As an official sponsor of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, yesterday, we had the privilege to stand in Room 100 at the Kentucky State Capital and listen to a whole bunch of information that we already knew: Kentucky Bourbon is booming and it is carrying all of us along for the ride. We get a front row seat every day here at Sweet Mash to the $8.6 BILLION poured into the Kentucky economy ever year.
When we first started planting the seeds that would become our little shop back in early 2015, we were motivated by seeing all of the tour buses that had popped up over the years, driving through downtown Lawrenceburg. Mostly just barreling through (pun intended) and not stopping. We noticed the articles and the interest in The Kentucky Bourbon Trail starting to rise. You see, Lawrenceburg, KY is situated almost smack in the middle of the “Amber Triange”, the distillery heavy area bordered by I65, I64 and the Bluegrass parkway, and home to powerhouse distillers Wild Turkey and Four Roses. Many folks told us we were crazy when they heard our idea because there had been little to no viable shops on Main St in decades. We felt like a change in local perspective was needed and we opened our doors on the bet that the bourbon tourism would grow and boy, it sure has.
We see folks from all over the country and all over the world, but we also see a ton of support from our locals. Through the last nearly 4 years, we have realized that this bourbon boom is not just about the tourists coming through, but about our local community too. We have watched restaurants, galleries and shops open up on Main Street. We have had that front row seat to a real change in our collective way of looking at the bourbon world. We watched our local government finally hire a Director of Tourism and assemble a Tourism Commission that has had some big wins in getting people to visit and getting locals to start enjoying their hometown.
Looking at the numbers released yesterday is astounding. Visits for the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and Craft Tours have climbed from 298,621 in 2009 to 1,404,926 in 2019, that’s a 370% increase. The amount of money pumped into Kentucky and our local community is equally impressive though direct jobs, employment spin-off, tourist dollars and production/consumption tax revenue. If you really want to learn something rather shocking, read up on the “ad valorem” property taxes paid by the bourbon industry. In 2017 alone, Kentucky distilleries paid over $3.4 million to public schools in property taxes and over $12 million in Ad Valorem taxes. The real story here in Lawrenceburg remains less about the numbers and more about the real changes evident every day on Main Street and through out Anderson County. You may not drink it, you may be sick of hearing us all preach the bourbon gospel, but the Kentucky Bourbon industry is working for all of us in the 40342 and across this Commonwealth.
Of course, the fact remains true than there are more barrels of bourbon in Kentucky that Kentuckians. We are almost up to a 2:1 ratio and that is fine, fine, fine with us.
*Photo credit goes to Tamara and her cracked iPhone in the back of the room. You may not be able to tell, but that is Rick Robinson, VP of Product Supply Chain at Wild Turkey (Campari America) who currently serves as President of the Kentucky Distiller’s Association. He made sure to mention Lawrenceburg. Another win for the home team. Cheers!
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