Bourbon’s Mecca: Buffalo Trace

“Oh, give me a home where the Buffalo roam.” – My friend, Gary Yohler (R.I.P.) after his first taste of Buffalo Trace

Sitting on the banks of the Kentucky River in Frankfort, Buffalo Trace Distillery isn’t particularly beautiful. It has an industrial vibe. A very old industrial vibe, with huge brick distillery buildings and rickhouses. This makes perfect sense because Buffalo Trace is the oldest continuously operating distillery in America … since 1775. Don’t get me wrong, the place does have a sort of beauty around it, just not like Woodford’s Reserve or Maker’s Mark.

Now, when I said that it was the oldest continuously operating distillery in America, that doesn’t mean that it was always Buffalo Trace. The history behind the distillery is fascinating, but I’m not going to go into that here. Hey, I can’t do everything for you. No time or space. Google time!

The modern/current version came to be in 1999 when the distillery’s owners, the Sazerac Company, pumped millions into modernizing and refurbishing the old distillery. With this refurbishing, they also introduced a new brand: Buffalo Trace Bourbon.

The Sazerac Company is very tight-lipped about its profits. It is believed (according to the Googles) that the distillery’s annual revenue is between $200 million and $500 million. Sazerac’s annual revenue is roughly $3 billion. Yeah … they’re making some coin!

The first things one notices about the place are the huge water tower, the old brick rickhouses, and the wonderful smell of corn mash wafting through the air. It’s a truly magical experience. The magic doesn’t stop there. This place makes some of the finest, most sought-after bourbons on earth.

Where Woodford Reserve and Maker’s Mark focus on just a few selections of their booze, Buffalo Trace offers a veritable smorgasbord of over 30 brands. Their offerings include: Buffalo Trace (of course), Eagle Rare, Stagg, Colonel E.H. Taylor, Benchmark, Old Charter, Blanton’s, Elmer T. Lee, W.L. Weller (there are seven expressions of Weller), and the big dogs: Pappy Van Winkle and Old Rip Van Winkle (there are seven expressions of these as well). That’s a lot of big-name bourbons!

Many of these are highly allocated and very difficult to find. Most are sold on the secondary market and garner high prices. Did I say “high”? I meant crazy high prices. In fact, where Buffalo Trace’s “normal” sales are not as high as say, Jim Beam, it absolutely dominates the secondary market. Part of the problem is that fine bourbons take time to make. Another part is the extremely high demand. And then there’s the 2013 Pappy Van Winkle robbery, and the 2025 floods (which, again, I’m not going to go into here).

To alleviate some of these issues, B.T. invested $1.2 billion in a recent expansion project that will up the distillery’s production from 200,000 barrels a year to more than 500,000 barrels a year. Customers have already seen the positive consequences of this upgrade, which has resulted in Sazerac Rye, E.H. Taylor, Eagle Rare, and even Blanton’s becoming more readily available. Yay! It’s amazing, but there was a short time not so long ago where even regular ole Buffalo Trace was allocated.

As you can see, Buffalo Trace’s history and products are a big topic. Hence my avoidance of it – haha! For now, I’m just going to focus on the flagship bourbon: Buffalo Trace.

My review: meh.

Kind of underwhelming isn’t it?

Seriously, like Woodford Reserve and Maker’s Mark, Buffalo Trace is just a good, solid (there I go again), normal bourbon. It’s not bad, per se. It just isn’t really that exciting. I would say that it has a very nice, extremely buttery finish going for it. Other than that, it’s pretty ordinary. Another great mixer, but a sipper worthy of your nightly pour? No.

Where Buffalo Trace shines is its “specialty brands,” if one could call them that. Including famous labels like Stagg, Eagle Rare, Blanton’s, and the Wellers (well some of them – if you’ve read my previous column), and of course, the legendary Van Winkle line.

In my next few columns, I’ll discuss some of these wonderful, hard-to-find, crazy expensive (unless you get lucky) and absolutely delicious offerings. So get ready and buckle up! We’re going to explore more from where the buffalo roam.

Until next time – cheers.

Jon Smyrnis is a lifelong Indianapolis area resident. He enjoys traveling, hiking, biking, kayaking, dining out, and, of course, fine cocktails and great bourbons.