The Oxmoor Farm in Louisville, Kentucky, is steeped with whiskey history and the estate decided to create a tour of the estate focusing on this heritage. It is not your typical Bourbon tour. You will not see a distillery, but you will learn some fascinating Bourbon history. The tour is not on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, but it should be a place to visit when you are doing the trail. There is an Oxmoor Bourbon that you can taste on the tour and purchase a bottle after the tour, but more on that later.

Oxmoor Farm was established by Alexander Scott Bullitt in the late 18th century, when the Kentucky frontier was still part of Virginia. Alexander Scott Bullitt was a lawyer and helped write the Kentucky Constitution and became the  first representative from Jefferson County in the new Kentucky government. Bullitt County, Kentucky is named for him. The original house was a small wooden clapboard structure with a brick chimney built by Evan Williams, a brick mason and later a distiller. Bullitt died in 1816 and his son, William Christian Bullitt inherited the farm.

Records in the extensive Bullitt Family papers at the Filson Historical Society, show that he had corn grown on the farm that was distilled by the Hikes family at their distillery. This whiskey would have been used to sell to a grocer. It was a money making procedure to make use of the excess crop of corn. This money and other profits from the farm, were used to build an extension of the house in the 1820s. During the dangerous days of the American Civil War, the family moved from the farm into Louisville and the house was unoccupied by the family for several decades.

The next Bourbon connection is William Marshall Bullitt. He moved back into Oxmoor Farm and started another extension of the house. He was a lawyer for several distilleries and was consulted in the writing of the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897. He later became Solicitor General of the United States under President William Howard Taft and helped Taft make his famous Taft Decision on Whiskey that defined straight Whiskey, distinguishing it from rectified whiskey. Later, he sued the government over Prohibition. He (of course) lost the case, but at least he tried to put an end to the disaster that was Prohibition. Since he could not stop Prohibition, he decided in the first weeks of 1920, before Prohibition went into effect, to purchase several barrels of whiskey from a local distiller and had it bottled as Oxmoor Kentucky Whiskey. He would use this whiskey for entertaining at Oxmoor during those dry years. After Prohibition, Thomas Walker Bullitt followed his father’s lead and purchased several barrels of whiskey and had it bottled as T.W. Bullitt Bourbon.

The tour starts in the garden. There you will hear the history of the house in the 18th century including the story of Nora Bullitt, who was an artist and wife of William Marshall Bullitt. There the tour guide will point out a sculpture created by Nora and discuss turning the old slave kitchen into an art studio. Yes, the Bullitt Family were slave owners and the tour does not try to hide that fact. They work to preserve the history of the enslaved people and have many descendants of these enslaved people as advisors on the many conservation projects they are undertaking. The tour then moves into the original wing of the house and you will learn about life in the house in the 18th century.

The next stage of the tour takes place in the dining room in the 1820s extension of the house. There you taste a 19th century punch while listening to the tour guide tell you about William Christian Bullitt having corn made into whiskey. After that, you start to move into the last edition of the house where you hear about William Marshall Bullitt, the Bottled-in-Bond Act, The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, the Taft Decision and the creation of the Oxmoor Whiskey label. The tour ends in the library, one of the largest private libraries in the nation, where you get to taste the new Oxmoor Whiskey. After the tasting, you are invited to try a cocktail made from this whiskey. There is a highball cocktail, the punch sampled earlier in the tour and a 19th    century cocktail made with Bourbon, lemon, crème de cacao and vermouth. They do cost $15.00 each. You can also purchase bottles of the Oxmoor Whiskey, a blend of traditional recipe Bourbon and wheat recipe Bourbon.

I found the tour to be very enjoyable and informative on the rich history of the Bullitt family. I would recommend it to anyone that is in Louisville taking the Bourbon Trail. Just call ahead for times and days that the tour is offered. It is a new feature for the house and some days, the tour is not offered because of scheduling conflicts.

Photos Courtesy of Michael Veach and Maggie Kimberl