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Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Tourism.

And for Roses.

Bourbon.

Thank you for your support.

Did you know Kentucky has more navigable miles of water than any other state in the U.S. except Alaska?

Is Alaska still a state.

Whose 90,000 miles of streams and dozens of rivers?

It's also quite famous for some other liquids flows which flow from a barrel.

That being beers, bourbons and wine.

Many of the world's best known distilleries can be found right here in the Bluegrass State.

And interestingly enough, pretty darn close to many of our lakes, rivers and streams.

We're here to take you on an expedition of the secrets and histories of our intricate waterways while visiting Kentucky's distilleries, breweries and wineries.

I'm Carrie.

And I'm Kyle.

And we are two Kentuckians who are pretty proud of our state.

We share a sip of what the Commonwealth.

Has to offer.

Hey, Kyle.

Hello there.

Miscarry, shaken.

But not stirred.

Well, it's not a martini.

What is it?

This is a bloody Mary with Bloody Mary mix from Rick's White Light diner here in Frankfort and some castle in Ky Vodka.

Do you like my big, fast yellow boat I get to write about this time.

You did?

Speaking of which, where's your little.

Well, I'm not going to be piloting any vessels today after drinking this mine's dry docked.

Instead, I think I'm going to hitch a ride on a couple of different boats today.

I'm going to check out Kentucky State University's Kentucky River Thoroughbred.

And then I think I'm going to try the bourbon.

The bourbon, though.

Yeah.

Like I got messed up for my schedule tomorrow.

You know what?

I've had a voting for the day.

So while you're out doing that, I'm going to check out Buffalo Trace.

Then I'm going to go to the castle in the key.

Did you know that in Frankfort, Kentucky, you can go to a castle and Pompeii all in the same day?

That sounds pretty awesome.

I say we go for it.

We will.

Oh, wait a minute.

Wait a minute, Wait a minute.

You know, Captain Paul gave me a riddle.

Oh, another one of these.

You know how much I love these riddles.

So we've got this challenge to figure out.

Today in Kentucky, not every ball goes in a basket, and not every liquid resides in a bottle.

In 1919, a magical pairing occurred in Frankfort.

And your mouth will never be the same.

You know, Kyle, I think I got this one.

Oh, you did, huh?

Yeah.

You'd like to.

You know what?

There's a great place downtown.

Bourbon on Main.

I think it's on Main Street.

We should probably go check that out at the end of the day.

And let's see.

Just one more.

I'll drink to the challenge after.

I'm out of here.

Mm.

We're here today in Frankfort on the Kentucky State University's Kentucky River Thoroughbred.

And we're going to talk to Ed Wilcox about taking a public education.

Chris.

So the thoroughbred, the Kentucky River Thoroughbred is Kentucky State University's educational classroom and laboratory.

And it's open to the public.

We invite anybody to come on board, and it's just a great opportunity.

We try to get people to understand their connections, to the waterways around them.

So the.

Singing bridge.

That's right to our front here, which people may hear, we are hearing vehicles are going over.

Is that why you call it the singing Bridge?

Is because when great was the flood of the winter of 7879, the center of the bridge was just out of the water.

Where is the ends of the bridge were under the water.

That's how much water was here.

Well, you tell me a little bit about what you tell your students and your visitors.

Sure.

Sure.

Flagship program for the public is a history tour and it focuses on the river.

So we'll start like 450 million years ago and talk about how this wasn't even a river back then, but then just work our way up through history to talk about how the river got to be the way it is now.

And then along the way, I try to address people's concerns over the condition of the river.

So you get a lot of tourists who come on your boat.

How do you how is your program different?

And you're teaching a school then when the folks come on a weekend for a tour.

For school groups, they're older learners.

I'll talk about the water quality and they'll get to sample the river.

So they will pull out water samples, do some tests, and then compare our test results to the state water quality standards.

And that's also a way that I get to challenge the way they feel about the river, because if they don't have a high opinion of it, then this is the data right in front of them saying, well, you know, it's not quite what you thought.

And I do have this riddle that I'm supposed to solve today that I thought maybe you might be able to help me with.

It's something about balls and 1919 and a magical pairing.

In 1919.

I'm just not too sure about that.

Well, thank you.

I guess I'll have to ask later today.

Have fun on your cruises.

Certainly.

Thank you.

All right.

We are here at Buffalo Trace, a national historic landmark in frame for Kentucky on the Kentucky River.

We're going to go learn about some really unique history.

18 brands of bourbon.

Let's go check it out.

Hey, Kyle.

Well, let's go, man.

Good.

Nice suit you got there.

Well, we got a dress code here, though.

You know, that's a little over the top.

Whatever.

You know what's going on in this room?

They.

They unload these, and then.

Yeah, they come from the independent slave company and bring their truck up over there, and they load them in here.

We inspect them.

You okay?

Some of those over there are defective ones we're going to send back.

But all of these parts and they're ready to go.

One of the things that I find very unique is that you all are sitting literally right on the Kentucky River over here.

Tell me about that.

Well, you know, the Kentucky River goes from Batesville all the way down to Carrollton.

We're about 62 miles from the Ohio River at this point.

So surveyors were coming down the river.

And 1772, basically what they were doing was looking for a place to settle and they found a place.

The story goes as they were camping across the road, came across the river up here and Buffalo came through the campsite stove in a couple of their canoes.

Two brothers basically settled.

It was called Lees Town, Virginia.

These town Virginia.

Yeah.

It wasn't Kentucky yet.

It was Virginia.

And Virginia wanted you to come in and grow corn.

If you grew corn, you could pay for your property.

So people did that and they had extra corn and it started making liquor.

Well, that's what you do with extra corn.

Exactly.

I've got a few cans in my pantry.

I know they're getting old.

So my plant, what all is produced here in Frankfort.

We make 18 different bourbons that are three recipes, which is kind of 118.

Yeah, we got a lot of work to do today.

Yes.

So the recipes are MASH bills, MASH number ones, Corn Ryan Barley, national.

Number two is corn and more rye spicier barley and national.

Number three is corn and wheat, barley, which is Pappy Van Winkle.

W Well, ho Pappy, I've heard of that.

Hmm.

So out of those, we make 18 different bourbons and that's basically where you put them in the warehouse, how high up you put them.

It makes a big difference here on the top of the warehouse where it gets hot and gets done quicker.

That would be benchmark in ancient age.

Middle warehouse is buffalo trace because it changes temperature goes in a barrel a lot.

The bottom warehouse is where it's cool and it's barometric pressure kind of pushing it through the barrel.

So that's going to be ones are going to be there a longer time.

Ten, 15, 20 years.

Pappy Van Winkle.

Well, our Eagle rare, our antique collection, which is ones that had the corn oil on it.

Elmer Tilley Lambs actually blends blintzes in another warehouse that we make that here that's in a metal warehouse because it goes in and out a lot and then we have Buffalo Trace and they all have different flavors because if you put them in different parts of warehouse, it gives them some different flavors.

So you seem to be you're interested in history.

Why don't we go down to where Colonel Cabot places?

I think you'd be interested in that.

We better go check that out.

He should just.

Let's go check that out.

So, man here in Buffalo, Trace.

And we've stumbled upon what looks to be a fairly old part of the distillery with a bunch of holes in it.

What exactly is going on here?

Well, this is what we refer to as bourbon, Pompei.

Now, there wasn't a volcano that covered this up.

But about.

60 years ago, this whole.

Building was decommissioned and forgotten about.

This is the original, obviously.

The story that he had built in 1883.

What we have over here are the fermentation vats that he used during his time here to make his old fire and copper bourbon.

Wow.

So these holes around us were filled with liquid that we eventually drank and had fun with, and then they just covered it up and you guys stumbled upon it?

Yeah.

At the point that it was covered up, this building had lived its useful life to the people that were running the distillery, so they used it for storage.

We decided about five years ago that business is going pretty well.

More people want to have events here at distillery.

So we were going to turn this into three stories of a meeting, an event space.

So right in front of us here, we were digging down to do some foundation work and get ready for an elevator when we literally hit a brick wall.

You did you did literally hit a brick wall.

And Buffalo Trace story.

We felt it was our duty to preserve the history that we were finding.

So we turned this entire floor into an archeological dig.

We put a grid out on the concrete and we excavated one square at a time.

We start with a miniature backhoe.

And then as we started hitting solid surfaces, men would get down there with buckets and literally dig it out by hand until we uncovered everything that we could find.

We've got a big copper swimming pool here now, I assume it's either going to be a hot tub for your guest or you're going to put another fermented liquid of some sort.

We are going to ferment mash in here in the H. Taylor way.

He had what he called a 96 hour process for fermenting mash.

It's basically four days.

So by the end of this year we'll be fermenting MASH the cellar right again, which.

Hasn't been done.

In quite some time.

Oh, you just can't beat that smell.

Absolutely not.

Different every day, depending on what we're cooking when we're drying.

Every day, every day I come here and you get a wonderful smell every day.

It's bourbon on the Kentucky River, which is where we're standing now.

Matt, you got this great balcony here.

We got the river.

I hear there's boats or something that come up here and visit you all over again.

Absolutely.

We've been working with the New Kentucky for a little over two years now.

They bring kayakers and canoers down to the lock and dam.

Now we've got a boat ramp on the south side of our property.

Sometimes they grab a lunch with us and then we give them a nice tour and tasting history of the distillery and kind of tied.

In with the river.

What a great tour like this has been.

So much fun.

We got to come out, learn about Buffalo Trace, but I appreciate it.

So here we.

Are on the river in boat.

Tell me where we're heading today.

We're heading down the Kentucky River towards lock and dam number four right here in downtown Franklin.

This is a beautiful river.

I understand that you talk a lot about the history of the river on your way to the distillery.

We do?

Yeah.

So our tours are bourbon themed history tours.

And not only are we talking about the history of bourbon here on the river, but we talk a lot about this river is impact on our city here, as well as an impact it had on the state of Kentucky, how bourbon got found and how the name bourbon itself in the game.

The name for that whiskey is named after Bourbon County, Kentucky, and later on barrel shipped down this river to places like New Orleans where stamped Bourbon County, Kentucky whiskey.

And so folks in New Orleans thought that there was bourbon whiskey in the name stuff.

So talking about that history of the history of our founders, like Elijah Craig and Colonel Blanton and Colonel Taylor, who took Kentucky whiskey and turned it into the multibillion dollar a year industry it is today.

I love teaching people about that history here on the river.

And it all started on this body of water.

It all started right here on this river.

That was early whiskey distillers, all those guys that came across the Appalachian Mountains from places like originally from Scotland and Ireland, they all knew how to make whiskey, so they brought those stills over the mountains with them.

And they just viewed this river here is the perfect shipping channel for them, for moving that kind of stuff.

And it all started right in this area.

Fabulous.

Well, we're headed into Loch number four, right?

That's correct.

We're heading into Loch number four by the four locks and dams down river from us.

We're all Bill 1940.

They're also operation today.

They're free of charge.

They go through on weekends, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

And except for new doors and new hydraulics are exactly the same as they were in 1821.

Wow.

That's incredible.

These locks will take you all the way out to the Ohio River eventually, which is about 65 miles downriver from where we currently sit.

So they quarried these stones and hauled them down here.

All right.

Forces in some of these rocks where some of these stones came from the Frankfort Rock quarry right here in Frankfurt, and some of them came from other places and later in the river to create lot than we have today.

Yes.

You know, when you're in these historic blocks, you're talking about, man, something that's almost 200 years old and still functions primarily the exact same way it always did.

That's pretty fascinating.

You know, once the lock master shuts the upstream doors and closes the valves off, so each of the hydraulics, there's three hydraulic gates on each door.

So each side, the upstream, the downstream side have six gates.

And he's closing those gates right now.

And what that's doing is it's not allowing any water to come into the lock chamber anymore.

I will then go down to the downstream side and open up those gates.

So it's kind of like pulling the plug on the bathtub.

They can pull the plug in.

The water is going to drain right out through those gates.

He can take it down as fast or slow as he wants to.

Usually, once he opens.

The door about 8 to 9 minutes longer than the other.

So if you just think of it as 145 foot long, 36 feet wide, that all power in that sense right in the bathtub, he called the flag and all is left behind.

And you go out in your boat on the floor, the same thing's going to happen on the water.

The drop in this lock here is right around 15 feet and close to a million gallons of water will drain out of here.

And it's going to go down.

Wow.

The hillside right up above us up there to our right is the original settlement in this area.

So in 1776, Hancock Lee built his community here, and that's one year after Daniel Boone built to Fort Boonesborough.

So Lee's town was up there at the top of the hill, and it was primarily a farming and a hunting community up there.

And the Buffalo Trace Distillery now sits on Old Lee's Town property, basically, this is Kentucky's River.

It's a self-contained river here in the state.

All the water is Kentucky water that you're on.

So it's a very important river to how our state was founded.

That one looks a little scraggly Oh, that's so pretty.

It's beautiful.

Captain, you seem.

To know a lot about history.

And I have this riddle, and they've given me a song in Kentucky.

Not every ball goes in a basket, and not every liquid resides in a bottle.

In 1919, a magical pairing occurred in Frankfort.

In your mouth will never be the same.

Well, you've got to be talking about the bourbon ball, of course.

Really?

Yeah.

So, you know the bourbon ball invented here in Frankfort and Rebecca Root candies in 1990 is the perfect pairing of chocolate and bourbon.

And the bourbon ball is a one bourbon experience we have on the bourbon bag.

All of our guests to get to enjoy a Rebecca loose bourbon ball.

I'm going to have to try one of those.

Why you should.

It's just down the street from where we finish our tour out here and head right over there to second Street.

Go check out Rebecca Ray's chocolates.

You got to take a tour of the candy factory while you're there.

Sounds great.

Sorry.

Is that James.

Bond or.

Kyle?

Carol?

I passed.

So how are you doing?

Doing great.

Great to see it.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

Well, you know, I like this place.

Seems like it may be kind of old.

What's what's the history here?

It's very historic.

So this is a site that was built in the late 1800s by Colonel age Taylor in 1887.

A massive, massive complex.

It's 113 acres and has lots of different components to it.

We've got a castle, we've got sunken gardens, we've got a spring house that's an iconic space on site.

And Colonel Taylor built all of this to entertain guests.

He was really the the father of the modern bourbon tourism movement.

So 1887 has this placement cranking out bourbon ever since 1887?

It did for a while.

So Colonel Taylor operated here until Prohibition happened.

And it was after Prohibition that National Distillers ended up purchasing this property.

They were cranking out somewhere around a thousand barrels a day, which was insane.

Yeah.

So that was from 1935 until 1972.

They did.

And so for 40 plus years it was becoming overgrown and not kept in shape.

And so it was in ruins by the time our own was founded in 2016.

And so we have been able to to take what he created here in the late 1800s and resurrect it.

So the grounds there are some really neat things that the colonel did that were unique to this particular distillery that you don't find in other places.

So I don't know of another bourbon distillery that has a castle like this.

So we have a limestone castle that was built in the late 1800s.

We have something garden that looks like and mimics the Windsor Castle grounds.

I assume that somewhere near here there is a flowing creek river or something where water comes from.

So we have an iconic spring house on site that Colonel Taylor actually built this spring house around it to highlight this water source.

So it's an underground aquifer that fills itself up twice a day.

It has 140,000 gallons of water in it.

And we use that in all of our spirits gin, vodka, rye, whiskey and bourbon.

So, Caroline, do you think we can maybe check out some of these?

Sure.

Yeah.

Wonderful things you just told me about.

And maybe try some of the product that's being made from that spring?

I think we can arrange that.

Ordering from go.

All right.

So prohibition is my kryptonite.

Is that a Come on.

Seriously?

Nailed it.

I see two bottles here with some neat labels.

This is the castle.

And keep vodka.

And it's pretty cool because it shows you the mash bill right on the front of what it's made from.

Tell me a little.

About the vodka.

Really wanted to create a special vodka.

Vodka as defined is a odorless, tasteless spirit.

But for us, we wanted to make sure that there was still character involved in the base that we were creating.

And so we used our bourbon recipe and then we re distilled it up to 190 proof and made it that odorless, tasteless spirit.

So this is 190 plus.

We distill it up to that and then we bring it back down to the proof that we were going to land at 193.

It would be a little bit much in a cocktail.

That's true.

And then for any good gin, you need a really great base of vodka.

And so we actually use our vodka in the creation version as well.

And this is the London Dry Gin.

That's right.

We've got coriander here.

We've got Angelica Root.

This is the base that you typically would find in Amgen.

But for us, we wanted to switch it up a little bit.

And so some of the the herbs and botanicals that are unique to us is the rosemary and then the ginger.

And we've also got camomile here.

Next we have lemon verbena, which brings in that citrus note.

And then for mouthfeel we have licorice root.

So that's our recipe right there.

So in the experience that we take our guests on, they go around the property, they get to come in here at the end of the experience, after hearing all about the history of performance and all of the stories passed on to you, they get to enjoy these beverages.

And so we make cocktails for them.

The vodka?

Yeah.

The gin.

Yeah.

Cocktails.

Obviously, there's maybe something missing here, but that's going to be ready soon.

Sure.

You're liquid is what I'm putting out.

In the brown spirits.

Yes.

So we have our rye whiskey is going to be released in 2020, which we're incredibly excited about.

And then our bourbon is going to be released in early 2022.

So folks can come in and try that as well.

Once they're here.

That's right.

But in the meantime, we have cocktails.

And so we wanted to share one with you.

Absolutely.

This is our classic gin and tonic with Jack Ruby, classic tonic sirup.

So you can smell real citrusy on the nose.

You can spend a little bit of that rosemary that we garnish.

Please fill up.

So, Rosemary, for a garnish.

Also a lemon peel, and then a couple of juniper berries as well.

So this is a really crisp, refreshing, classic gin and tonic.

And it's great for the summertime and can transition into fall based.

Yeah, well, I've made it to Rebecca Ruth's and I'm going to go inside and try some of these bourbon balls, and I think I solved the riddle.

Come on, let's see.

So give us a tour and see how they're made.

My name is Charles Boone.

I am the third generation owner of Rebecca Whiskey.

And it's all Rebecca.

Ruth is world famous because my grandmother invented the ball and 1936, she started her business in 1919.

That's right.

Well, been in business for a full century.

All right.

My grandmother was Ruth and her friend was Rebecca.

So the name is actually comes from two different ladies and they use their first names to start the business as the tradition of the day would have been a paternal style of using, say, Smith and Sons.

However, they use their first names, which is a maternal style.

They started in 1919.

They'd previously been substitute school teachers and decided to go into the candy business because they had made candies for Christmas gifts and they were very famous for that.

Well, I think that the quality that my grandmother always insisted on, she was noted as having perfect taste buds.

So we were always very conscious of the quality of the ingredients that go into our chocolates.

And we really had to work hard to maintain that quality.

We have been here since the 1960s and it was the first property that my grandmother ever bought.

The candy making process starts with the cow being you take the cow bean and you ferment and then roast it and then you grind it down into a liquid and then it ready to flow on to the chocolate until the candy as a whole richer.

And all of that takes a great deal of work to get the chocolate just right is an art.

So many of our processes are all done by hand for putting the bacon on by hand, the packing, the candy.

There's just so much that goes into it and it's chocolates and candy are almost all hand labor.

Well, the things that are super special now, Rebecca Ruth Candies is the candy.

We think inside the box is the the taste has to come out.

I've got that.

I can't wait to tell Kyle that I've solved the riddle.

Let's go.

With elderflower sour.

So it's this big second ball.

Those are bourbon balls.

They are Rebecca Root Bourbon balls.

Founded in 1990.

I solved it this time.

Kyle It appears you did.

How did you manage to do that while you're out there exploring the waterways?

After I took a ride on the thoroughbred, I went and saw Captain Nathan on the.

First boat and he told me to head over to the back and really find out about how those are made.

And even got to take a few.

Well, while you were mixing chocolate and sugar and such with your bourbon, I was having it straight up and Buffalo Trace, they uncovere And then and then the castle had vodka gin and they were working on a really tasty rye and bourbon.

That'll be ready in a few years.

I may not have solved the riddle, but I feel really good.

Speaking of which, I got you a drink because we are at Mom Bourbon on Main.

Oh, you have a farm Old fashioned.

And I have a main street, Manhattan.

They look great, Kyle.

I think they probably will be.

You know what?

Until next time.

We'll see you down the street.