Team Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development.

Shepherdsville Bullitt County Tourist & Convention Commission Kentucky Lake Tourism Danville Tourism.

Historically bold.

and Harrodsburg Mercer County Tourist commission.

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?

There's 9000 miles of streams and dozens of rivers.

It's also quite famous for some other liquids, those 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're two Kentuckians who are proud of our state.

When you share a sip of what the Commonwealth has to offer.

Hey, Kyle, did you finally crawl out of bed?

Reluctantly, I did.

I have to say, it is very cozy back there.

It is.

It's such a lovely house.

I'm glad we found it.

So did you solve the riddle in your dreams last night, Kyle?

Oh, that.

You mean the old tub thing?

The German immigrant is sampling his medicine and all that.

And I thought, well, I'll just have, you know, that I talked to several people yesterday about this thing and I pretty much have it figured out.

Oh, yeah.

Problem is, I went to two wineries and Four Roses and I forgot whatever it was they told me.

So I think I've got a pretty good shot at this one.

I think I've.

Gotten some good clues.

You know, Kyle, I could have actually walked here because we are surrounded on three sides by Bernheim.

That's right.

You.

You hiked for Bernheim.

How was.

That?

It was lovely.

It was so beautiful.

How about you?

Did you learn anything on your tour?

I learned that there's a lot of very fun and creative wines and good friend Brent over at Four Roses.

We did a little farewell tasting.

Oh.

Recipes, sampling.

And, you know, I always come away with lots of education there.

I've got a little surprise for you, though, before we get going.

I love surprises.

Something that█ll wake ya up.

Yes, get that heart racing.

I'll know that that's a safe thing.

these days, to have happen.

Yeah.

I think you'll like this.

You think so?

Yeah.

All right.

You need an extra couple of pushes.

Or we'll.

Be sure.

Sure.

Come on, Kyle.

Show me the surprise.

Oh, Carrie, I got to say, I'm actually pretty excited that we're here and go kart track.

This is a pretty cool idea.

You know, when I was a kid, I had a little two seat go kart, and I remember getting that for Christmas.

The first thing I did was this close to just completely running over my little sister.

So a lot of good memories with.

Well, there's no chance you're going to catch me today, much less run me over, Kyle.

Right.

Yes.

But, you know, I thought before you finish your tour, you might be okay to drive.

Well, that's a good thing.

Yes.

Here, we'll start here before the wine.

And Kart Kountry is a fantastic place.

Kyle.

It's been here for 42 years, which is older than me, but not quite as old as you, Kyle.

But it provides great family entertainment.

There's go karts for the little kids and there's one for the big kids, too.

Well, it looks like a pretty expansive track we got going on here.

I mean.

It is it's very special all.

Over the place.

Most of them are only about 800 feet long and this one is 8000 feet long.

So I'll have to use my GPS on the phone.

You know, we're about a mile and a.

Half, Kyle, so I don't think you'll get too lost, but there are no guardrails, so you got to stay on the road.

So I'll be able to watch you fly right off into a field.

Not a chance.

Burst into flames.

And I see flames because this is a liquid you know, our show is about liquids.

It's petroleum, gasoline, ethanol for gasoline.

All that's made during some of these same science that we use in distilling, yeast and all those things.

So this all ties in very well.

Of course it does.

Absolutely.

Well, Kyle, are you ready for me to beat you?

Well, maybe.

How fast are we going to be?

All, like 60, 78.

About 27.

But you've got nine horses under the hood there, Kyle.

Nine, nine, twenty seven.

Yeah, it's going to feel like a thousand.

It better.

I got you.

Let's mount up.

John, we're out here with the magic.

How are you?

Good to see you.

Stainless steel.

Because I know things are happening that is making this stuff.

And that's what we're all about.

The magic is here.

Oh, MillaNova All right, tell me about.

No, no.

We came up with a name.

My wife's maiden name is Terra Nova.

My last name is Miller.

So hence the MillaNova.

Actually, our Mafia Merlot has our label o Our Mafia Merlot.

And it has a picture of my wife's grandfather.

And this is the third stop on the wine gauntlet.

I see right here.

We have a port which is unique.

I don't see a lot of ports in Kentucky and I'm a big fan of ports.

You can't beat it.

And this is a BlackBerry.

It is.

It is.

Yes.

And you know, it's really interesting.

This is this was actually buried for five years now.

My friend.

We don't actually call this port.

We just call it barrelled BlackBerry, because in the United States, you can't refer to port.

True.

This one, I want you to tell me about this.

This looks great.

And you know what, by the way, check these labels out because it is very art deco.

And I think that that is something to be said.

If you look at these the way these are designed, which is really, really unique, too.

But this is a cab.

Cab.

So Cabernet Sauvignon for you amateurs out there, reserve X.

Tell me about this one.

This Cab X, it was put in a barrel and left in the barrel for three years.

Then I was like, you know, these two barrels are exceptional, so let's just hang on them.

So a couple of years went by three turned into five, then COVID came and we lost another couple of years.

And the next thing you know, this had been in the barrel for ten years.

You are a man.

Much more patient than I am, sir.

Well, that's why I brewed beer.

Six weeks is all I can wait.

Well, I was having mine all the time.

I was waiting, so.

So I wasn't real patient to this.

So this is what we've got.

And you've got so we've got two different ways.

This is presented here.

I see.

We've got our decanter here.

Yes.

Yeah.

Because the key to this one is to let it breathe.

Okay.

So I'm going to pour just a little bit for you and let you have enough to do to swirl it and to taste it and.

Oh, wow.

So is it that really does.

I mean, that's that's got some stuff because it's just that aged smooth.

The tannins are really controlled.

Yeah.

For a cab.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And, but it's still got thedry but it just got to the character.

Now I got to let you I got to let you taste this port Yes, that█s.

Right.

Look at this.

And now this is what they call a tawny port.

Yes.

Right.

And I was going to ask which type of two types of ports is that?

Right.

There are two types.

And and typically a lot of them have a little bit of a vanilla and they're usually sweet.

Now, this one is sweet, but it's not overly sweet.

And you can get a sweeter, little higher and alcohol content and a lot of different things going on.

I had ports with everything from describing to leather to tobacco to cinnamon or I mean, it's just all kinds of this is.

Great to see.

Oh, yes.

Oh, yes.

This is BlackBerry.

It it is a BlackBerry barrel port.

Oh, yeah.

That's that makes me wish that I had just had a steak dinner with a glass of this.

And I was.

Sitting there with some cobbler, ice cream and a cigar.

Take that.

Portugal.

Take that.

Yeah.

I mean, that is we.

Are really proud of many of our wines and certainly these two.

Are.

Wow, that's great.

What a place.

Love it out here.

Oh.

Oh, I got a riddle.

I got to figure out this riddle about Bullitt County and why throw this at you.

Let's see your skills.

You can just tell me the answer.

Be great.

I'll go bother people about it so you can.

Here's the riddle.

You can take the long lick in an old tub to find this German immigrant's legacy.

But you can't try his medicine.

I'm afraid you got me there.

The quest continues.

Well, I thought ask asking question.

Yeah.

Oh, this is great, John.

Thank you so much.

Oh, you're very beautiful.

And this is absolutely delicious.

Thank you.

We really like to hear that.

Yes.

Cheers.

Thanks for meeting me today.

It is a gorgeous day and I can't complain.

I've got my toes in the water.

Right on and I.

Haven't taken a sip out of it yet.

But is it going to be salty?

You know, people ask me that all the time while I'm giving tours.

The Salt River is named such because of the natural salt deposits that are on shore there.

There are all kinds of regions, creeks, little areas of the community in this area that are referred to as licks.

There's bullitt█s lick there.

I live off Flat Lick road they█re named that because of these natural salt deposits that aren't here in the middle of the river, the river just happens to run alongside these natural salt deposits.

And that was one of the earliest industries in this part of the state, correct?

That's right, Salt.

It was the first the industry of the area.

Salt was a natural commodity.

We needed that 250 years ago.

If you didn't have salt and you weren't able to prepare your meats and stow them away for the winter months.

So salt was very valuable.

Stories abound with people coming from 100 miles away to collect salt here.

There were salt kettles lined up and down the river here where folks would use the water to cut through the clay that contained salt and create some product that they could use.

Well, I know salt was not only integral to the first industry on the water, but salt was also really important to the settlers.

For the bison.

There's all these rivers, creeks, streams, regions of this part of the state that are referred to as licks.

And they were connected between these bison paths.

And that's really part of the wilderness trail that Daniel Boone continued to follow as he made his way throughout the state.

So just a lot of history in central Kentucky and a salt river drains a lot of the state in this area.

And I know there's several different forks.

There's Floyds for the rolling fork and then the salt and they all come together and go through Fort Knox, I understand.

And then they empty into the Ohio, correct?

Yeah.

We also have the the Chaplin River and the Beech Fork that drains the Bardstown area, the bourbon capital of the world area.

And it all flows through here.

Well, I know we're not allowed to paddle through Fort Knox.

Negative.

No, but I would love to put a boat on the water.

Is there an area that's a little deeper we might be able to paddle?

Absolutely.

We're not going very far in this stuff.

So just a mile upstream, there's a great deeper area where we can put in and pull out safely.

It's public property, so we're welcome to do so.

Wonderful.

Well, let's head up that way.

Gotcha.

it is a very nice day to be on the river, Bob.

Absolutely.

I think in a previous life you told me you used to do this a lot more often.

Oh, yeah.

Well, I was a newspaper reporter.

I'd spend my weekends with a buddy of mine renting canoes and kayaks along a little salt river.

Nice.

Did you take folks out for paddles or.

Yeah, there's a year round section of Salt River between Mt.

Washington and Shepherdsville that can be floated all year long, no matter how dry or shallow it becomes.

And we used that and we had a lot of little church groups and people just getting out for a day or two, having fun on the river.

It is a nice I bet it's probably a popular place to put a rod.

And I just saw a big fish jump.

In that area.

Yep.

Yeah.

There's plenty of fishermen up and down this area.

All a lot of the bigger fish that get lodged right here because of a sort of a rock basin just downstream.

So though able to catch some of the bigger fish from carp, the giant blue catfish further upstream, there's a ton of gar and fun things to watch.

And then further upstream you have the Taylorsville Lake State Park, which is a large lake.

They dam that about 40, 50 years ago now, but that really changed the rive I've heard this expression used a few times and I thought maybe you might be able to explain it to me.

Called We█ll row you up the salt.

Yep.

It is a common expression people use and it's basically not a positive.

If somebody is going to row you up Salt River, they're probably going to leave you.

Um, one story relating to that phrase is relates to a candidate for office and he was supposed to row up the Ohio River, but he ended up becoming rowed up the Salt River instead where he missed the election.

So wouldn't have been Henry Clay by chance.

But that's exactly what it was calling it, Kentucky's great statesman, Henry Clay.

But of course, the big draw for the Salt River is is the water right.

It's just integral to the bourbon industry.

What is your number one ingredient for any whiskey?

Without 100 barrels of water, you're not making a single barrel of Kentucky.

Straight bourbon, whiskey.

And the Salt River drains most of the historic bourbon country, including Bardstown, which is considered the bourbon capital of the world.

On up to Lawrenceburg and on this side of Lawrenceburg, you have a couple of distilleries, some old, some being revived and brought back to life.

And they are all along the salt so that they can pull that wonderful limestone filtered water.

Yes.

Bob, this has been lovely.

Thank you for taking me out today.

But before we head in, I was wondering if you might help me solve a riddle.

I have.

What's the riddle?

All right.

It says you can take the long lick in an old tub to find this German immigrant's legacy.

But you can't taste his medicine.

That's a great riddle.

Long lick.

As I've mentioned before, we have lots of little creeks named after old salt licks in the area.

So Long Lick is the name of a creek, but I think I'll let you gather some more clues throughout your trip before I give you the answer.

Oh, come on.

I got to beat Kyle.

It's my turn to.

Win the riddle.

No favoritism here.

No.

I can sit down.

Because you know what, Jim?

You are the fourth stop on the gantlet.

It looks like you got a nice glass in front of me, which I appreciate, sir.

Absolutely.

Tell me about this wonderful vineyard you've got out here and what's what's growing.

And howd you start it.

Well, the first vineyard, actually, we're sitting on it down.

There was 53 vines.

There was a wooded area across here.

And I just did it for something to do.

I had a brother in law that was growing grapes and I went I got a book and read it.

And every time you read and.

So immersed in in those vines, I think we had like six different varietals.

And, and the one that really just stood out was the diamond grape.

I can't say there hasn't been times that we struggle a little.

Bit, sure.

But up until 2012, I worked full time job, so we weren't really dependent on this.

Right.

And like what you told me, this is a hobby, right?

This thing you were doing.

And so in 12 I retired.

And voila!

you know, we have a custom crush pad.

Ten years later.

Now here we are, 22.

Tickled to death.

And I understand that you've won some trophies.

Oh.

We've won.

Yeah.

You got a few trophies that for some things you've done.

Tell me about a little bit about those, what you won for, because I know right here in front of us is Chambourcin and we we've got a few right here.

Right.

Won a commissioner's cup first time out to the state, Chambourvin Rose, was also a commissioner's cup and 21.

And we're really pleased on how things have progressed.

And you come out here, by the way, folks, you know, we talk about downstream.

Downstream is your ultimate flight show for touring Kentucky.

This is a flight right here of wine, a wine flight.

And I'm sure that these three bottles are featured in this flight.

And I know you've got the Chambo and Rose.

Yeah.

Which is very a.

State that's grown.

Right here.

2021 wine.

Yeah.

And then we've got the Four Horsemen.

Tell me just real quick about this Four Horsemen, because again, I thought that was very interesting.

That is a that is a grape and a variety that I Well.

Not that I know it on.

A lot of people say you can't grow vinifera in Kentucky.

Well, I say you can grow anything you want to in Kentucky if you do it the right way.

It's true.

So I planted Petite syrah Petite bourdeax and carmenera three of the bordeaux's that are really not thought a lot about, but they really shine.

They are stand alone.

But my imagination was that I wanted to do a field blend well.

Right.

And through the growing process, it took us seven years to get to this bottle.

First we had two polar vortexes that froze just for the growing.

Not talking about aging or anything.

Like that.

It took seven years to get to this process.

We made the wine and I'm going I like it it's nouveau.

The grapes are young.

I need to put a little kiss with it.

So I decided to bring similar contribution from the north coast of California.

And so we added 15% for this.

Yeah.

So we put 15% of this to it and it just gave it such a nice spicy softness to it that I was really, really pleased with it.

And the reason that it's got the four horsemen nomenclature, I was I was watching a news program and it wasn't good about who the state that our economy is in and of itself.

And I'm thinking about a name for this.

I'm going.

I got it.

Yeah.

So get online and and I find this artwork and I'm going that's exactly what I wanted to call it.

The four horse.

Fits right now.

Do solve this riddle for the show in the show, because I got to beat my co-host Carrie so this you can take the way where you can take the long lick in an old tub and find this German immigrant's legacy.

But you can't sample his medicine.

Do you have any idea?

You know what, I'm fine with that because this is good wine.

And we should just drink it.

Let Carrie figure out the riddle Bradley This space is beautiful.

I know it is brand new, but did you bring these giant, beautiful trees in here?

We sure did.

Brought them in full grown.

Yeah.

This this whole thing has been a big renovation over the last couple of years.

Not only is the restaurant behind this brand new, but also there's a whole experience down at the American outpost where there's retail.

And obviously you can get great hats like this and whatnot.

And yeah, so the whole property is seeing kind of an overhaul in the last few years.

Well, you're going to have a great day here.

You can come in, you can do a tour.

I see lots of families here having dinner afterwards.

It kind of brings it full circle to a great experience.

Absolutely.

You know, this is Jim Beam is a family company and we're a family restaurant, you know, so it doesn't matter if you got kids, whatever.

Bring them in.

We can't wait to meet them, too.

I saw you had a lot of folks celebrating birthdays inside here.

A very popular birthday destination for sure, being a right at the tip of the bourbon trail, people tend to tend to finish with us.

Bradley, this food looks incredible like you.

What do I have here to.

All right, we can just go.

Over the.

Experience here.

So this is our hot brown pizza.

So this is a riff on kind of like the classic Louisville, Kentucky, experience with the Sandwich, right?

The Brown Hotel.

This is our riff on it.

We've done it with pizza here.

This is our what we call the bullitt county dip.

This is a brisket sandwich, basically a riff on a French Dip.

Obviously, I.

Could smell the brisket smoky when I came up, for.

Sure.

It's delicious.

We obviously smoke it here in the smoker that's right over there.

Nice.

This is our burger double stack.

American cheddar smoked onion aole with fries, super delicious brioche bun.

And then up in front here, that's our bourbon balls.

You got to have the bourbon balls for dessert.

gotta have it It's a classic.

Now, has bourbon inspired this entire menu?

Where where did you get your inspiration for this menu?

So inspiration is both obviously the history and the family of the beams and pulled off of some of their own family recipes that we're influenced by as well as obviously we're going to use bourbon whenever we can.

So we've got bourbon in the actual dip that we use for that.

And then obviously there's the Jim Beam White and the bourbon balls themselves.

You know, food looks delicious.

I cannot wait to dig into it.

Thank you.

I hope you do.

I certainly will.

I think I want to start over here with the pizza and work my way to that burger.

That's the move.

Great.

Thank you so much.

My pleasure.

Hey.

Hey.

What are you doing out here with all this food?

I was getting hungry, so I had to start without you.

Apparently, my goodness.

You can work on appetite.

This looks amazing.

It does.

And I met the chef and he told me about all his delicious recipes.

And it looks like he used some Jim Beam, and it is.

Well, you know, I did get you a drink.

Bless Your Heart.

Thank you so much for that.

That's all I really need.

No, no, I know I don't need this.

I have run the gauntlet with every winery in Bullitt County, and it was so much fun.

I got to tell you, you got to try these places because they're all unique, they're all family owned, and they're all on.

Well, it has been a great adventure in Bullitt County.

I've had a wonderful time in Bernheim Forest on the river.

There's been a lot to do here.

I learned actually, Kyle, what makes the water so special for Jim Beam and for roses?

It is all about the filtration through the Bernheim Forest.

Well, that US is doing a great job.

Speaking of more water, our good friend Brent Elliott at Four Roses took me on a Rick house tour with a little barrel tasting and that was fun.

And they're doing good things with that water as well.

So did you have any luck with our German immigrant and his old time and legacies and medicines?

Actually, Kyle, I think I solved it this time.

Did you?

Well, it's about time.

Yes.

It turns out that Mr. Bernheim himself was not only a German immigrant, but he made his fortune in bourbon distilling.

And that's how he was able to leave the beautiful Bernheim for us.

To us, that was his gift to us, Kyle.

Well, that's a great gift.

You just left us bourbon, but whatever.

We'll take some trees.

I'm blown away.

Like how much there is to do?

The wineries, the distilleries, the food options, the recreation, the floors.

You can spend days here.

It has been an absolute blast.

You got to come out and check this out.

I mean, so much fun.

I don't want to go home.

I say we dig into this brisket or drinking this.

I may not be going home.

All right, my dear.

Until next time We'll see you downstream.