of the line technology, Kentucky Artisan Distillery is agrarian, timeless, and focused on Kentucky’s historic whiskey culture and the “old ways” of doing business. It’s a beautiful, rural place that kind of made me feel like I was back in Chico or Vina wandering the countryside.

Around for decades, Kentucky Artisan Distillery is a ‘contract distiller and bottler,’ meaning that rather than put out its own whiskeys and labels, what it does is work with ‘small batch’ distillers and hobbiests to bring their small batch whiskey visions to life. As a result, there are several rare and hobby-style whiskeys coming out of Kentucky Artisan Distillery – sometimes only a few barrels of a product may be produced. They even let me put my name on a small hobby barrel!

The biggest label that uses Kentucky Artisan Distillery’s services is Jefferson’s Reserve, which advertises itself as ‘Very old Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Very Small Batch’ (sounds like a Judge Robbie T’s whiskey description…). But now seeing where it’s produced, you can see why it’s described that way. Jefferson’s is also the label that made headways in the news in the 2010’s with its award-winning “Ocean” variety. Basically Jefferson’s distiller, Trey Zoeller (a wealthy Kentucky’s attorney’s playboy son) was on a ship one day, and he noticed all of the movement on the ship from the waves. He came to the conclusion that storing his barrels on ocean vessels rather than in a barn in Kentucky could lead to a brand new taste for whiskey in light of the ship’s constant motion leading to greater contact between the barrel wood and bourbon, and the sea air providing new tasting notes. Sure enough, it’s a pretty good whiskey!

Don’t worry Marquette and Red Bluff, I flagged our towns on the KAD map. 🙂

This place was just great! Laid back and down to earth, I felt so at home here, and the Kentucky countryside was gorgeous. As whiskey distilled inside Kentucky Artisan Distillery, the sounds of bugs and birds chirping could be heard outside. It was my silly dream of becoming a country whiskey-distiller come to life. If I were to ever start a distillery, I would want it to be rural and laid-back just like this one. But perhaps the greatest part of this distillery didn’t involve whiskey at all. Rather, it was the AMAZING spot right next door to the distillery, which brings me to…

Yew Dell Botanical Gardens, Crestwood

Those who’ve read this blog for a long time know that I often visit botanical gardens. Some people might find them boring, but I love to visit them for inspiration and peace. I’ve been to some good botanical gardens over the years (San Antonio, Texas and Silverton, Oregon come to mind), some not-so-good ones (Omaha, Nebraska and Dallas, Texas), but this one in Crestwood, Kentucky might be my favorite one yet. Just like the distillery next door to it, Yew Dell Botanical Garden was like something straight out of my imagination and brought to life. It’s my dream of contemporary architecture and the natural world coming together – of living spaces, wild spaces, and peaceful nature trails melding and working as one to create the sort of settings that sadly in today’s world we don’t often see. At once though, it is instantly recognizable as what I would want life to look like (if I was a super fancy person who could afford building a home and garden with these aesthetics). Anyways, I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

This place was so stunningly beautiful – I stayed here for hours today, and it completely rejuvenated me. Not the work meetings, not the workouts, not going to church, not the distilleries, or dining, or going out on the town…just this place. It was pure zen. And as I drove away from the distillery and these gardens, and I made my way through the pristine suburbs and boroughs of greater Louisville with their black fences, perfect homes, and upscale schools, I started wondering if maybe, just maybe something more was stirring in my heart; because I really felt at home, and I did not want to leave.

Until next time.

Cheers,

-Rob