The Green River Tasting Room In Louisville

A few years back, Kentucky passed a law allowing distilleries to have tasting rooms off site of the distilleries. These rooms can have a cocktail bar and a tasting experience. The other day, I went to the opening of the newest tasting room in Louisville, the Green River Distillery Tasting Room. It is on Main Street, Louisville, at the west end of Whiskey Row, between 7th and 8th Streets. It is just a few doors east of the Bardstown Bourbon Company’s Tasting Room and west of 21c Hotel.

The Green River Distillery is in Owensboro, Kentucky, two hours west of Louisville, so that begs the question, “why Louisville?” The answer is quite obvious. Louisville is the center of Bourbon Tourism in Kentucky. It is home to the Frazier History Museum that is the “Head of the Bourbon Trail.” Louisville has the largest airport in Kentucky that is central to the distillery triangle of Louisville, Bardstown and Frankfort. Owensboro is a bit of a trip for the person flying in to take the Bourbon Trail. By opening a tasting room in Louisville, Green River Distillery can at least expose the Bourbon tourist to their whiskeys.

The Green River Distillery has done an excellent job with this tasting room. You walk in the door and immediately see the bar in the middle of the room. One side is dedicated to tasting their whiskeys with very nice horseshoe shaped tasting trays with their products labeled with slots for Glencairn tasting glasses. The other side of the bar is the cocktail bar. They have a cocktail menu with drinks featuring their whiskeys. We were given a version of a Gold Rush cocktail at the opening event, but there are about 9 or 10 other cocktails on the menu. I am sure that the staff are willing to make any other cocktail that might be called for as well. The walls are decorated with reproductions of Green River advertisements and there is a gift shop where you can purchase bottles of their whiskeys as well as the other paraphernalia associated with distillery gift shops. One bottle that you can purchase at the gift shop is a reproduction of a 19thcentury Green River jug with a full proof, wheat recipe Bourbon. This product is available only in the gift shop, so that gives the Bourbon tourist a bottle to take home that they can only get in Kentucky. There is also a stage area where live music can be played, in the rear of the bar area.

Green River Distillery has also built a “speakeasy room” at the site. The speakeasy has its own bar and tastings are available there as well as cocktails. The room operates during the business hours of the tasting room. I asked if it could be rented for special events, but was told that is not the plan at this time, but may become available in the future. Green River has created a very good tasting room in Louisville. It should do the job of introducing Bourbon tourists to their products and hopefully encourage them to make the trip to Owensboro to visit their historic distillery.