Central Region
Castle & Key Distillery
October 24th 2025
We began our tour in the Northern Region at the Castle & Key Distillery.
Castle & Key Distillery is located in Frankfort, Kentucky, on the grounds of the historic Old Taylor Distillery, which was built in 1887 by Colonel Edmond Haynes Taylor Jr.. After the original distillery closed in 1917 due to Prohibition and was neglected for decades, it was purchased by new owners in 2014 who began restoration. The site reopened as Castle & Key in 2018, and the company now produces bourbon, rye, gin, and vodka, with a focus on restoring Colonel Taylor's vision of a high-quality, experience-driven destination distillery.
Lisa, Laurie, Sandy and myself.
Our friend, Pete Pogue, arranged a private tour of the distillery. Four of us took the tour. Lisa, (Pete’s wife), Laurie (high school friend of my wife), Sandy (my wife) and myself.
Halloween!
It was a beautiful fall day in October and close to Halloween. The distillery had old bourbon barrels carved like Jack-O-Lanterns throughout the grounds.
The grounds were amazingly beautiful. The buildings architecture resemble castles he had seen while traveling in Scotland, Ireland and Germany. He even incorporated a Roman Bath style cover for the spring he used for the distillery. There is also a sunken garden that he made to resemble Windsor gardens that is currently being restored. Many of the buildings and the Roman Bath Cover are still there and have been restored.
The bourbon was very good. We sampled many of the varieties they produces. We even tasted some of the gins they make.
I ended up buying one bottle of Restoration Rye bourbon and one bottle of the Harvest gin. I am a gin drinker and I really enjoyed the gins they make. They make three types of gin, Roots of Ruin Gin (a summer gin with notes of citrus and lemon), Rise Gin (a floral gin with notes of lavender and chamomile) and Harvest Gin (a fall and winter gin with notes of cedar, licorice and other earthy tones).
Next we headed out to the BlueGrass Distillery just a few miles away.
BlueGrass Distillery
Elkwood Farmhouse
Founded in 2012, Bluegrass Distillers has refined its craft by blending traditional bourbon-making techniques with innovative mash bills, distinct distillation methods, and advanced barrel finishing. The expansion to Elkwood Farm – a historic 62-acre estate in Midway, KY – marks a key milestone, adding a full “seed-to-glass” operation with a 36-inch column still, expanded bottling, and multiple barrel warehouses. Bluegrass Distillers at Elkwood Farm also offers an immersive visitor experience, inviting guests to tour the farm, explore unique production methods, enjoy tastings of their award-winning bourbons and ryes, and participate in a Bottle-Your-Own experience.
Our Tastings
We were given a short presentation on the history of the Grounds and Distillery. They provided a tasting with some unusual pointers. We were told to exhale as we sipped the bourbon. This was not very natural and was quite difficult. It was supposed to smooth out the harshness of the bourbon. It did not work. It was all very harsh and not very smooth.
Tasting Room.
Then we went for a tour of the facility. Since it is a young distillery, they are not able to bottle thier own bourbon yet. To make end meet, they bottle bourbon for other distillers in the area.
Distillery Building
I would give this distillery a pass.
