by By Brian G. Miller
Lee Cowherd has been a Buffalo Trace Distillery tour guide for seven years. But since the distillery reopened to the public on July 1st, Lee now has a new opening line after he welcomes guests to his tour: “So come on out and find an X to stand on.”
After a three-month hiatus thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kentucky distilleries were allowed to begin reopening to the public on June 8 under strict guidelines from the state. Some have restarted tours and tastings; some are still shut down, and others are in various stages in between.
On a Wednesday morning in mid-July, Lee wrangled our group of only four people who had shown up for the 10:30 a.m. tour (8 is the maximum group size now). The X marked the spot where we could stand at various locations on the tour because, “That’s how we’re handling our social distancing, “ Cowherd said in his opening remarks. “If you came in a car together, then you can stand together (although you don’t have to.) The other thing we ask, as we go around, that you do maintain that six-foot social distancing between your group and everybody else.
Read the rest of my August column Bourbon Spirit in Whiskey Network Magazine here.
