Bourbon & truffles? Maker's Mark adopts puppy to hunt truffles at its distillery farm

In one hand, I held a gold rush cocktail with a sliver of truffle resting delicately atop an ice cube, and with the other, I scratched the top of a mesmerized puppy's head.

The new working dog at Maker’s Mark Distillery, Star, was obsessed with the garnish in my drink.

Really, everyone involved with the company’s new truffle program is, too.

Truffles are exquisite, high-end morsels that are considered a European delicacy and are most commonly paired with wine or lightly shaved over pasta in fine dining. The small, earthy delights, often associated with Italian cuisine, come with a high price tag as they are difficult to find — this desirable fungus grows about 4 to 6 inches underground.

You're probably most familiar with the black, earthy coloring of truffles, but there are, in fact, white truffles with fine pale skin native to Kentucky that resemble the Italian varieties.

And as luck may have it, Maker’s Mark Distillery in Loretto, Kentucky, sits on a 1,100-acre campus known as Star Hill Farm, that is home to a few of these pungent treats.

About two years ago, the agriculture team brought in a truffle consultant and truffle hunting dog who uncovered truffles growing beneath the ground near the base of the farm’s "mother tree." At least two kinds of truffles are native to the property: Appalachian truffles and Kentucky winter white truffles.

Now, Star Hill Farm is on its way to becoming one of about two dozen truffle farms in the commonwealth.

Maker’s Mark adopted Star, who they suspect is the first-ever truffle hunting dog at a bourbon distillery, and the company has slated four acres for an orchard of 1,000 oak, hazelnut and pecan trees that are preconditioned to grow the native truffles. The team expects it will be about 5-10 years before those saplings can produce the coveted fungus, but through a partnership with NewTown Truffiere near Bowling Green, Kentucky, bourbon truffle-infused cocktails have already made limited appearances on the distillery's cocktail menu.

The idea was so wild to me, I spent a whole afternoon at Star Hill Farm wrapping my head around it.

And admittedly indulging in it, too.

"Everybody associates truffles traditionally with wines, fine wines and champagnes, but actually, bourbon lends itself incredibly well," said Amanda Humphrey, who doubles as Star Hill Farm Advocacy and Experience Manager and Star’s nighttime guardian.

'Ramping up our sources of flavor'

Star and Humphrey along with Brian Mattingly, who leads Star Hill Farm's agriculture program, welcomed to me the property on a stunningly beautiful day in mid-May. They were kind enough to invite their truffle consultant, Margaret Townsend, the owner of NewTown Truffiere, and her three-year-old truffle dog Luca along for this adventure.

Truffles may seem like an odd endeavor for a bourbon distillery, but one of Maker’s Marks pillars is to create healthy ecosystems and to be good stewards of its land. Beyond the mushrooms' status as a sought-after delicacy, when truffles grow in the soil, it helps provide nutrients and water to the trees.

The distillery sources 86% of its grain for its bourbon from within 60 miles of its operation, Humphrey said, and it aims for 86% of its culinary and cocktail program on the property to be just as local. There are also wagyu and lamb pastures on the property as well as orchards, an innovation garden, and a mushroom garden on the site.

“We’re trying to be as self-sufficient as possible down here,” Humphrey told the Louisville Courier Journal, part of the Paste BN Network. "We want to be environmentally friendly. We want to lower our (carbon) footprint while ramping up our sources of flavor."

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Star heads to 'Truffle hunting finishing school'

Star looks a bit like a doodle, but he's really a purebred Italian Lagotto Romagnolo. He's too young to hunt truffles in the wild yet, but at less than a year old, he's already learned its earthy scent means he’ll get a reward. I saw that first-hand through his persistent, desperate whines as Humphrey served me that truffle drink. When the team brought out some truffle gouda for me to try, Star eyed it with the same, dedicated longing as though it had been made entirely of Milkbones.

He'd only had very basic training up until this point, and clearly, it had worked well.

As we stood in the orchard, surrounded by a few dozen saplings that would eventually grow truffles, Townsend placed three covered containers in front of Star. One box had a truffle in it, and it only took a matter of seconds for him to figure out where it was. He nosed at it insistently and raised his head to Townsend, who handed him a treat from her pouch as a reward.

In a few months, Star Hill Farm will send Star to a special dog trainer that Townsend described as "truffle hunting finishing school." A few days there will shift this game he's already learned to love into a true calling and a career, just like it did for her dog, Luca, a couple of years ago.

Now when Townsend is hunting with Luca on her property, the pair can unearth about two dozen truffles across two 45-minute sessions. Working dogs are like humans in the sense that even when they love what they do, they can burn out. So short sessions are important. A well-trained dog can even know through scent how to select a truffle that’s ripe and how to leave behind the ones that still need to grow.

On the day I visited, we didn't get quite that detailed. Still, Townsend demonstrated his skills by tossing a piece of truffle over the back of her head. Then she said "golf balls," which is Luca's secret code word that means it's time to go hunting.

A focused joy came over his face. Nose in the air, he followed the scent, his ears flapping as he leapt through the field in a light run. He dashed in a zig-zag of sorts following the truffle smell in the breeze and then turning back around when he realized he'd gone too far. A minute later, when Luca located it, he put his nose into the ground next to the truffle, but never touching it.

Star still has several years to go before he’ll have truffles to hunt at Star Hill Farm, but once he reaches hunting age, he’ll be able to train with Townsend on the 25 acres at NewTown Truffiere. By the time the new oak, pecan and hazelnut trees begin producing truffles, he’ll be more than ready to go.

The cocktail and culinary teams will be more than eager to tap into them, too.

Great vehicles for truffles

So much of what makes a truffle special is its aroma, the group explained as I took the final sips of that cocktail.

The glamourous, light, earthy sensation fluttered up just barely from the garnish on my drink, and it gracefully gripped the honey that sweetened it.

The more they’ve played with the concept, the more they’ve realized that truffles need to be infused with bourbon or its complimenting ingredients, rather than paired with them.

“The truffle aroma and flavor really attaches itself to fatty foods,” Townsend said. “Butter, cheese, all of those, are great vehicles for truffles.”

In their earliest experiments with fat washing Maker’s Mark bourbon with truffles, Humphrey put as much as $120 worth of Townsend’s truffles in a single liter. To do that, she melted butter in a pan, stirred in shaved truffles, and then added it to a bottle of bourbon. She chilled that overnight, all the fat rose to the top, and when she scraped that off, it left behind a luscious, truffle taste in the bourbon.

Humphrey was still dreaming of the luxurious eggnog Townsend made this past winter with truffle cream. They enjoyed that well into February.

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A few months ago, they debuted a truffle-infused boulevardier known as the "underground empress" on the distillery cocktail menu. It was undeniably popular. The bar ran out of the truffle-infused ingredients for it before the time came to switch over to the Kentucky Derby season menu.

Humphrey has also dabbled in milk punches and even a honey truffle ice cream. That fat-washed bourbon makes a nice highball.

As unbelievable as it sounds, bourbon and truffles complement each other very well.

And while I certainly arrived at Star Hill Farm that day thinking that truffles and bourbon were an odd pair, perhaps what I took away more than anything is the undeniable thing they have in common ― time.

Townsend was candid with me. There's an exuberant amount of time, investment, and risk that goes into building a truffle farm. That's why there aren't more of them in the state. Lining up all the resources to do it isn't easy. Then you have to wait. It took her eight years before she got a single truffle from her trees.

Quietly, the folks at Maker's Mark are hopeful they might be able to do it in five.

Which is so fitting.

That's about how long it takes to age a good barrel of bourbon, too.

Features columnist Maggie Menderski writes about what makes Louisville, Southern Indiana and Kentucky unique, wonderful, and occasionally, a little weird. If you've got something in your family, your town or even your closet that fits that description — she wants to hear from you. Say hello at mmenderski@courier-journal.com or 502-582-4053. Follow along on Instagram and Twitter @MaggieMenderski.