Maker's Mark Distillery (Loretto, KY)

The first night away from home I spent in Lexington, KY. I had chosen Lexington over Indianapolis, IN because the latter was a bigger city than I was in the mood to road trip through.

Lexington's rolling green hills and white horse fences were picturesque, and just the right note with which to set off a long journey. And what an adventure it was the next morning when I headed to Loretto, KY to visit the Maker's Mark Distillery. (The narrow winding country roads were a bit intimidating.)


I confess that I had never had Maker's Mark before, nor am I generally a bourbon whisky drinker. But, a former roommate of mine did drink Maker's Mark and their distinctive red wax hand-dipped bottle is certainly memorable. But, the distillery tour was on a list of AAA attractions for the area, and it was FREE. That's all I needed to know before I inputted the address into my GPS and headed out. (I certainly had no idea that there was a Bourbon Trail I could have explored in KY if I had only left myself more time!)


In any case, I LOVED the distillery tour and LOVED the Maker's Mark Mint Julep I sampled at the end of the tour. (Sure, it's probably better with fresh mint leaves, but their bottled variety was plenty tasty.) When they say hand-crafted, they mean it, and you can see it! I was impressed enough to leave with a bottle and sign up to be an ambassador. (You don't have to visit the distillery to become an ambassador, for more details go to http://www.makersmark.com/AmbassadorRegister.aspx)


Some folks were amazed that I'd travel to Lexington, being the queer transman that I am, especially given that I was traveling alone. I'm happy to report that I didn't have any negative experiences during my road trip, including but not limited to Kentucky. I'm sure I seemed strange to folks, but that's true most places I go, the Washington D.C. metro area and San Francisco Bay area, too!