Bourbon Chronicles: Wild Turkey, Michter’s & Old Forester

Welcome to another installment of the Bourbon Chronicles where we experience distilleries that are part of the bourbon trail and rate the tour and tasting experience. In December, we were able to get out to three distillery tours and taste their bourbon. The tour and tasting experience finally opened back up at Wild Turkey. We tried a distillery in the city, Michter’s Fort Nelson Distillery, and Glenn went on his day off to tour Old Forester. Grab your beverage of choice and sip and savor our commentary on each.

Bourbon Tour & Tasting – Wild Turkey

We’ve visited Wild Turkey before but this was our first time doing the tour and tasting. Geographically, this distillery is located about an hour east of the city of Louisville, Kentucky in the eastern time zone. Arrive a few minutes prior to your tour to check in. You’ll have time afterwards to visit the bar and gift shop.

On either your way out our back into the city, you’ll pass by some areas of interest along the highway. Jeptha Creed distillery is one of our favorites and worth popping into especially because they have a cocktail and pour bar, a great gift shop and they offer a small food menu ( of pizza etc.). Separately, you’ll pass by the Outlet Shops in Simpsonville where you can visit the Under Armour Factory House (shameless plug & backlink b/c I work for Under Armour).

 

Name	Location	Tour Time	Tour Name	Tour Price	Address	Food Options
Wild Turkey	Versailles, KY	60 min	Path to Flavor	$35	7785 McCracken Pike Versailles, KY 40383	None

They had finished renovations on the visitor center so there was a nice bar and lounge area with an expansive view overlooking the river and old rail road bridge. It was quite cozy. You can also get to peek inside one of their retired stills. We enjoyed a cocktail (rye whiskey) and noted their menu as well. The outdoor patio is also nice; I’m sure it will be crowded on a less chilly day than December.

The grounds are spread out so you’ll travel on a small bus to their distillery facility. Then over to their rick houses. I think it’s aways interesting to see this type of large scale production at scale compared to smaller distilleries. You also tend to see more technology integrated into the process to help ensure a similar product at scale.

The bourbon tasing itself was straightforward as they have a small portfolio of expressions but they are still very tasty; it’s an established brand for a reason. I really liked how they used old, charred barrels as part of the display cases showcasing their various bottles on both sides of the tasting room.

Photo gallery

Bourbon Tour & Tasting – Michter’s

Name	Location	Tour Time	Tour Name	Tour Price	Address	Food Options
Michter’s	Downtown Louisville, KY	60 min	Discovery Tour	$25	801 West Main Street Louisville, KY 40202	Bar (no food or bites at the time, 2025)

The brand name itself is a combination of two names: MICHael and peTER the son’s of Lou Forman. It has a long history dating back to 1753 among America’s earliest whiskey companies. Our tour was in the main room that’s part of the Fort Nelson Building on Louisville’s Museum Row. Given that we were in the city, this was the primary room of the tour after which we moved into an adjacent room for the tasting.

Upstairs is an on-site bar, the Bar at Fort Nelson. We didn’t get a chance to go up and experience it because, as you can imagine, there’s a capacity limit. An elevator at the ground level where the gift shop is, is the entrance up to their bar. If you’re looking for a more extended tour, this isn’t the experience for you. But, if you’re in the city maybe having come from another distillery, this would be a good one to try.

We enjoyed the tasting experience: I think we now have a better feel for their products and would feel comfortable purchasing one to bring as a host/hostess gift or gifting it to someone visiting Kentucky.

Michter’s will likely score a bit lower on our ranking of distilleries because the experience itself is confined to one room plus the tasting room so there’s not a lot to “see and experience” on their tour.

Ahem, because we didn’t get into their bar area, I remembered another place I wanted to pop into: The Last Refuge.

Bonus bourbon tasting: The Last Refuge

Wow. This restaurant, event space & bar is IMPRESSIVE. There is a massive spirits wall –and they have plans to mirror that on the other side of the room. We happened to pop in on a Sunday just after they opened at 4PM and it was a really unique time to experience this location without a lot of people around.

We ordered a pizza and had cocktails. The pizza is really good (Ok, I was hungry too) and it was nice to be able to have some hearty food after the tasting at Michter’s. I highly recommend an afternoon bourbon tasting followed by a reservation at The Last Refuge for food and continued drinks. They also have non-alcoholic ones.

Plus! There’s a dog-friendly patio so we’ll definitely be back with Rizzo when the weather is warmer.

I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention Whiskey Thief Distilling Co. Their Louisville location on Nanny Goat Strut (street), welcomes walk-in’s and is right around the corner from The Last Refuge. That’s next on our list of distilleries in the city to try.

Bourbon Tour & Tasting – Old Forester

Name	Location	Tour Time	Tour Name	Tour Price	Address	Food Options
Old Forester	Downtown Louisville, KY	60 min	Old Forester Tour	$32	119 West Main Street, Louisville, KY 40202	None

Turning things over to Glenn for a moment as he did this one on his own…

To start, I had the first tour time of the day and started off waiting in line outside — a line I assumed was for the tour. Luckily, a distillery representative poked is head out to ask if anyone was in line for the tour. Myself and another couple stepped forward and were ushered inside, while the rest of the line continued to wait for (as it was explained to us) the bottle shop to open up. So, a little tip, if you have the first tour time, go ahead and go right inside. Anyway…

When it comes to content of a tour (as in, what material the tour guide covers), usually it’s going to cover some mixture of three elements: an education about bourbon, historical or unique information about the particular distillery, and a description of what makes that distillery’s bourbon unique (something particular about the recipe, technique, equipment used, etc.). I felt Old Forrester had a really strong showing of all three elements.

The tour itself started in the basement, then we rode a glass elevator (Holly: Ok, Wonka!?) to the top floor, and the rest of the tour took us down through the four or five floors of the facility. Much like the other Whiskey Row distilleries, Old Forrester’s only provided a small percentage of their total bourbon production, with their main distillery being located several miles away (I think in Shively). But every phase of the bourbon-making process is represented and on full display in their Main St. location: cooking, brewing, distilling and aging.

It’s very common for distillery tours to feature cookers or stills, but this is only the fourth or fifth one I can recall that showed an aging area (which at Forrester, was pretty neat). And what sets Forrester’s facility apart: they have their own on-site cooperage — the operation of making (and for the sake of bourbon-aging, charring) barrels. Like every other phase, it’s a small operation (literally it’s one guy making all the barrels), but still very cool to see.

The bottling line is the last part of the tour before the tasting and subsequent exiting through the gift shop (my favorite! Sorry, back to you, Glenn). The tasting featured four different expressions, as well as a bourbon candy. Each expression was surprisingly unique, despite only utilizing one mash bill for all the bourbons. I didn’t see an on-site bar or any food options, which are the only cons against the place, because in general, the tour was unique and exceptional.

Louisville bourbon trail review

December was a great month for us KY locals to get out and experience a few distilleries that had been on our list to get out to. If you’re not local, we think Old Forester is definitely the one to put on your list if you’re in the city and Wild Turkey too if you’re able to travel a bit. There are definitely a few other bourbon (and gin) distilleries to experience nearby Wild Turkey so keep them in mind as you’re building your schedule & plan. Cheers!

For these experiences, randomly, our Ice Cube rating is:

Ice Cube Rating 1-5	Distillery
5/5	Wild Turkey
4/5	Old Forester
3/5	Michter’s

• WT has it all: a proper tour, tasting, gift shop, bar, bites.
• OF: great experience but no on-site bar or food.
• M: easily accessible (in the city), has a bar but no food.

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Check out other distilleries we’ve visited!

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These are my personal views and experience and not those of my employer.