One of Crill Brown’s guilty pleasures is to sit down to relax with a glass of bourbon on the rocks. Generally he prefers Maker’s Mark.

So, when Brown and his wife, Judi, were planning a trip to Florida to see their grandchildren, the couple from St. Louis said they decided to take a few days and tour Kentucky’s bourbon country stopping in seven bourbon distilleries in the heart of the Bluegrass State.

“I’m terribly glad we came,” Crill Brown says as he sips Woodford Reserve from a shot glass after taking his final tour on the Bourbon Trail. “I learned a lot here that I’d never heard before.”

Each year, thousands of tourists are coming to Kentucky distilleries. Last year, the six distilleries that make up Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail recorded more than 450,000 visits. And the Kentucky Distillers’ Association reports visits have increased by about 10% to 12% annually.

Kentucky is one of a growing number of states seeing more and more visitors coming to tour distilleries, vineyards and breweries. While tours to California wine country have long been popular, now businesses from Oregon to Virginia are capitalizing on growing alcohol industries to cash in on tourism dollars.

By Nina N. Greipel for USA TODAYNancy Pesano samples some of the matured bourbon at Woodford Reserve in Versailles, Ky., as Ted Beaulieu, of Florence, Ky., holds the glass. Barry Wells stands in the background.

Online travel company Viator, which provides access to more than 9,000 tours and activities, has seen a 50% increase in wine tour sales in the past year. And Kelly Gillease, vice president of marketing for Viator, says beer tour options, particularly craft beer, are becoming more abundant as well.

“People are looking for more unique cultural experiences,” Gillease says. “Eating the food and drinking what people drink is a great way to do that.”

Suzanne Burr, a travel consult with Food and Wine Trails, says her business has been booming in the past two years as more people look to visit wineries.

“Food and wine is one of the No. 1 interests all over the world, and people want to incorporate that in their vacations,” Burr says.

In June 2010, tourism officials in Bend, Ore., launched the Bend Ale Trail, hoping to connect the breweries of the growing craft beer industry in the area. Seven brewers, all within walking distance of one another, form the trail.

for the rest of the article on Food, Beer and Bourbon –http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/travel/story/2012-03-17/Tourists-drawn-to-distilleries-breweries/53555466/1

the Bourbon Trail consists of Four Roses, Heaven Hill, Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark, Wild Turkey, Woodford Reserve.  you can try all these bourbons at V-The market in Danville, Kentucky, Boyle County. Kentucky Tourism.