Buffalo Trace Distillery

Buffalo Trace is a must stop distillery on the Bourbon Trail. Not only is it FREE, but they also have the best tasting around. (Vodka, bourbon, Buffalo Cream, and bourbon balls!)
We take all of our visitors here, so I’ve gone on the tour multiple times and each time I’ve learned something new. The guides are all really passionate and knowledgeable and each brings something new to the tour. Depending on your tour number you’ll also get to see different parts of the grounds so even if you’ve been before, you’re almost guaranteed to see something new the next time!

A Kentuckian named Freddie Johnson has been the beneficiary of many accolades and encomiums here. I’ll add another: If a Tour Guide Hall of Fame were to be established, Freddie ought to be in its inaugural class of inductees.
Seriously, Freddie is a force of nature. Not many people have the charisma, command of subject matter, and sense of humor to keep the attention of and thoroughly entertain a walking audience of 50 people for 90 minutes straight, but Freddie does. Freddie’s granddad was one of the few, if only, African-​Americans to serve as a foreman at an American distillery (i.e., this one, back when it was the George T. Stagg distillery), and Freddie grew up around this place. When he first starts his comic spiel, you might get the impression that he’s just some goofy mascot for Buffalo Trace. You’ll be wrong. You’ll soon find out that Freddie’s a walking piece of bourbon history and that he knows his stuff inside-​and-​out.
Even if Freddie isn’t your tour guide, a visit to Buffalo Trace is essential is you’re a bourbon aficionado. Many would argue that it’s the best American distiller out there: Besides the fine namesake product (a great bourbon value, usually in the low 20s for 750ml), it’s famous for producing the legendary and extremely elusive Pappy Van Winkle (forget about putting your hands on that stuff unless you’ve got an extra stack of cash sitting around) and the somewhat less elusive Blanton’s Single Barrel, and for adopting the historically well-​regarded WL Weller line of products (damn, those ain’t easy to find, either). (Plus, Eagle Rare is another fine BT product, and the Sazerac Rye (the Sazerac Company now owns BT) is one of the better ryes you’ll try.)
Appearance-​wise, the Buffalo Trace «campus» or complex is sort of the quintessential Kentucky bourbon distillery. Tucked down in a little valley among the rolling hills just outside of the state capital, the ancient, picturesque old brick warehouses make up a charming bourbon village.
At the end of the tour, Freddie was very generous with various Buffalo Trace treats.
Not only all of that, Buffalo Trace’s tour is also free, which I can’t say for any of the half-​dozen or so other Kentucky distillery tours we’ve been on.
As others note, Buffalo Trace is not currently part of the «official» Bourbon Trail, for whatever reasons. But it should definitely be part of yours.

Today is the first time I’ve toured a Kentucky bourbon facility and Buffalo Trace has the stuff together. The tour guide was very informative and the tour was well timed. It was really interesting to see the whole process at work. The place seems very well run. The tasting was really fun with a charismatic host. The gift shop is charming. The Bourbon Cream was great — better than Bailey’s. I want to go back and do a Ghost Tour.

Having been to quite a few distilleries on the old bourbon trail, I have to say that Buffalo Trace might just be my favourite.
You get a real sense of activity and industry at BT that you don’t get everywhere else — I loved that they took you right in amongst the action — people are bottling and sealing bottles that are going right out on a delivery truck, it’s not for show!
There’s plenty to see and you can even have lunch there — the guides are knowledgeable and friendly and the gift shop is extensive. We brought a miniature barrel and some white dog home to Scotland — can’t wait to taste the bourbon that we have aged ourselves!
Definitely worth a trip, it’s easy to find and great fun.

We had a wonderful time on the Trace tour (free, walk-​in). The tour is about an hour and includes a brief walk around the grounds, short video, tour of one of storehouses and bottling facility. The tour ends with a sampling of several of their bourbons (I liked the bourbon cream). Kids are welcome and included with a sampling of root beer. We learned about the process of making bourbon but also the history behind Buffalo Trace. The grounds has an industrial feel and you can smell the sour mash everywhere you go… I think it smells like yeast bread so no complaints here!
There are additional tours provided free of charge but they require reservations.

By leaps and bounds the best distillery tour I’ve been on. Beautiful grounds, spacious and lovely tasting room and our guide/​bartender Coy absolutely went out of his way (and missed his lunch break) to take care of just me and the Mouse. Explained and poured the pure liquor everything is based on, the Eagle Rare and Buffalo Trace, the Wheatley Vodka and even the Bourbon Cream. Try topping it with the root beer/​real good!
To top it all off Rebecca Ruth bourbon balls (the mouse can destroy a box in no time!).
Did I mention FREE? You cannot beat this tour!

We got to go on the hard hat tour and it was well worth it! I’ve been drinking Bourbon for years and to finally see how it all comes together definitely solidified my understanding of the process and flavoring.
Our guide was Will and he was excellent. Personal and very fun, very knowledgable and didn’t flinch considering it was a rainy and gross day.
Be sure to try the White dog, the liquor that comes straight out of the still.
Thanks Will!

Fall weather & KY Bourbon = a match made in heaven. Even though I’m a native Lexingtonian, visiting Buffalo Trace today was my first time touring a bourbon distillery.
The tour began with a brief intro & video about the history of the bourbon industry and the distillery itself. We then were able to tour the warehouses where they store the barrels as well as where some of the bourbon is bottled. The tour guide was very helpful and answered all of the questions asked (we had some very inquisitive people in our group!) At the very end of the tour, you are able to sample some of their bourbon.
A great tour and a great distillery– be sure to visit!

Truth Time: I have lived in the Louisville area for two years and change, and have never done a distillery tour. Don’t judge me.
So, when a beautiful Sunday presented itself, a friend and I drove down to Buffalo Trace to change that. Another truth: I am not a bourbon drinker unless forced to be, and I had no idea how bourbon was made. The tour to clarify these things was quite informative, but our guide wasn’t super interactive and charismatic like I’d hoped. The video and visual props were cool, but I wish we would’ve had more time to amble around the warehouses. I felt rushed. However, I enjoyed tasting everything from Eagle Rare (my favorite) to the beloved Buffalo Trace (least favorite) and various drinks like bourbon cream. I would suggest having more education during tastings, since ours was pretty textbook and uninspired. Best of all, we had a blast walking the gorgeous grounds, which is lush with old trees, sprawling green spaces, and old structures. Between the ever present bourbon scent in the air and nature surroundings, I didn’t want to leave! On to the next distillery…

Beautiful place and great experience. There are several distilleries and this one gives a bit of a contrast to some of the others that are out in the country as this one is very close to Frankfort right on the Kentucky river. Site is easy to access with ample parking. Visitor center has the expected gift shop with all the expected merchandise. Tour was very enjoyable and focused very much on the history of the area, the people and the distillery. This tour doesn’t take you to many of the working areas of the operation that some of the others do but is still very informative. Only downside would be the tasting experience where you have to sort of fight through a crowd for a shot glass.

In my opinion, they make the best bourbon of all the distilleries. But, there is nothing unique about coming here. The gift shop has typical stuff, and doesn’t have any bourbon that you can’t buy anywhere else.

Day 1 of our Bourbon Trail tour ended with a tour of Buffalo Trace Distillery. From an aesthetic perspective, Buffalo Trace was a complete 180 from the rural and rustic Woodford Reserve Distillery with its red brick structures and stark industrial appearance. Similarly, our tour was almost a 180, too. First, Buffalo Trace was physically a much larger distillery than Woodford. As a result, there seemed to be many more tourists and tour groups wandering about the facility and visitor center, making the scene chaotic. Second, we were on the regular tour, not the «hardhat» tour, which meant we didn’t get to see the fermentation tanks and stills, only a video (which had no sound for the first couple of minutes), a rickhouse, and small batch bottling operations. While our guide was personable and obviously knowledgeable, the overall tour experience seemed much less polished and satisfying than Woodford and the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience. Even the payoff at tour’s end, the tasting, seemed rushed and definitely less informative. I love Buffalo Trace Distillery’s bourbon brands. If you take the tour, make sure it’s the «hardhat» tour. However, if I only had time for one distillery tour while in Bourbon Country, I’d skip Buffalo Trace.

Great distillery. Beautiful grounds and facility. Great tours. And, of course, great bourbon. Buffalo Trace Cream is incredible.
Disappointed that the projector wasn’t working, during our tour, because our Texas friends missed the film.
Great gift shop.
Friendly employees.

Each distillery on the KY Bourbon Trail has its own elements or components that separate it from other tours and distilleries. Buffalo Trace is the exception – there’s nothing really new and different here that I haven’t already seen at one of the last distilleries visited. It’s a great tour, with some excellent tasting options at the end (including some you can’t find anywhere but there), but the whole thing left me wishing there was something new to learn.
Also — for better or worse, there is no maximum size for the hourly tours. This is great when you realize you don’t need a reservation, but for us it meant a tour of 54 adults and six small children (including some young ones who cried the whole time). It’s hard to ask questions or really learn about the Buffalo Trace process and values when there are that many people…

For me, finally visiting Buffalo Trace was akin to making a pilgrimage to Mecca (pardon the religious analogy).
And to continue that trajectory, pulling up the leafy driveway I swear I heard angels signing & a beam of light shine brightly on the black asphalt parking lot… then again I could have been delirious from a heat stroke due to the 103º temp!
But you get the point, this storied brand is hallowed ground for this bourbon-​swilling fanboy.
So why only 3 stars?
Welp, it’s purely a bi-​product of supply & demand.
The continuously exploding bourbon market shows no sign of slowing down, and neither does the interest in visiting where the limestone magic happens.
So we opted for the «Hard Hat Tour» which is a behind-​the-​scenes guided tour walking the chronological pathway from grain delivery to the distilling process to the rick houses to inhale the ‘angels share.‘
And while the tour guide was a captivating raconteur who knew is stuff, the entire time I felt we were hustled through without being able to really take in the scenery coupled with the explanation and have time to snap a few memorable pix… you basically had to chose one action or the other.
Incidentally, ALL tours are 1 hour in duration & include a complimentary tasting (don’t be expecting any Pappys or Weller though)…and commendably ALL tours are FREE but most require advanced reservations (the Trace tour welcomes walk-​ins).
Don’t worry parents, during the tasting they’ve got root beer & chocolates to entertain the kids while you’re sipping on some Eagle Rare.
And once you’re done & caught the slightest of buzzes if you’re lucky (go on an empty stomach), you have the freedom to just stroll the bucolic grounds & soak up the history.
But don’t get me wrong, this is a def MUST visit during your Bourbon Trail excursion… just wish the experience more kinda mirrored the slow aging process of the whiskey itself.

What do you do on a hot Kentucky day? Take The Trace Tour for FREE at Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, KY! The Trace tour has a short video, a brief walk into the ground level of a barrel storage area and a brief walk through the room where Blanton’s (one of 18 products made on-​site) is bottled. The tour ends in the second level of the gift shop where you will get FREE samples of Rebecca Ruth’s bourbon balls (topped with a pecan) and FREE samples of several types of products. They must switch it out every now & then? That day we had Eagle Rare (my fav), Wheatley Vodka, Buffalo Trace and Bourbon Cream. Once enjoyed, head downstairs to get a souvenir. There is quite the variety of products to choose from and the staff is full of southern hospitality.
I’m excited at the thought of going back to take other tours. You can reserve a spot on their website:
.Don’t be shy, walk the grounds! They have a site-​map so you can wander around a bit. If you’re hungry there is the Firehouse Sandwich Shop (not to be mistaken with Fire House Subs). The sandwiches are hearty and the baked beans are really good! Parking is FREE.
I’ve said FREE so many times I just want to hug someone! Visit this fine establishment. Kentucky Bourbon Kicks-​Ass.

I love bourbon distilleries. Everything about them. From the history to the beauty to the smell.
I’ve visited all the distilleries on the Bourbon Trail at least once, and I’ve visited Buffalo Trace countless times. It’s not currently on the trail (I asked a tour guide why about a year ago, and she responded that they have to pay a substantial fee to be on the official trail, and they’d rather spend that money on expansion right now, and don’t want to have to pass the cost of being on the trail onto us), but has been in the past and likely will be again. You ABSOLUTELY should not skip it just because it’s not on the trail. All of the distilleries are wonderful in their individual ways, but Buffalo Trace is my favorite.
The tours — all of which are completely FREE, including a tasting at the end — are extensive and informative. There’s a variety of tours, and some require reservations ahead of time: the Hard Hat tour, which takes you behind-​the-​scenes and shows you how the bourbon is made; the Bourbon Barrel tour, which teaches you everything there is to know about bourbon barrels; the National Historic Landmark tour, which gives you the fascinating history of the distillery’s continuous operation through Prohibition; and the Ghost Tour, which takes you to the parts of the grounds where paranormal activity has been reported, including Stony Point Mansion which is said to be haunted by Colonel Blanton himself (I recommend doing the ghost tour at least twice; once in the fall/​winter and again in the spring/​summer. The ghost tours are at night, so for the extra-​creepiness factor, it’s fun to go when it’s dark outside — and the ghosts mainly come out after dark. Wink. But the ghost tour takes you to parts of the grounds that aren’t normally visited, like the lovely Stony Point Mansion. So I’d recommend going again in the summertime, when it’s not dark in the early evening, and you can see the buildings and the gardens). The Trace Tour doesn’t require a reservation and is the general tour given by Buffalo Trace multiple times a day. I’ve done the Trace Tour half-​a-​dozen times and it’s been a little different each time — and always educational and enjoyable. It includes a tour of where Blanton’s is bottled — by hand. And best of all, they’ll take you into one of the warehouses filled with barrels of bourbon (oh, my, the smell of the Angel’s Share. You may have heard the saying, «Heaven must be a Kentucky kind of place»? Here’s the proof).
Buffalo Trace has my favorite tasting of all the distilleries, as well, because of the Bourbon Cream (a delightful mixture of bourbon and cream in a bottle; it’s amazing). I always buy several bottles of Bourbon Cream for Christmas presents. It’s delicious with root beer, which is how they serve it at the distillery, but I especially like it with coffee or hot chocolate. You also get to taste Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, White Dog, and even vodka that’s made by Buffalo Trace. Oh, and you get a bourbon ball, too (the most incredible candy ever, for those of you who aren’t from the South and may not be familiar with this gift of the Gods).
In warm months, the Firehouse Sandwich Shop is open. It’s located in an old firehouse and is very charming. I’m lucky enough to work within walking distance of the distillery and had lunch there today. They serve Staxx BBQ, as well as hamburgers, hotdogs, and sub sandwiches. The coleslaw is made of yum. So if you’re in Frankfort and need a place to eat lunch, this is a good option. Nothing improves a day quite like eating lunch at a distillery.
I’ve also been to events at Buffalo Trace. It’s a lovely and unique place for a wedding or a party.

My husband and I did the hard hat tour (you need a reservation online for this) and had an absolute blast. This was hands down our favorite tour that we did. It was very hands-​on. We got to hold the corn mash, taste both the sour and sweet mash, taste the white dog right out of the spigot and they had a fun tasting at the end.
The tour was incredible, but I honestly wouldn’t come here just for a tasting or to buy things. Their white dog was my favorite since it tasted like corn bread, but they don’t have some of their more interesting varietals to taste. They have LOTS of different brands, so it was disappointing that their tasting wasn’t more diverse.
That being said, everything else about the experience was perfect and I would HIGHLY recommend that you do the hard hat tour!

Pluses: exceptionally cool barrel storage warehouse that looks like an action/​horror movie could be filmed in it – dark, creepily low-​ceilinged, claustrophobic and dusty; many other gorgeous old brick buildings, some continuously in use for 100-​plus years; generous samples of very good shit; a free and very informative tour.
Minuses: no headphones (unlike the nearby Woodford Reserve) meant that, given the huge size of the tour group, it was difficult to hear the guide at the outskirts; poor «everyone climb these stairs now”-type communications, meaning that, in combination with the lack of headphones, we were abandoned by the tour exactly 1.5 times; a film viewing of Sazerac’s corporate propaganda about bourbon history in Kentucky that managed to also be nationalist propaganda about the frontier that, in its zest for heroizing settlers, left out the buffalo and the natives nearly going extinct. Call me a liberal humanist or something, but we tend to like our «taming the wilds» narratives a little more nuanced these days.
Objections aside, this sprawling and beautiful complex in the verdant Kentucky midlands will give you a combination of the lush surrounding scenery, a very informative tour of the facilities that includes incredible insight into wooden barrel production, barrel runs, barrel design, whiskey fermentation, the art of distillation, and a closeup view of the day-​to-​day production line – in short, a ton of useful information that you’ll likely not encounter elsewhere and, once again, some fierce samples at the end. We were certainly glad that we stopped in. You’ll arrive at this tour thinking, «Bourbon is something that I like to drink» and leave it saying, «Bourbon is something that I understand a little bit.»

One of the few remaining free bourbon distillery tours!
Some friends and I came for a special ghost tour followed by a tasting. I think the tour might have been better with a different guide who played up the ghost thing a bit more… but it was still fun! And the tasting! Eagle Rare is now my favorite bourbon! And bless you, Buffalo Trace and your bourbon cream. Allowing us to enjoy adult root beer floats is one of the best things to ever happen!