New Kentucky Bourbon Trail stop strong on history, not mash. But you still get a drink.

Approaching from the sweeping driveway lined with locust trees, the elegant mansion hardly looks like the newest stop on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. But as of June of last year, that is exactly what it is for now.

Not only is the Oxmoor Bourbon Company the newest member, it’s unique among all the others. It’s not a distillery or a distribution center; nor is it a bar, restaurant, tour company or even a bourbon-themed hotel.

What it is, according to curator and historian Shirley Harmon, is “a house museum celebrating the contributions of one remarkable family to the state’s bourbon industry over five generations.”

That remarkable family is the Bullitt family (no connection to Shelbyville-based Bulleit, which is owned by Diageo.) This Bullitt family never distilled or distributed bourbon, but their contribution was equally as important (more about that later.)

The Bullitt family was dominated by a dynasty of legal scholars beginning with Alexander Scott Bullitt, co-author of Kentucky’s first Constitution and its first Lieutenant Governor. It ended with Thomas “Tommy” Bullitt who started practicing law after World War II and represented many of the commonwealth’s distilleries until his retirement in 1983.

The Bullitts were influential enough to have one of the state’s counties named for them, but perhaps none had more impact on the bourbon industry than Thomas Walker Bullitt who did much of the legal groundwork for the 1897 Bottled-in-Bond Act, which set the standards for America’s bourbon industry.

This fascinating history played out in the Bullitt family home, Oxmoor Farm, which is actually three houses combined into one.

The museum tour begins in the original house, a modest six-room frame structure. A typical Colonial-style, it was built in 1791, a year before Kentucky became a state. As the family grew and the times evolved, so too did the house.

The second addition, an antebellum style, was added in 1829, and it wasn’t until 1915 during the Gilded Age that the final addition to the house began.

Harmon points out that the 75-minute tour is a walk through almost 250 years of Kentucky and bourbon history.

Pre or post tour, be sure to take in the formal gardens designed by Marian Coffin, one of the first female architects in America. Coffin’s clientele included some of the wealthiest and most influential families in the country, such as the Vanderbilts and the duPonts, for whom she created Winterthur in Delaware.

As visitors enter the house, they go from one section to another where a different tour host takes over, talking about the furnishings, art and artifacts — all of which are original to the family home.

Among those artifacts is a photograph of President William Howard Taft, a personal friend of William Marshall Bullitt, son of the aforementioned Thomas Walker Bullitt.

Taft was a judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati when he first encountered and grew to admire the courtroom style of the 23-year-old Marshall. The two became friends, and when Taft decided to run for president, he called on Bullitt to deliver the Kentucky delegation. He did and Taft got the Republication nomination.

President Taft returned the favor in 1909 with the Taft Decision which clearly defined the words whiskey, straight and bourbon. Three years later, thanks to the Bullitt family, the official endorsement on every premium bottle of bourbon read “Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey.”

“Because we’re not a typical distillery tour, we do things a bit differently,” says Harmon.

One of those things is a mid-tour refreshment stop in the elegant dining room. Guests are invited to take a seat at the dining room table where they are offered a glass of Fish House Punch made with Oxmoor bourbon, peach brandy, chilled black tea, cane sugar and peels of two lemons.

Harmon says that they want those who take the tour to feel like they would had they been honored guests of the Bullitt family.

Another chance to sample the Oxmoor bourbon comes on the final stop in the ornate library with its elegant décor and 10,000-volume book collection. What can you say other than it’s a room that would have warmed the cockles of Jay Gatsby’s heart.

As for the Oxmoor bourbon itself, even that is not your normal Bourbon Trail offering. Oxmoor Bourbon Company general manager Tim Knittel explains that it’s a private label bourbon sourced from different Kentucky distilleries which is then blended by Cordell Lawrence.

“Cordell was previously with Peerless Distillery and is now in the process of opening his own Eastern Kentucky distillery called Eastern Light,” says Knittel.

Harmon and Knittel encourage those who want a traditional tour/tasting experience to visit one of the area distilleries.

They emphasize that their tour is a bourbon-focused historical journey and tasting experience that honors one family’s unparalleled influence on America’s native spirit.

Oxmoor Bourbon Company

Where: 720 Oxmoor Ave., Louisville KY 40222

Hours: Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; closed Sunday and Monday

Tickets: For more information on tours and tasting opportunities, go to oxmoorbourbon.com