The GOAT, Freddie Johnson, Buffalo Trace
Each distillery has their own way of giving tours and promoting their products, but it’s the Tour Guide who can make or break your experience at their distillery. Not only are they there to show you how their product is made, they also are the brand salesmen in a less obvious way.
I’ve probably been on at least 70 Tours and Tastings. Many times at the same distillery. I have a little experience myself in giving tours and public speaking. I’ve given well over 100 Fire Station tours in my career as a Firefighter and as a Public Educator and Public Information Officer I’ve spoken in front of thousands of people. While I was not selling a product per se, I was taking this time to educate and entertain people of all ages and backgrounds. My goal was always to have them want to come back again but most of all I wanted my groups to learn as much about firefighting as I could teach them in a short amount of time and leave with a life safety lesson. The Bourbon Distillery Tour Guide is doing this also, they are sometimes the first face you actually interact with at the distillery so a good tour guide can make the tour and have you want to come back again or break you and make you feel that you’ve seen enough. I give the distilleries the benefit of the doubt. If I have a bad Tour Guide, I just hope the next time it will be better, even if it’s a repeat tour guide, just hoping the bad tour I experienced was that they were just having a bad day. Many times, I will get an email to review my tour and Tour Guide, I take this opportunity to be blatantly honest. Not sure if this makes a difference but I feel someone is listening.
Marianne Eaves Formerly of Castle & Key
Changes in Bourbon Tours
When I first started on the Trail 15 years ago, the tours were just getting going. You could pull into a distillery and do a tour. Now you have to reserve 90 days out if you’re lucky. Since I started my Bourbon experiences every visitors center has changed at least once, and some multiple times. Bourbon is hot right now, and the better they can serve their consumer the more you will buy. Buffalo Trace, in my mind, has the market on marketing. Each day their doors open at 9:00 am and they offer one of four allotted bourbons each day. It will either be Blanton’s, E.H. Taylor, Eagle Rare or Weller. The lines start forming before 8:00 am. Once in you are only allowed 1 bottle of that days allotted bourbon, but their gift shop is so inviting, people come out with armfuls of their products and merchandise. Give that Marketing Director kudos!! Everyone at this facility from the people setting up the lines in the morning, the gift shop workers, the cashiers and the guides are some of the best and friendliest in the business.
Best Bourbon Tour Guide Experiences
I’ve had some of the best tour guides you could have. One of my first tour years ago at Buffalo Trace was with Freddie Johnson, now the face and Ambassador for Buffalo Trace. He set the bar high and I don’t know if anyone has ever come close. I also spent a half day with Fred Noe and his son Freddie at James Beam. We sampled right out of barrel, had tastings, lunch and just sat for a few hours talking Bourbon, an experience I highly recommend. I’ve sat with Jimmy Russel and learned more about the industry in 20 minutes than any book or tour guide could tell you. Okay I do admit, I just did some name dropping.
Spending the day with Fred and Freddie Jr. Noe
What Tour Guides Repeat At Every Distillery
On every tour you will hear the same schtick at all the distilleries so be prepared. “to be Bourbon it must be at least 51% corn”, “must be distilled at no higher than 160 proof, put inside a container to age no higher than 125 proof, and bottled at least 80 proof” Because the spent mash is given to farmers “we have the happiest cows in the country”. And because of the limestone waters “Kentucky has the best racehorses”….which is true. For me the make it or break it you may have noticed I said a container, specifically “new charred oak container”, this is by law, if a tour guide states a new charred oak barrel, this is not officially correct. They need to go back to the "Tour Guide Manual". Listen closely next time, and if asked the question, you'll know the right answer.
Mr. Bourbon, Wild Turkey's Jimmy Russell
A Good Tour Guide
Finding a good tour guide is kind of like your family, you can’t pick them you get what you get. You have your favorite Aunt and you have your Cousin Eddie. So what, in my mind, makes a good tour guide. First is appearance, I’ve only had a few that I questioned why they would put this person in front of people knowing he or she is going to be the face of the distillery. They need to be both entertaining and informative. I’m not looking to find the next Kevin Hart, but I do want to be entertained, just not overboard. And as far as informative, they should do it in a way that people say “damn you know your stuff” but not like they’re reading it right out of a book. I really like it when the guide comes from the region, raised on the stuff. It makes you feel more at home.
This last experience, while the tour guide was great, you knew she had the same things to say on each tour and she would lose eye contact with you as though she was talking but not really talking, if that makes sense. She was just going through the motions. I had another tour guide once say she really didn’t like some of their products. That was the first time I have ever seen people leave a tasting and not purchase a bottle, not a one. They just headed for the door.
Jim Beam Tour
Distillery Tastings
The tastings are where they entertain, educate and sell their product. I feel it’s so much better when they sit down and taste along with you. Now I know some distilleries do one right after the other and by the end of the day the guide would be a totally sloshed, but the distilleries where they taste with you just seems more personal. I’m a little bit confused because I’ve had some guides say by law they are not allowed to taste with you while others are tasting right along with you. A few have tastings as you do the tour. While one, Willet I liked, the other James Beam was as impersonal as it gets. Beam’s tastings have changed the most over the years. In the beginning you were given a plastic card after the tour to go around the tasting room inserting the card into the machines and received 3 tastings of your choice of all their products, but very impersonal as you were on your own. Then they changed to a tasting room above the gift shop which was nice but on my next trip they added a small mixology class after the tastings outside the tasting room at a bar which I couldn’t wait to come back. When I came back the next time, they did away with that now and you taste “on the run” during the tour.
Tasting at Buffalo Trace
Cost For Distillery Tours
Many distilleries have different tours other than the normal how we distill tour. It’s always fun to try the other tours available. Costs can range from Free, Buffalo Trace, up into the hundreds depending on the experience. Most are around $25-35 for their standard tour.
Makers Mark Tour
Tipping on The Bourbon Trail Tours
Unfortunately, in today’s world tipping has gotten out of hand. Do you or do you not tip your Tour Guide? Until the last year or so I never tipped them and never saw anyone else tipping, but now it seems that some people do it. I’m not sure if the guides expect it as they do seem totally “surprised” when you hand them a tip but it’s also a bit ironic now the guides either go to the bus door or the door of the tasting room and thank you individually for coming. Is this because they are really happy you came or is this a way to possibly get tips? If the guide deserves it, I’ll tip them now maybe $5-10, but if they are just okay, no tip.
Jim Beam Tour
Where’d The Bourbon Balls Go?
Because of the number of tours I’ve gone on, and I’m sure many people have been on many more than I have, my goal is to walk away learning at least one new thing. I’m not the person on the tour answering all the questions acting like I’m Mr. Bourbon, I may ask a few, by I’m not Mr. Know-it-all. I just want to be enlightened and entertained for the hour, then we get to taste. And by the way…since Covid a lot of the distilleries no longer reward you with a bourbon ball. A candy made from chocolate, bourbon and maybe a pecan and a bit of heaven. Every distillery needs to bring those back.
In my next life I want to come back as a Bourbon Distillery Tour Guide. Not sure if that will happen but I’ll let you know. In the meantime, I’ll continue touring the distilleries and enjoying the presentations, the tastings……….. and the bourbon balls.
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