The Bulleit Frontier Whiskey Experience

This was my 1^st stop on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail which is a tour of 9 bourbon distilleries. This site has a lot of historical significance in distilling although it is not an active distillery. Bullet Bourbon is currently being distilled on a contract basis at the Four Roses Distillery in Indiana but Bullet is currently building a multi-​million dollar complex outside of Louisville where they will start distilling their own bourbon. There is actually a small distillery on-​site that is part of their Innovations Lab however it is used to distill just 1 barrel a week.
Despite the fact that this is not an active distillery there is a ton of history tied to this location. This location has been distilling (or associated with bourbon) for over 150 years. Old FItzgerald was distilled here and the Old Fitzgerald name is still visible on one of the smoke stacks. They still have thousands of barrels of bourbon again in the rick house. They have an active /​fully functioning cooperage for repairing bourbon barrels.
The older gentleman at the front gate was a highlight of the visit — he had worked at the distillery for 30+ years and was extremely personable and had some great stories. Our tour guide was a young lady who really seemed to know her bourbon and the history of bourbon. The tour included a mock-​up of the distillery process, the Innovation Lab and the rick house.
The tour also included the office of Tom Bullet (who owned the Bullet brand before selling to one of the big distributors). The point wasn’t to see Tom Bullet;‘s office but this was the office that PAPPY VAN WINKLE used for over 20 years. Like I said, this site is more about the history of distilling.

Our tour guide Forrest was the best. Knowledgeable, funny and engaging. The story about the facility is long and detailed. Touring the process was a cool experience.
And then the samples. Oh boy. They have awesome whiskeys. Time was taken to explain the flavors and notes of each different whiskey.
Spot on.

Know in advance: Bulleit is the only location on the entire Bourbon Trail that won’t allow you to take photos inside the distillery or rickhouse.
That’s not really a big deal but the reason given is totally BS — they care about your safety so no photos because the liquid is flammable. Ummm… when did we last use gunpowder flash photography? Just say what it really is: We don’t want you to record our (industry standard) process. It’s a little weird but it’s your right as a business.
Anyway, that aside, Bulleit is a nice tour. The facility is super historic and I always love to see the old buildings. Our tour guide was peppy and kept our time together fun. I also liked ending the tour in the owner’s office. A nice touch to see the executive suite.
Tastings were good. I’m not a huge Bulleit fan — it’s an approachable entry level bourbon from my perspective. So no bourbon purchase here though the gift shop had some really great merchandise in general.

This was my first ever tour on the Bourbon trail and it was fantastic. The property is located right outside of Louisville and incredibly well maintained. It was truly beautiful. The tour guide was energetic, informative and had a delightful sense of humor. It kept what could have been a lot of boring information really interesting. I learned about the history of Bulleit and its place in the world of Bourbon /​Whisky. So cool.
The sampling was just as enjoyable. We got to try 4 types of Bourbon. The Bulleit varieties were nice and slightly sweeter which I liked. Learned that a higher ratio of corn allows for the sweetness to come through. Cool! The guide also described every flavor we should be tasting so I really feel like I learned a lot.
I’d highly recommend Bulleit if you deciding between multiple tours. It was great!

Angels share is what they call the smell in the warehouses where the bourbon is aging. It’s a special smell you’ll never forget.
What we liked about this particular distillery tour is that they took us through the process of how oak barrels are repaired when they’re leaking, how they’re rotated in a time tested method of aging and the many steps the bourbon goes through before you consume it. Of course the best part was learning HOW to taste bourbon and you’ll never forget the way the front of your tongue «tastes» the liquor in a different way than the back of the tongue does.
Getting the «special» high end whiskey in the gift shop means one of my close friends is getting a bottle for his birthday this Thursday.

I really enjoyed my experience here. We had a great tour guide (wish i could remember her name, but she said she has been with Bulleit since they began tours here a few years ago). While other Unilocalers have noted that you do not get to actually see the distilling at this location, you do get to learn a lot about the history of Bulleit and tour the historic grounds which are super neat. The tasting here was great as well with four sizable varieties.
The staff at Bulleit was extremely friendly and even took time to write me a list of suggested restaurants around Louisville!

Great tour!
Scott was a great tour guide. We stopped by on a week day and the place was empty. This made for a great tour because we got to ask Scott all sorts of questions. We learned a bunch of interesting and insightful things about the bourbon that’s made here. Best of all was the sampling at the end. I found out that I enjoy the original Bulleit (orange label) the best.
I’ve been on a couple other distillery tours and even though this one was on a smaller scale when compared to the others, it was still very good. I especially liked seeing the original barrel repair building where we learning that they use cattails to wedge between leaks in barrels to repair them. It was also cool that we got to go through the CEO’s office. Apparently he’s only there about 15 days a year lol I want his job!

Our tour guide was fabulous (informative, funny, engaging), the staff incredibly nice (two of us were running late to meet our group on a tour and they kindly let us pay after so that we could rush and join our friends), the site full of history, the bourbon good. Even the man ushering folks in at the gate was a welcoming story-​teller who made the experience feel extra personable. A great distillery tour. I would highly recommend making a stop at this spot.

PHENOMENAL tour! I’ve been on a couple others, but this one was a real standout! Our cute redheaded tour guide new her you-​know-​what, backwards, forwards and sideways, and was utterly passionate about it all. Seriously, one of the overall best tour guides I’ve ever had. The campus here is beautiful and intriguing and if you want to do a bourbon tour without having to schlep too far from Louisville, this is the place for you. They have quite a few fun items for sale there as well – including bourbon soaked cherries. A very instagrammable location – the buildings and the fun décor, all with a bourbon chaser!

Great tour with a very enthusiastic and extremely knowledgable tour guide. You could tell that she knew bourbon in and out, as only one who has spent much time studying would have.
The tour covers the history of factory, whiskey during the prohibition, how bourbon is made and how they innovate, storage, and how the barrels are repaired. It then ends with a tasting. Even during the tasting she pointed out what to smell and taste for each one, and gave an overview of each.
Would definitely come here again, we all had a great time!

This was one of the more interesting and intimate tours on the Bourbon trail.
The Bulleit Frontier experience is located just outside of Louisville. Most of the other distilleries on the trail are 45 minutes to 1 hour outside of Louisville or Lexington.
Our tour guide was nice and bubbly. The tour doesn’t give you a tour of their actual facilities that distill the liquor. They out source them to Four Roses because they don’t have enough space to accommodate the distilling process on their land. However, there are current construction plans outside the city to build their own. We did get to go into their innovation center and check out what they’re working on currently. The best part of the tour was the tasting and seeing the office of Mr. Bulleit himself. That was pretty neat.
And stop by the guard tower when you drive in. The guard has been there for 40+ years and can tell you the real history of the place.

I am working my way through all the bourbon her in Louisville, and Bulleit is definitely a great stop.
You are first greeted by Perry at the gate, who greets you and give little bit of history and a few jokes then sends you on your way to the visitor’s center.
The tour is a little more expensive than other, larger distilleries, but still not too bad.
Our tour guide was Forrest, who was energetic, and making jokes and puns the whole way through the tour. You learn the bourbon process and Bulleit history, all topped off with a tasting. Great greeter, great tour guide, great tour, great tasting.

Bulleit gets an extra star just because it is my favorite bourbon!
Conveniently located in Louisville, slightly inconveniently in Shively, absolutely worth a visit!
You begin with the most charming part of the tour before you even get out of your car… being greeted by Perry at the gatehouse. He gives you a quick history overview of the site as well as his long employment there. You’re great Perry!
The tour is pretty comparable to other distillery tours. Informative, sassy (tour guide Forrest was punny and joking and fun!), shiny (the tour facilities are pretty new), and delicious. Delicious because samples!
Absolutely worth a visit!

I wasn’t exactly sure where Fitzgerald Rd. was and I was thinking that it would be similar to The Evan Williams Experience and possibly near downtown Louisville, but it was neither downtown Louisville nor anything like The Evan Williams Experience.
When we pulled in, there was a gate and we weren’t sure if we were at the right location, one reason was that the GSP was off a few feet, so be aware to turn in before it says you’ve arrived. Anyways, at the gate we were greeted by Perry. He was sweet and welcoming, what a great first impression and an awesome representation of Kentuckians. I was immediately a fan. He mentioned that he’s worked there for 45 years!
We were on one of the last tours of the day. The tour prior to ours was a lot smaller, but the size of our group was about 20 people. We just stayed close to the guide, so we could hear him well. This distillery closes earlier than any other one that I know of, so if you’re trying to knock a few out in a day, I suggest doing this one first, since they close at 3pm.
So much of bourbon and distillery details are based on a lot of Kentucky history. I won’t go into details about the bourbon because if you weren’t interested in bourbon, then you wouldn’t have gotten this far in this review. The ending was a full ounce of samples. Kentucky has a lot of crazy liquor laws and the moderation of the samples go along with the stipulation that each distillery can only give a total of one ounce to each person… so don’t blame the distilleries.

This was the first stop on my Bourbon Trail experience with a group of friends. I loved that the cost of the tour was only $ 10 and included bourbon samples. Since it was less than 20 degrees out on the day we did the tour, we only did the inside portion. The tour was pretty decent, I learned a lot about the Bulleit brand and a lot about bourbon in general. The tour was short; which is nice if you’re pressed for time but not if you want a full experience. It really depends on what you’re looking for. Nonetheless, I felt like $ 10 was an appropriate amount to pay for this tour.

Forrest the guide did an excellent job. Quite a bit of history at this distillery. Learned an awful lot (like where «proof» comes from) and the tasting room was pleasant and comfortable and once again a very good (and funny) experience led by Forrest.
Maybe a 20 minute drive from the Ville. Worth your (about one hour) time.
I really think Forrest the guide made the tour that much better.

I flew to Louisville from Tampa to visit as I truly love their bourbon, but the tour left me wanting more. This is my first stop on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and it is mandatory if you want to fill your passport. The Stitzel-​Weller Distillery is an important place in the history of Bourbon distilling in Kentucky.
Our tour guide was a nice young girl named Hannah. She really knows the history of the distillery and was very open about it being more of a museum as Diageo, the global conglomerate who owns the brand, doesn’t actually distill anything here. It is only used to age some of the bourbon. The facility is just too small to house it all given the volume of bourbon sold.
The bourbon is actually produced at the Four Roses Distillery in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, using Bulleit’s recipe, which is actually owned by Kirin Brewing Company. Diageo is in the process of building a new high volume (1.8 million proof gallons, equal to about 750,000 9-​liter cases) annually, and to age spirits in six barrel warehouses. The distillery, on 300 acres in Shelbyville, will be operational by late 2016. Eventually, the site is to have at least a dozen two-​story aging warehouses and probably more distilling capacity.
The Stitzel-​Weller Distillery was taken out of production when Bourbon sales bottomed out in the 1980’s. It sat unmaintained and allowed to deteriorate until purchased by Tom Bulleit who wanted to distill a bourbon reminiscent of what was produced before prohibition.
Diageo is taking steps to at least stabilize portions of the facility. The main historic distilling facility has not been restored and the tour does not go though the facility. The tour guide said the distillery is being cleaned up.
So what do you see? They have a very small craft distillery operation used for experimentation. However, You are only taken to the entrance and told to look through the door. I think they just wanted to be able to say bourbon is produced on site. Next you go to a warehouse where you just step inside, see a few barrels and then walk back out.
The tour then goes to the old cooperage. Here nothing has been restored, it looks pretty much as it was abandoned 40 years earlier. You are invited to «imagine» the activity.
At the end you are shown Tom’s office and finally get to the tasting room. We tasted the regular 5 – 7 year regular bourbon, the 10 year, and finally the rye which is distilled by Midwest Grain Products, an independent distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana outside of Cincinnati.

We started our Bourbon Trail experience here, largely because we didn’t know any better. Our tour start was delayed because, four minutes after it was supposed to begin, a group of eight men came in wanting to pay individually for that exact tour. While it was kind of the employees to rush through that to get them on to our tour, it was annoying for those of us who were paid and ready to go.
The tour itself was fine enough. Our tour guide was a perky hipster chick who had a stock of overused phrases like, «Pretty neat, right?» and «I’m a bourbon nerd.» She was knowledgable, but seemed to downplay her own experience and knowledge by undermining herself. Be the badass bourbon lover you were meant to be! Own it!
The rickhouse was the clear winner on the tour, given the heavy wafts of bourbon (the angel’s share). The cooperage was a close second, given that you won’t see that on any other tour. The whole thing took a turn for the awkward at Tom’s office, where we hovered for too long and were supposed to be interested in his personal photographs and belongings. I’m sure Tom Bulleit is a lovely person, but it’s not like he invented bourbon.
I agree with other reviewers too that the whole tour feels a little disingenuous because it never mentions that Bulleit is distilled elsewhere and is a small label of a much larger brand. It would be like touring Budweiser with no mention of the InBev umbrella.

Interesting property with lots of history. The security guard out front is a trip, he’ll mess with you a little before he lets you in. Any chance he can start doing the tours? They have a VERY small distillery newly built distillery on site but really don’t distill here. You do see the rickhouse and what might be the only cooperage (where they used to make/​repair barrels on site) on the bourbon trail. You also see the distillery president’s office which is amusing. The tour ends with a sample of their bourbons.
They play some slight of hand here as they talk about how they were and are a small distillery focused on building the brand. They try and gloss over the fact they’re owned by spirits giant Diageo and their product is actually distilled at the Four Roses Distillery. I sorta get it but accept your owner sold out years ago and deal with it.
Tour is worth a look and I enjoyed it but the they lay the small distillery act on a bit too thick.

Visited during a recent holiday weekend. Easy to find. Good distillery tour, but that was one out of four that weekend, so I tuned out a little. The visitor center and store was very nice looking, and it was a trip to check out the company president’s office– nice touch! As always, the tasting was the highlight. Our guide was very knowledgable and very passionate about the bourbon industry. It was a joy to taste various bourbon and feel how they react differently with your tongue. Very enjoyable, recommend, and will repeat whenever I’m in the area.