Buffalo Trace gets my special award for distillery hidden in plain sight. It truly has a "somebody else's problem field" around it. The upside is that no one else can find it either and I had the place mostly to myself.

The tour started with a movie in the "Free House". Also known as the "Hot House", this small building was used after the repeal of prohibition to help build up stocks. Barrels were cycled through this building, which was kept quite hot, to artificially accelerate the aging process. The guide invited us to handle and smell the grains that go into bourbon as well as the inside of a barrel. The building also had a nice collection of old tools and displays.

The next stop was a masonry rickhouse. I loved the rickhouse with its long, low, dimly lit passages. What massive atmosphere and presence! The guide explained how barrels are loaded into the ricks, tracked over the years, and ultimately selected for bottling.

In addition to a large automated bottling plant Buffalo Trace maintains a separate building for small hand bottled runs. It's a small spartan building, but it does smell nice inside. We saw Van Winkle and Weller bottles being hand filled and labeled. Off to the side was a display case showing all the products bottled in this building, quite a nice collection indeed.

The tour ended with a tasting of Buffalo Trace Bourbon and their Rain Vodka. The signature bourbon is wonderful, but the real surprise was the vodka which had a strong caramel nose and flavor. A Rebecca Ruth bourbon candy and the tour was complete.

The gift shop has a small museum attached featuring pictures and memorabilia from the distillery's history. My ears and I then got a special treat when the fire alarms went off. The distillery was having a fire drill and I got to hang out in the picnic grove with the rest of the employees for a while.

On a small building near the visitor’s center I found a bronze plaque with Pappy Van Winkles famous "But Always Fine Bourbon" quote. Mike Veach reports: "Julian talked Diagio into letting him have the bronze and then let Buffalo Trace hang it on the W L Weller Bottling house."

Buffalo Trace Distillery