Buffalo Trace Expects Greater Output in 2018 For Some Bourbon Brands

Buffalo Trace Distillery, known for its allocated bourbons, expects some of its brands will see an uptick in bottlings in 2018.

These include Eagle Rare, W. L. Weller, E. H. Taylor Jr, and Blanton’s Single Barrel, which will all see more barrels come of age and bottles produced in 2018, according to a company press release this week.

The distillery will continue to bottle other fan favorites such as Van Winkle, George T. Stagg, Elmer T. Lee and Sazerac Rye as barrels mature, but unfortunately there will be little growth on these brands, the company says.

Advertisement

The company expects the majority of its whiskeys will still be on allocation, and will continue bourbon allocations across the U.S. to ensure each state receives some.

Buffalo Trace remains in the early stages of spending $1.2 billion over the next 10 years at its distillery. Already, two new barrel warehouses are complete with new barrels are in the process of getting loaded inside. The third is going up rapidly, the company says, and the foundation has begun for the fourth.

Advertisement

When complete, each of these new warehouses will hold 58,800 barrels of whiskey.

The plan is to build one new warehouse every four months for the next several years. Each warehouse cost $7.5 million to build and $21 million to fill with barrels.

“When I started with the company in 1995, we filled 12,000 barrels a year,” says Harlen Wheatley, master distiller. “Today the growth seems moderate, but when you think about how far we’ve come, it’s actually phenomenal, considering when we’re on track to produce 200,000 barrels this year.”

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here