Wet Your Whistle at the Speakeasy Vibes of Blue Note Bourbon’s Tasting Room

If you’re unfamiliar with Blue Note, run by B.R. Distilling Company, it’s one of the oldest licensed distilleries out of the city and “embodies Southern Culture and Delta Flavor.”

They’re best known for their three bourbons under the Blue Note Brand: Blue Note Juke Joint, Blue Note Crossroads, and Blue Note Uncut. 

All three are sold in local liquor stores and are distributed in 15+ states. You can find many local bars and restaurants serving up drinks with them.

What’s become a hidden gem for locals and bourbon lovers, is the tasting room tucked away in their production facility. It immediately screams speakeasy vibes from the unambiguous entrance that will have you asking yourself – am I sure I’m in the right place?

When you step inside, you’ll find a room where the lights glow blue and are turned down low. Speakeasy vibes, am I right?

There’s a bar that can comfortably sit a small group for tastings, a lounge area with leather-bound furniture, and shelves filled with their bourbon available for purchase directly on sight. This is a daytime space with limited hours due to operating around production.

Before we got too cozy in the tasting room, we took a tour of their 27,000-square-foot production facility where everything is done by hand from the packaging to the distilling. This is included in the tour experience that you can book online here. The facility and tasting room are located together in the New Chicago neighborhood.

The guided tour gives an unfiltered, behind-the-scenes glimpse into daily operations meant to be enjoyed by bourbon novices or enthusiasts. To tour the production facility, you must be 18+ and wear closed-toed shoes – safety first!

Guests that are 21+ can add a tasting experience at the end of the tour for a small additional cost.

Our tour guide was President/CEO Logan Welk who kept it fun and real with us throughout the tour. Sharing fun anecdotes and methods of distilling. After the extensive and informative tour, we were thirsty to get our hands on the bourbon.

We filled back into the tasting room, where tasting boards featuring the three main bourbons were waiting for us: Blue Note Juke Joint, Blue Note Crossroads, and Blue Note Uncut.

Juke Joint is more of your every day sipper at 93 proof and is aged a minimum three years. Crossroads is very smooth and clocks in at 100 proof. Blue Note Uncut is where it gets interesting (because we love a bourbon with a good story).

Uncut is aged four years and is a variable proof. All barrels of this bourbon that are in the market are actually survivors of the June 2019 summer storm that damaged the storage facility in Owensboro, Kentucky, where Blue Note had their barrels stored.

This bourbon earned Blue Note a #7 place on Whiskey Advocate’s Top 20 Whiskies of 2022 list and a 92 point score by them. It was also awarded the double platinum winner at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

I experienced a little bit of a snob’s satisfaction liking this one the best. Both Juke Joint also received a double gold award and Crossroads a gold award at the World Spirits Competition.

VISIT AND FOLLOW:

Blue Note Bourbon
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube

TO BOOK A TOUR:

Tours without tasting are maxed at 10 people with tasting tours limited to six people. Currently, tours are only offered on Thursday and Friday afternoons. Times are 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.

A facility tour costs $10 and is an additional $5 to add the tasting (roughly $20 after fees/tax).

Click here to book your tour today and for location details.