Discover These Under-The-Radar Drinks Trails
Photo by Yutacar/Unsplash
Stereotypes about what you might discover on drinks trails abound. On the one hand, visions of vomiting, over-served bridezillas and mustachioed bros holding plates of slow-smoked mutton and snifters of brandy might appear. On the other, you have well-heeled wine lovers with a penchant for over-extracted reds and the fabulous things in life—multiple manses, private jets, the groveling behavior of everyone around them at all times, etc.
But these days, those stereotypes couldn’t be further from reality, especially in not-yet-Instagram-famous trails that focus on reflecting the culture and landscape around them in the glass and beyond.
Today, wine, spirits and beer country are all about adventure, flavor and, in many cases, sheer delight. These particular under-the-radar trails and regions are worthy of exploration for anyone who is equally intent on finding quality hooch and serious fun without the incursion of mega-buses, screaming bridesmaids or self-serious elitists.
For History Geeks: Westchester Craft Beverage Trail
Westchester County is often thought of as an extended suburban borough of New York City for rich and tiresome yuppies seeking New York City commutability coupled with the glories of gilded sprawl. While that particular truism may still hold water, it is also increasingly a source of some of the best damn beer in the country, with a side of fascinating history.
The Hudson Valley begins in Westchester, and that passion for bounty and local craftsmanship abounds here. Pro tip: Download the free Westchester Craft Beverage Trail, because it serves as a kind of web-based passport with route info, directions, hours of operations and specials available along the trail (no app required.) While most of the 23 businesses enrolled are breweries, there are a smattering of cideries and distilleries to visit on the drinks trail as well.
The county was first visited by European explorers (Giovanni da Verrazzano) in 1524 and was then examined more closely by Henry Hudson on his travels up the river named for him in 1609. Settlers were hot on his heels, courtesy first of the Dutch West India company.
When you’re not busily sipping at craft breweries, check out the many historical sites along the drinks trail. A home that embodies the entirety of the U.S.’s complex socioeconomic history can be found in Philipsburg Manor. This Sleepy Hollow mansion dates back to the 1680s and became a colonial farming and trading center and played a key role in the American Revolutionary War, while also tragically serving as a northern hub of the slave trade. The Manor offers a compelling and thoughtful tour of this complex history, with 52 gorgeous acres to wander.
The Gothic-era Lyndhurst Mansion overlooking the Hudson River in Tarrytown is also worth visiting for art and architecture lovers on this drinks trail. It is a jewel of decorative art set in a meticulously landscaped park.
But don’t miss the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, which offers you the opportunity to contemplate mortality while wandering its 90 acres of famous dead robber barons (including Elizabeth Arden, Andrew Carnegie, Walter Chrysler, Leona Helmsley, Brooke Astor, William Rockefeller and Washington Irving), culture shapers and socialites—and, of course, the many anonymous dead.
Don’t-Miss Sip: Broken Bow Brewery in Tuckahoe is family owned and operated, with a family- and furry friend-friendly tasting room and outdoor beer garden delivering a range of classic (Belgians, Porters) and esoteric (high-octane IPAs) brews. On the weekends, you’ll find a rotating lineup of food trucks, and snacks are always available. Try the Notorious LIC IPA (12.2% ABV), then balance it out with a Mexican Style Lager (3.8% ABV).
For Horse Lovers: Woodford County
There is only one place in the world where you can find five different bourbon distilleries within a 15-minute drive of each other: Woodford County, Kentucky. And if you’re still thirsty after sampling Woodford Reserve, Castle and Key, Glenns Creek Distilling, Bluegrass Distillers and White Dog Trading and Storage… Buffalo Trace, Four Roses and Wild Turkey are just down the road. (Just make sure you have a designated driver.)
Increasingly, winemakers like Equus Run Vineyards and Wildside Winery are drawing their own legions of libation fanatics.
While bourbon country is normally associated with Bluegrass and Mint Juleps, and although there are tours centered around those, you’d be remiss to not see the mares, foals, stallions and champion thoroughbreds that have made Woodford County ground zero for horse and horse racing lovers. Woodford County alone has delivered 23 Breeders’ Cup winners, five of the last 15 Kentucky Derby winners, two Triple Crown Race winners and a Preakness and Belmont winner each.
Between sips on the drinks trail, book a tour to see horses trained on the track, visit stallions, foals and mares and even catch a glimpse of Triple Crown winners American Pharoah and Justify at Ashford Stud. If rehabilitating horses is more your jam, take a farm tour over to Bergen County Horse Rescue, where they have saved 26 horses, one mule and four mini horses since 2016 from neglect and abuse.
Don’t-Miss Sip: Woodford Reserve’s limited edition Distillery Series, created to push Woodford’s creative boundaries and introduce new whiskeys to the market. The newly debuted Blended Malt combines two different malt whiskies—one 100% malt aged in used barrels and finished in Ruby Port, the other a blend of five styles of malt grains aged in new oak.
For Urban Bikers: Beer City Ale Trail
Grand Rapids, Michigan, is the second-largest city in the state and is perched right on Grand River east of Lake Michigan. In recent years, the city has blossomed as a tourism hub in the Midwest, with the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park with its landscaped gardens and tropical conservancy and collection of sculptures by world-class artists like Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore and Ai Weiwei.
But it is also touted for the quality of its beer, and its walk- and bike-ability. Because while Grand Rapids is Michigan’s second-largest city, its population still hovers just under 200,000, which means you get the cultural and aesthetic benefits of urbanity without many of the drawbacks.
There are more than 80 craft breweries, cideries and meaderies within a 30-minute drive, including world-famous icons like Founders Brewing Co. and progressive breweries like Brewery Vivant, the world’s first LEED-certified microbrewery, which also happens to be housed in a former funeral home.
Like the Westchester Craft Beer Trail, you can download an official guide (this time via the Beer City Brewsader App) to earn points and also consult an easy-to-follow guide to the breweries, complete with directions, hours and events info.
The best way to get around is on the Off the Ale Trail, an informal network of hiking and biking trails throughout Grand Rapids. The Grand River Edges Trail links the downtown to Kent Trails and Millennium Park, with a 2.1-mile downtown loop passing through major landmarks. Or try the Cannon Township Trail, which is a scenic route meandering through four miles of paved paths and a one-mile track mountain bike trail.
Don’t-Miss Sip: Get a taste of where the region’s beer-making bragging rights were born with Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout, a bold 12% ABV banger of a brew made with chocolate and coffee and aged in bourbon barrels.
For Wild West Fantasists: Sagebrush Saloon Trail
We all dream of simpler times, untamed landscapes, wild souls. We may not want to go back there (personally, I love having the freedom and ability to vote, earn money and drive, and for now, legislate over my own body), but we love to visit.
The state-wide Sagebrush Saloon Trail allows you to live out your gun-slinging cowhand fantasy with a tipple in your hand and the knowledge that the Bad Old Days are (we hope!) safely behind us.
Nevada’s Sagebrush Saloon Trail offers a passport and guide that will get you from start to finish across 28 iconic Wild West watering holes. At each one, visitors will discover the history of the watering hole and the surrounding community.
Stops include Nevada’s oldest bar counter, the Genoa Bar & Saloon in Carson Valley, which is also the oldest settlement in the state; Eureka Owl Club, a full-service bar along one of the most remote and haunted highways in the country, Highway 50; and the legendary Odeon Saloon in Dayton, which has drawn the likes of Wild West cowboys, Mark Twain and Marilyn Monroe.
Don’t-Miss Sip: Head over to the allegedly haunted Gold Hill Hotel & Saloon, founded in 1859 in Virginia City, one of the West’s most iconic boomtowns. The Rib-Eye Shot, with Jameson, Worcestershire, horseradish and pepper seems the way to go here.
Happy drinks trailing!