LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Kentucky Bourbon Trail is turning 25 years old this year. The trail has brought in millions of tourists since it opened in 1999, and since that time distillery after distillery has opened up to take advantage of one of Kentucky’s major industries.
They come from all over too. The world of bourbon distilleries range from hustle and bustle of downtown Louisville to the serene fields of Loretto Kentucky and everywhere in between. 2.5 million visitors came to the commonwealth in 2023 just to visit the distilleries along the bourbon trail.
“76% of people who come to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail are from outside of Kentucky,” said Dee Ford, the brand home general manager of Angel’s Envy.
Makers Mark has been welcoming those guests in since before the trail even began. Rob Samuels is the Managing Director at Maker’s Mark and he says that the distillery was one of the first to join the Bourbon Tail.
“We were hosting visitors for decades before the Bourbon Trail. So Marker’s Mark, from day one, thought differently about sharing what my grandparents had created,” said Samuels.
He credits the bourbon side of the business to his grandfather. He says his passion created a whiskey that just last year grossed $22.6 million in revenue according to RocketReach, but Samuels says the brand ‘Maker’s Mark’ really comes back to his grandmother.
“She created the name, she designed the bottle, and she’s also credited with formalizing bourbon tourism,” said Samuels.
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Now the distillery in Loretto welcomes guests from all over the world to see their distillation process and the every growing farm to table approach that Maker’s takes on it’s Starhill Farm property.
“Whiskey is agricultural. And when you try to really appreciate and understand where flavor comes from, flavor comes through with regenerative agriculture,” said Samuels.
“It wasn’t that long ago that what success looked like was just the best possible 75-minute experience here on site. But we have a vision and plan to become a destination,” he continued.
That goal to become a destination is realized throughout the trail. Jeptha Creed in Shelbyville is a perfect example.
The Nethery family opened up Jeptha Creed in 2016 with the intention of being on the bourbon trail. In fact, it was the reason they built what they built at their location just off of I-64 in Shelby County.
“We actually designed the distillery for tourism specifically because there was a bourbon trail,” said Joyce Nethery the CEO and Master Distiller out at Jeptha.
She says they intended to be a bourbon distillery from the very beginning, but distilling bourbon takes time and that presented challenges in the early days.
“So we opened up with vodka and moonshine so that actually made it quite a challenge to be a bourbon distillery, on the bourbon trail, without bourbon on the shelf,” said Nethery.
8 years later the bourbon is flowing out at Jeptha Creed and the distillery is leaning into it’s role as an attraction for the trail and for the county it resides in. Nethery says they hear from guests that their distillery is a nice way to book end their trip to Kentucky, either starting at Jeptha or ending their journey along the trail there. Each time that happens, she says the community of Shelbyville seems to benefit.
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“We are an attraction. We are bringing tourists in to come and visit. We’re kind of a stop for those tourists and through this stop their able to experience Shelby County. And while they’re here they ask about where can we go for lunch? Where can we go to dinner? Where can we stay if we want to come back? Or they’re already staying at a hotel,” said Nethery.
Dee Ford at Angel’s Envy says they can relate to the expanding economic impact that Nethery mentioned. She says she sees that economic impact expanding well outside the walls of their distillery.
“The trickle-down effect of Bourbon Tourism is just phenomenal for this state,” said Ford.
“Maybe you’ll spend a couple of days in Louisville, maybe you’ll spend a couple of days in Bardstown, maybe you didn’t get to do everything you wanted to do and you can come back. Those repeat visits are also exciting for people because the urban and the rural are very different experiences in Kentucky,” she continued.
She says that the experience at Angel’s Envy has had to grow and change over the years. The challenges they face being in downtown Louisville made their approach more unique than some of the other distilleries who have the space and the land to continually expand.
“We hosted 50,000 people and we tracked 49,000 who walked away. And that was exciting that people wanted to be here but not good that we weren’t able to accommodate them,” said Ford.
“We were able to open up in 2022 on National Bourbon Day with an additional 13,000 square feet that had five tasting rooms, expanded retail, and a very large event space that we’re in right now. So it was really, our growth was dictated by the visitors,” she continued.
For 25 years the trail has been about those visitors; drawing them in, giving them a unique look at the process, and sending them along to experience everything Kentucky has to offer. Rob Samuels at Maker’s Mark says that approach continues to work, now a quarter of a century later, and the longer it does the more Kentucky becomes the real winner.
“People that can go anywhere and do anything are choosing to come here and soak up the magic of Kentucky,” said Samuels.