Marker's Mark

With a day off in Louisville, I headed down to the Maker's Mark distillery with Kyle and Marla. It was quite a trip in Marla's 6-series BMW. The back seat isn't really made for adults, but Kyle and I switched off and managed the hour drive down.

It's quite a way from the city, and out in the middle of farmland. In fact, it's a bit of a challenge to get there as cellular service is spotty out there.

 A distillery is like a winery or brewery, and the process is similar. Cook grains, put them in a big pot like this and boil them down, cool them, age them.

They use wooden casks, each one about 20ft deep and 12ft or so across. They're really large barrels made from cypress, and these are 100 year old barrels.

The grounds are nicely landscaped.

 A horrible job. Moving stacks of labels into a cutter.

Quite an automated process in places, with bottles being constantly filled and packed.

 We had a tasting. Avoid the white bourbon. It's from early in the process, before aging.