12
MY
ROUSES
EVERYDAY
NOVEMBER | DECEMBER 2013
T
he Boudin Trail runs from San
Antonio, Texas, straight through
Louisiana, and all the way to
Jackson, Mississippi. The Bourbon Trail
begins and ends in Kentucky. More than
95 percent of all bourbon comes from the
Bluegrass State. Wild Turkey is made in
Lawrenceburg; Makers Mark in Loretto;
Jim Beam in Clermont. My personal
favorite, Buffalo Trace, is made at a
200-year-old distillery in Frankfurt, the
capital of Kentucky, and burial place of
Daniel Boone.
Bill Goldring and his family own Buffalo
Trace Distillery; he and my dad are great
friends. Over dinner at Chop House in New
Orleans, the two hatched the idea of going
to Kentucky for a private, behind-the-
scenes tour of the distillery. I was chosen to
hand-select (nose select?) our own barrels
of bourbon, which Bill would then bottle
for Rouses.
I did some research before our trip, which
was my second to the Buffalo Trace
Distillery, and it turns out the designation of
bourbon as a separate whisky can be traced
to New Orleans in the year 1785. Back then
Kentucky was still part of Virginia. Whisky
was packed in oak barrels for shipping and
stamped with the name of the county where
it originated. Bourbon came from Bourbon
County. Bourbon County was a long way
from what’s now Bourbon Street. The
whisky aged and mellowed during the trip,
and took on flavor unique to the area where
it was barreled. I was surprised to find out
that it wasn’t until 1964 that Congress
Straight Up: BUFFALO TRACE
by
Donny Rouse
officially recognized bourbon as it’s own spirit and a distinctive
product of the United States.
Five of us flew to Frankfurt for the tour, which was led by Bill and
guide Freddie Johnson; Freddie is the third generation in his family
to work at Buffalo Trace. The tour included stops along every part
of the bourbon-making process, and lunch with Harlen Wheatley,
Buffalo Trace’s master distiller.
Freddie explained that Buffalo Trace is made with a sweet mash of
Indiana corn, rye, malted barley, and Kentucky “branch water,” the
naturally filtered water from Kentucky’s underground aquifers.That
sweet mash is mixed with a sour mash of previously distilled whisky
and yeast, then sent to the fermentation room, where it undergoes
Donald and Donny Rouse at Buffalo Trace
