BUFFALO TRACE
MAY 24, 2012
Our stop for the
day is Buffalo Trace located in Frankfort, KY.
What a beautiful city Frankfort is, sits right on the Kentucky
River. As you approach the city on US 127 you drive down through a cut-through
the mountain with high stone walls and wind down into town. It’s really very, very pretty.
We found Buffalo
Trace and started our day with Kris Comstock the Brand Manager and also a
friend of Jen and Sean Noble. We talked
in the store for a while and then joined the 11 AM tour.
Buffalo Trace is
owned by Sazerac the same company that owns Bartons Distillery among lots of other spirits companies.
Legend has it
that the buffalo, carving their way across the wilderness, crossed the Kentucky
River just below the distillery.
Sarzerac named it Buffalo Trace.
It has won countless awards for the quality of bourbon. Unlike many other distilleries, Buffalo
Trace remained opened during Prohibition obtaining a license for medicinal
purposes.
AN ORIGINAL RACK HOUSE . HOME TO BLANTON'S SINGLE BARREL BOURBON
The rack houses
are brick with the exception of one aluminum rack house which houses the
Blanton's bourbon. Col Albert Blanton
(1881-1959) distilled a single barrel borbon for his own use in 1934.
In 1984,
the world’s first single barrel bourbon to be marketed commercially was
released under the label, “Blanton’s Single Barrel Bourbon.” The
tiny horse and jockey on the bottle stoppers are a recognized trademark of the
Blanton’s Single Barrel Bourbon representing the rich heritage and tradition of
horses in Kentucky. There is a
collectors edition set of eight different stoppers featuring a horse and jockey
in different strides and poses. Each
stopper is marked with a single letter that spells Blanton’s when the set is
complete. Certainly a worthy goal to
attain this set and enjoy the drink!
The
Blantons and Eagle Rare is hand bottled; 1800 bottles/day come off the line.
Pappy
VanWinkle…….where are you???
Dave kept
looking for Pappy VanWinkle and was told if he found it, it’ll cost $350 and to
hide it! Pappy is aged 23 years so what
you get today started 23 years ago. Also
what starts out as 53 gallons after 23 years is only 10-12 gallons left so
couple that with the increased demand for bourbon over the years, I don’t think
we’ll be seeing Pappy Van Winkle anytime soon.
Old Weiller,
aged 7 or 12 years, is the same recipe just not aged as long. Apparently Dave picked up a bottle at the
liquor store in town.
The Barrels –
not just any barrels
The barrels are
still moved by hand and gravity on the tracks.
The reason they are made concave rather than flat sided is for ease of
movement. You can roll a 500 lb concave
barrel down a track and it will stay on track and you can spin it around
whereas a flat sided barrel would be difficult to maneuver.
The barrels are
made of charred white oak and the bung is made of poplar which is softer wood
and expands and contracts over with the heat and cold. Barrel loading is an art. The bung must be at the top of the barrel for
storage in the event it would pop or leak, the bourbon won’t escape. So, the person storing the barrels must be
able to calculate where to start the bung on the barrel with the roll down the
rack so that it ends up with the bung topside.
Each barrel is different as it’s got a number of barrels in front of it.
DAVE AT THE BARRELL CROSSING!
PERILS OF PAULINE!!!!
HEATING IS POWERED BY STEAM CRISSCROSSING IN THESE PIPES
I NEED TO GET ONE OF THESE BARRELS FOR LANDSCAPING. UNFORTUNATELY NONE WERE AVAILABLE. THE BREWERIES AND WINERIES ARE GRABBING THEM UP!
TASTING
WHAT IT IS BEFORE IT'S READY! MOONSHINE??
Our tasting
consisted of Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare and White Dog. As a treat we tasted their Buffalo Trace
Cream which differs from Irish Cream because it’s made with REAL cream. Must refrigerate after opening. You can only get that here so, of course, we
bought a bottle. However, don’t expect
to get any next fall; it’ll be GONE!
We also bought 6
pack of their delicious root beer that can only be purchased at the
distillery. Rumor has it you mix the
Buffalo Trace Cream with the root beer and it’s like a root beer float!
We had lunch at
the local little place downing our hot dogs with root beer.
All in all….. it
was a great day!
So finishes our
Bourbon Tour of 2012. Last year we completed
the Bourbon Trail with the big guys and this year we got to the three
distilleries we wanted to try. Soon we can
bore all of our friends with our BOURBON knowledge!!
LIFE IS GOOD!
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