BOYLE COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — "The focus is back on getting people in here and enjoying themselves," said tour guide Xavier Tomlin.
Wilderness Trail was the first to reopen for tours on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, but not without some safety measures.
"Masks, we require them in our fermentation area and our distillation area, just because we don't want to chance anything getting messed up bacteria wise or anything like that," said Tomlin.
The distillery is only allowing ten people on tour at a time and is offering more outdoor experiences.
"Before this whole thing started going on, we weren't visiting our warehouses or any of our rickhouses. Now, we're doing that," said Tomlin.
It's also asking visitors to pay with credit or debit cards rather than cash and now has online reservations.
"Usually before then, it was just people were coming in asking to get on a tour," said Tomlin. "So now, we're just trying to be aware of the people we'll be expecting throughout the day."
Visitors were welcomed back with a new product, a six-year-old bourbon that came out on June 8th. It's the oldest product the distillery offers, as most of its products are aged for a little over four years.
Back in March, the distillery started making hand sanitizer for the community. Now that it's reopened, the focus will shift back to visitors.
"Currently, we're not making any more," said Tomlin. "We made I want to say close to one thousand gallons, if not over one thousand gallons for the local hospital. We sold to private businesses as well."
You can stay updated on when other distilleries plan to reopen by visiting the Kentucky Bourbon Trail's website.
