Skip to main content

Barton's 1792

We arrived at Barton’s at about 9am on a Tuesday morning to take the Bushel to Bottle tour that started at 9:30am. This is the 1.5 hour tour that goes more in-depth than their 1 hour Barton Tradition tour so I can only speak to this one. My wife and I were the only two people on the tour which may have enabled us to do more than a larger tour so that should be taken into account.


The site is exactly what I imagine from a distillery. The whole works, rickhouse included, were in front of us as we drove down the hill. It’s all pretty compact so you can see everything and walk around it easily. Parking wasn’t too far away. We smelled the mash cooking as we walked right up to the visitor center and got our tour spots reserved.

Our tour guide, Amanda, first took us through the bottling room where we learned about their single-barrel product. We then walked over to the grain delivery area to get an up-close view of the delivery process. This was followed by an explanation of the milling process and a quick look into the milling room. Next, we looked at the column still at ground level before heading up to the catwalk to view the fermentation tanks from above. Amanda opened at least four tanks and let us directly sample sour mas
h at various steps in the distillation process. I loved this interactive aspect of the tour as I got to experience the fermentation process through tasting and viewing the mash. This was the closest I felt to being off of a tour and just experiencing the distillery. It’s similar to the recommendation that I received from a friend, Elijah (and I wouldn’t have gone without that recommendation so it was much appreciated). We then went one level down to sample the white dog whiskey before rubbing it over our hands and noting how its smell changed as it dried. Last, before our tasting, we walked over to the rick house to view the barrels doing their work. Again, Amanda led us through the building, answered all of our questions, and let us get up close to the process.

The tasting was fine but not my favorite. On the positive side, it was FREE. Barton’s (and Buffalo Trace) are owned by Sazerac. Sazerac’s tours are all free (which keeps them off the official Kentucky Bourbon Trail as a requirement to membership is charging for tours). This, on top of the excellent tour, made it a great value. And though these weren’t my favorite whiskeys, they were also my first two on the tour so I may have just needed to ease into them. I gave the tasting an average grade because though it was not my favorite, it was great for the price.
  
Overall, I would definitely recommend a visit to Barton’s, with a few cautions. First, Amanda was an amazing guide. The experience could have been different with someone else. Also, we were the second tour to leave on a Tuesday morning. Amanda mentioned that they’ve had as many as sixty people in a single tour on weekends which, I imagine, would create a very different experience as well. Finally, though I really enjoyed this tour, I’m not sure I would go back again. Other distilleries have an atmosphere that I would want to return to and hang out in. As much as the environment at Barton’s appealed to me personally, it’s not exactly the type of place you go to when you want to pass an afternoon.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

American Whiskey Drive Review

When I started planning my distillery drive, I didn’t find many lists that reviewed the distilleries as in-depth as I would have liked. So, I pieced together what I could find and decided that when I was done, I would write the review that I wished I had. This review will cover the ten distilleries (five on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail) that I visited over three days. Though I wasn’t able to hit them all, I hope this can be helpful for anyone else thinking about a similar trip. 

Prichard's

I hadn’t heard of Prichard’s before, but their original location in Kelso wasn’t too far from Jack Daniel’s so we decided to stop and maximize our time in Southern Tennessee. We parked in a small lot in front of the little school house and walked inside. Two other people were waiting for a tour so once we got there, the staff got the four of us started together. The tour started with a video of Prichard’s history and then a run through of all the products (mostly rum) they offer. The variety was impressive but also a little overwhelming. It was quite the contrast after some of the distilleries we had visited that only produced one product that was differentiated by the time it spent in a barrel. Next, we walked to the bottling room and then the small garage where distillation occurs. It was cool to see what production looked like on such a small scale after some of the giants that I had seen throughout the week. We finished up with a free tasting where we got to choose four of

Buffalo Trace

There were many similarities between this tour and Barton’s. Both are owned by Sazerac who keeps the tour and tasting free (and therefore can’t be included on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, as they require members to charge, unfortunately). Both offer multiple types of tours. Both were our first tour of the day and featured the best tour guides I had throughout the trip. We arrived and made the short walk from the parking lot to the visitor center. The lot is pretty big and was getting very full by the time we left so I imagine it isn’t always as convenient as we found it. This was our first tour of the day and, as I’m a bit eager, we got there before the gift center opened. Thankfully this wasn’t a problem as I really enjoyed walking around and looking at the old buildings. This distillery had some of the beauty of Woodford Reserve and Maker’s Mark with the slightly more industrial feel of Jack Daniel’s. After the walk, we went inside to start our tour. As with Amanda at Barton’