Clarksville, IN / Louisville, KY
Today was the first time in this area that we had a chance to get out and explore. There are so many things to do, we just didn't know where to start and realistically, we can't do everything in one day! Hopefully we'll have a chance to pace ourselves. We left home at about 1:00 (Mitch was a bit delayed helping a family member with tech support; I had wanted to leave around 11. Such is life - plans made in bubbles as always).
I love farmers markets and the summer/early fall is a great time when all the fresh produce from local farms are available. There are quite a few little local farmers markets in and around Louisville and we found 2 that are open on Sundays (most are Friday and Saturday, but there are also a few during the week). We chose the closer one to go to, which is actually sponsored by and set up in front of a natural foods market called Rainbow Blossoms (a local and much smaller version of Whole Foods). We found a few nice things there.
Here are some photos of the bridge we need to cross over the Ohio River between IN and KY, and the Louisville skyline (first one's a bit blurry -- I was in a moving truck after all, but it captures most of the scene).
Next, our main event was visiting a distillery, but instead of something on the Bourbon Trail, we went to a place called Copper & Kings which distills brandy, gin and absinthe. It was an extremely interesting tour (Mitch and I were the only ones!). Among all the interesting tidbits we learned about the brandy-making process and the use of copper stills, was that this is aged in barrels to rock & roll music (apparently the vibrations help break up the molecules and make it a smoother drink). They also have a huge party room and rooftop where they hold a lot of events (they're having a solar eclipse party where we hope to go if it's not cloudy or raining that day). We ended the tour with tastings, and I admit I'm not really a brandy, gin or absinthe fan. I think I'll stick to bourbon and wine. It was also very nice -- they were preparing for a party later in the evening and someone was in the kitchen cooking (it smelled delicious). Joking around, I asked if I could have some since I hadn't eaten lunch. She prepared a huge plate of noodles and vegetables (I picked out the veggies and left Mitch the pasta). Really, really nice of her to do that! It was darn tasty too!
The company is also very environmentally and community friendly. The buildings are mostly made of used shipping containers, all their aging barrels are recycled from other distilleries which can't reuse their barrels, they have a large butterfly garden, and they're a really big part of the community - including inviting local artists to help design their labels! They hold weekly concerts there as well as special events such as weddings (they have a large kitchen and do catering as well).
The distillery is in a section of Louisville called Butchertown, which as the name suggests, used to be an area where people brought their animals for slaughter. Across the street is a pork processing plant, so we're told the town usually has a pretty bad aroma. Now it has become industrialized and more on the hipster side.
The butterfly garden (just one small part of it - it went around the entire building). In the background is the pork processing plant.
Entrance to the visitor's center. Me in front of the sign
Entrance to the distillery building. All the orange are the shipping containers. It's not in the photo, but there was a nice reflecting pool on the outside
The space between the visitor's area and distillery building had an open air patio. The benches and tables are made of recycled lumber.
A beautiful sky above:
Two of the huge copper stills:
Our tour guide in front of the bottling room:
The aging room in the basement. The aroma was awesome!
We picked up the tour at 2:30 and were finished at 4:00, at which time we decided to head back home. Until next week's adventures....
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