The small distilleries, such as Maker's Mark, are crafting fine bourbons as good as any scotch. It moves on to a guided factory tour and ends with a tasting of bourbon balls. None of the distilleries can serve liquor, so each gives a hint of its product by offering candy samples. The site is a National Historic Landmark. At the visitors center, a video narrated by company President Bill Samuels Jr. details the special touches that make the brand's reputation.
Visitors can buy a bottle and dip it themselves in the hot red wax.
At this small place, it is just one line, too. Wild Turkey, which sits on a hill high above the Kentucky River in Lawrenceburg, is a factory of a place, with each huge building painted an inviting country shade of green, red or yellow. Guarding them all is the image of a giant wild turkey, its feathers demurely furled. Visitors walk all over the hill as they progress from the visitors center to the distillery, through the laboratory where quality control is assured and past one of the many huge warehouses. This tour, involving steps, inclines and metal-grate floors, is not accessible to the handicapped.