The Kentucky Bourbon Trail (sometimes informally shortened to "the Bourbon Trail") is a program of the Kentucky Distillers' Association (KDA) to promote the bourbon industry in Kentucky.
The KDA has registered the phrase Kentucky Bourbon Trail as a trademark.
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The Kentucky Bourbon Trail was launched in 1999 by the KDA. At the time, it included seven of the eight distilleries in the region.[1][2] In 2008, an eighth distillery, the Tom Moore Distillery, joined the Trail program.[3] However, the Tom Moore Distillery was then purchased by the Sazerac Company the following year, and at the end of that year both the Tom Moore Distillery and the Buffalo Trace Distillery, which was also owned by the Sazerac Company, withdrew from the KDA.[4] The two Sazerac distilleries continue to host public tours, and a Sazerac spokesperson stated that they still feel that they are "very much a part of the Bourbon Trail", but stated that Sazerac wishes to promote its distilleries independently of the KDA.[4]
The program sends free T-shirts to people who mail in a promotional "passport" which has been stamped by all the participating distilleries.
The six current trail members[5] are: