Bourbon – Wrap Up

Spent a wonderful day touring Buffalo Trace distillery today with Jennifer.  The distillery in Frankfort, KY is nestled along the Kentucky river and is very picturesque.  On the tour we visited Warehouse C where they are aging Buffalo Trace, Van Winkle’s and some of their experimental barrels.  From there we went to the Benton’s Bottling hall where they bottle their products.  After explaining the details of the bottling process our guide took part of the group, ourselves included on a special tour of the rear of the distillery.

In the rear of the distillery we saw the grain delivery areas and one of the large Vodka stills.  Then we went to the Mash room where they were fermenting batches of upcoming spirits.  Next we were taken through their small batch still room where they produce special spirit runs for one off customers.  Following that we were introduced to the big daddy still.  A column still does the first distillation, then the spirits are further distilled in pot still to produce the final unaged product “White Dog”.  We were lucky enough to get to sample a bit of this White Dog and I must say it was very good.  You could really taste the corn back notes and despite its high proof it was still quite smooth.  The final step in our tour was the tasting room where we sampled the distilleries vodka (Rain), Buffalo Trace’s Bourbon and Eagle Rare, one of my personal favorites.  Overall the tour was fantastic.  Below are a number of pictures from the day.

As for the week of Bourbon experimentation, it was a nice refresher on America’s native spirit.  This is certainly not the last we’ll speak it.  Until then keep trying different Bourbons there are a lot out there and all have something special to offer.

Blueprint of a Sazerac in the Buffalo Trace gallery
Blueprint of a Sazerac in the Buffalo Trace gallery
Inside Warehouse C
Inside Warehouse C
Grain Silos
Grain Silos
Mash Fermenter - 92,000 Gallons!
Mash Fermenter – 92,000 Gallons!
Small Batch Still - Combination Pot + Column
Small Batch Still – Combination Pot + Column
Column of the Big Daddy Still
Column of the Big Daddy Still
Thunder the Buffalo Monitors the Still Output
Thunder the Buffalo Monitors the Still Output
Warehouse Window
Warehouse Window
Barrels on the Bottom Level of the Warehouse - "Old Pappy Lives Down Here" as our Tour Guide Said
Barrels on the Bottom Level of the Warehouse – "Old Pappy Lives Down Here" as our Tour Guide Said

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One response to “Bourbon – Wrap Up”

  1. Aaron Avatar
    Aaron

    Lucky bastard … I’m stuck at home watching Insider Weekend and drinking bacon old fashioneds. :D