According to PR Newswire, Barton Brands of Kentucky has announced the grand opening of a Visitor Center at its Barton 1792 Distillery in Bardstown, Ky. The Visitor Center is a 1,000 square foot facility containing branded “1792 Distillery” merchandise and a tasting bar. It also serves as the base of operations for the Distillery’s tours, which have been enhanced with exciting new areas to view.
Visitors taking the tour can learn about the history of the 130 year old Distillery, see the area where grain is received, as well as the hammermill and still used in making the bourbon. Guests also get to step inside the aging barrel warehouse, where they see the 20,000-barrel capacity of the warehouse that was built in the 1940s.
Next on the tour is the bottling hall, where visitors see the five automatic bottling lines filling some of Kentucky’s most iconic bourbons, including Very Old Barton and 1792 Bourbon. From there, guests are led through the finished products storage warehouse, where they see pallets of goodies bottled at the Distillery before they are shipped worldwide. The tour ends with a tasting of Very Old Barton and 1792 Bourbons. Guests can also purchase an array of branded merchandise, including hats, shirts, glassware, jams, and jellies.
“We’re proud to say that we have, despite the challenging economic environment, significantly increased our investment in the Distillery, hired additional staffing and committed to keeping this vital industry alive in this part of the state,” said Mark Brown, president and chief executive officer for Sazerac, which owns the Barton 1792 Distillery. The new Visitor Center is projected to bring in 10,000 tourists to the region in its first year.
“I congratulate mark Brown and the others at Sazerac for their success in the midst of a difficult economy, and I want to thank them for their confidence in the Bluegrass State,” said Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear.
The Visitor Center will be open Monday-Friday 9:00am-4:30pm, and Saturday 10:00am-4:00pm. Tours start every hour on the hour.
