Want to learn about the Kentucky chew, sour mash, sweet mash, single barrel, and small batch? How about cachaca, caipirinha and vela?
These are some of the terms you’ll likely hear during a tour of one of Danville’s distilleries, which produce Kentucky’s famous bourbon as well as another spirit native to a country south of the equator.
Let’s start with the bourbon first. For more than 10 years, Wilderness Trail Distillery on Danville’s west side has been blending old traditions with science to distill bourbon using a unique sweet mash process that has produced award-winning spirits. Their bottled in bond wheated bourbon, bottled in bond high rye bourbon and bottled in bond rye whiskey can all be sampled and purchased at their visitor center. There are tours and tastings offered at Wilderness Trail Tuesday through Saturday, with group sizes limited to 16 people.
And speaking of bourbon science, Wilderness Trail began offering a new experience in early 2025, allowing guests to “bring out your inner nerd by becoming a quality control scientist in our lab.” Explore the fermentation process, gather a sample and use lab equipment to see if yeast at thriving.
For those who like brand-new experiences, Luca Mariano Distillery now offers one of Kentucky’s newest distillery tours, which began in the summer of 2025. Located on the east side of town on nearly 600 acres of property, the distillery is surrounded by the cornfields where they grow the primary ingredient used to produce their bourbon. The property is being developed with visitors in mind and, once fully completed, will include a boutique hotel, a restaurant and other amenities that will provide memorable experiences for guests.
And now for that mysterious Brazilian spirit called cachaca. At Danville’s Blue Rook Distillery, you’ll find a copper still, but you won’t find any charred white oak barrels aging bourbon. Instead, their still produces cacacha, made from Brazilian sugar cane.
You can book a tour at Blue Rook and learn the story behind how a Brazilian sugarcane distillery found a home in Kentucky’s bourbon country… and sample the five premium cane spirits they produce, which can also be enjoyed in the adjoining restaurant and cocktail bar, The Still at Blue Rook Distillery.
Enjoy all three distillery experiences during a trip to Danville by booking tours online and then cap off the evening at The Still or another restaurant in Danville serving locally distilled spirits, like Copper & Oak or Boogie Knight’s.
And if you plan to sample all the bourbons, make sure you have somebody else lined up to drive. If your entire crew is joining in the merriment, there are several local transportation options to help get you around safely.
Cheers!