Maker'S Mark Distillery, INC.

Maker's Mark is the bourbon that taught a generation what wheated bourbon tastes like — and the only distillery in the United States designated a National Historic Landmark while still in active production (December 16, 1980). The grounds at Star Hill Farm in Loretto, Kentucky look engineered for the brand it became: rolling green, black-shuttered white buildings, the spring-fed Whisky Creek running through, and a glass cathedral roof over the modern bottling line where every bottle still gets hand-dipped in the red wax that Margie Samuels invented in her kitchen in 1958.

T. William "Bill" Samuels Sr. bought the historic Burks' Distillery on October 1, 1953 and used the next five years to do something almost no one in Kentucky was doing at the time: he burned his family's old bourbon recipe and started over. The new mash bill — 70% corn, 16% red winter wheat, 14% malted barley, zero rye — produced a softer, less aggressive bourbon than the rye-heavy norm. The first bottle of Maker's Mark hit shelves in 1958. Margie's red wax came shortly after. The Samuels family ran it for three generations until Beam Inc. acquired the brand and Suntory Global Spirits acquired Beam in January 2014. Rob Samuels has run the place since April 2011, succeeding his father Bill Samuels Jr.

The production specs haven't moved since the 1950s in any meaningful way. The bourbon enters the barrel at 110 proof, the lowest in Kentucky, which gives the resulting whiskey more time to extract sugars from the wood. Barrels are rotated between warehouse levels by hand to equalize temperature exposure across the ~6-year aging period. "Small batch" at Maker's Mark means roughly 20 barrels — about 1,000 gallons — per release. Final bottling proof is 90.

The tour is one of the most polished in Kentucky. You walk the original distillery building, watch the bottling line in motion, see the rotated barrels, and at the end you hand-dip a bottle yourself in the red wax tank. The visitor center has a Dale Chihuly ceiling installation in the gift shop that almost nobody mentions and almost everybody photographs. Plan two hours minimum on the property and book ahead — slots fill weeks out during the peak Kentucky Bourbon Trail season.