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Buffalo Trace new additions

Unread postPosted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 8:09 pm
by bourbonv
Yesterday I was invited to a party at Buffalo Trace as they cut the ribbon on a new cooperage display for their tour. They also took this opportunity to make changes in their tour route and made improvements at Warehouse "D" where they will not start the tour. Let me start by saying that as always, Buffalo Trace has done an excellent job and put on a great party.

The tour will now start with the film in a small room attached to warehouse "D" They have placed some very good displays in the room with some very interesting site maps from the 1940s on the wall. The one thing that looks very out of place is a very nice wooden bookcase in one corner - that is until the guide opens it up and it is the door into the warehouse where they have many on their experimental barrels on display. There are also some coopering tools on display mounted on the wall. A very nice presentation for the start of the tour. The only off note is the smell from the drier house next door covers some of the nice bourbon aromas in the air.

The next new stop will be the cooperage display built by Independent Stave in Warehouse "J". This too is a very well designed display with great photographs and artifacts. My one suggestion to them is that they should add something to point out that in the 19th century that the barrel was the primary package for bourbon and that the consumer would take their flask or jug to the liquor store or bar to be filled from the barrel. Every barrel in the 1870s was single barrel bourbon at barrel proof and unfiltered!

These displays will add interest to the already interesting tour of Buffalo Trace.

Re: Buffalo Trace new additions

Unread postPosted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 9:58 pm
by sailor22
Every barrel in the 1870s was single barrel bourbon at barrel proof and unfiltered!


when it left the distillery perhaps. Of course any one or all of the wholesalers, shippers, distributers, delivery wagons or retail establishments might choose to cut, dilute, blend or otherwise modify it in order to make a little more money. As I understand it there wasn't much in the way of oversight.

Re: Buffalo Trace new additions

Unread postPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 12:12 am
by DeanSheen
Dangitt Sailor, you just had to blow out the candles and ruin the mood! :drunken:

Re: Buffalo Trace new additions

Unread postPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 5:12 pm
by sailor22
Jeez - I meant that today you actually know what your getting. And that's a good thing. Didn't want to rain on anyone's parade.

Re: Buffalo Trace new additions

Unread postPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 6:02 pm
by bunghole
That's exactly why George Garvin Brown started putting 'Old Forrester' in sealed glass bottles. Yes, at that time there were two r's in 'Old Forester'.

Re: Buffalo Trace new additions

Unread postPosted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 6:16 pm
by bunghole
sailor22 wrote:
Every barrel in the 1870s was single barrel bourbon at barrel proof and unfiltered!


when it left the distillery perhaps. Of course any one or all of the wholesalers, shippers, distributers, delivery wagons or retail establishments might choose to cut, dilute, blend or otherwise modify it in order to make a little more money. As I understand it there wasn't much in the way of oversight.


Greed always compels the unscruplous, just as it repels the virtuous. The virtuous repulsion of the unscruplous always propels society forward.

Linn - and you may quote me on that!

Re: Buffalo Trace new additions

Unread postPosted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 12:26 pm
by bourbonv
Sailor22,
You are of course right that there were people who would alter the whiskey with water and other flavors, but still, the whiskey would come out of the barrel unfiltered and techically, at barrel proof. Just maybe not the barrel proof the distiller made it to be. In some cases, a little water would actually make it better by toning down the alcohol.

Re: Buffalo Trace new additions

Unread postPosted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 7:46 pm
by cowdery
Sailor's point, though, and it's a good one, is not so much about adulteration as it is about how, in those days, the barrel that 'met' the consumer at the saloon or general store probably did not come directly from the distillery. Most of it went through brokers who, at the very least, topped off the barrels before shipping them to customers. You couldn't necessarily tell if the whiskey had been tampered with in a bad way, but you could sure tell if the barrel was light.