To listen to this story about my trip to Buffalo Trace, click on the right pointing triangle. You can also listen on Spotify and on YouTube. The text is below.
8:50 a.m. As my car travels down the hill, I see hundreds of people waiting in line for brown liquid at Buffalo Trace. The distillery will not open for another ten minutes. I didn’t believe John, but I was wrong.
9:15 a.m. After sharing all of my personal information with the Buffalo Trace AI through my driver’s license, I proceed to the gift shop to buy bourbon. Each visitor is allowed to purchase one special bottle as long as this visitor hasn’t bought another special bottle the past three months.
Inside, there is a display unit with multiple shelves about six feet wide. Each shelf contains dozens of bottles of Blanton’s, the bourbon for purchase that day.
The surplus of bottles allows me to pick one with the desired letter on the cap. There are eight different letters to spell the name of the product. I grab an A to go with the T and S at home.
9:24 a.m. I get in a short line to pay for my Blanton’s. I grab two old fashion glasses because I can’t hold four and my bottle of Blanton’s.
9:32 a.m. After paying, I go upstairs to get a complimentary tasting. The highlight of the flight is Blanton’s because the distillery really needs to convince those hundreds of people to buy a bottle. More evidence of this fact soon.
As I pour the brown liquid mechanically into my large mouth, I notice the bottles of Pappy Van Winkle in the cabinet looking down from behind the shoulder of the host. The bottles giggled like swimsuit models sitting in a luxury suite. You can’t have us.
9:42 a.m. As I go back down the stairs to the gift shop, a woman holds a sign that says “Line starts here.” The short line from earlier has become a snake that covered every inch of the gift shop floor. I guess my wife isn’t getting that bottle of Buffalo Trace Cream.
9:47 a.m. The website says there are no more bottles of Blanton’s available that day.
9:50 am. Back outside, I see a sign that says, “We make fine bourbon, at a profit if we can, at a loss if we must, but always fine bourbon.” It’s the motto of Julian Van Winkle, the father of those swimsuit models.
As described in the book Pappyland by Wright Thompson, Julian didn’t always run a thriving business. After taking over the family bourbon making business, he went into almost a million dollars of debt. At a loss if we must.
Now, in March of 2024, bottles of Pappy Van Winkle that get distilled and aged at Buffalo Trace go for thousands of dollars on the black market. Hundreds of people stand in the cold Kentucky morning to buy one bottle of brown liquid.
The previous night, we had arrived in Frankfort around 9 p.m. After an exhausting day of driving, I wanted a pour of bourbon. The lady at the front desk had a list of restaurants and bars, and the only one open on a Monday night was Bourbon on Main.
I ditched my 15 year old son to find brown liquid. Unfortunately, Bourbon on Main was closed. The darkness inside suggested that they had never opened that day.
Undeterred, I drove around Frankfort looking for any restaurant with the lights on. In a small town, it didn’t take too long to find Serafini. I walked in as some older gentlemen in sport jackets walked out. Soon, I was the only person keeping the staff from going home.
In my fatigue, I decided to treat myself. I got a pour of Pappy Van Winkle 15 Year for an outrageous amount of money that I will only reveal later.
The Pappy was great. I wouldn’t buy a pour again at that price point, but I enjoyed the experience.
I started talking with the manager John, and he gave me an education in bourbon you can’t get on the internet.
First, he said to show up at Buffalo Trace at 8:30 a.m. the next morning. That’s when people get in line to buy the bottle of the day. I didn’t believe him. There is no way that people will start lining up a half hour before a distillery opens. I was right. People start lining up an hour and a half before opening.
Had I never met John, I would have never gotten that bottle of Blanton’s at the distillery for $63. Since I usually pay $150 in Michigan, it was a sweet discount on my Pappy.
Second, John said that I could find Weller, one of my favorites, in liquor shops in Kentucky, but the bottles would come at a markup. He offered me two bottles of Weller Special Reserve at his cost. This was even more of a discount on my Pappy, and it also saved me the hassle of shopping around at liquor stores.
After Buffalo Trace, we headed to Louisville. At the Brown Hotel, I got a pour of Weller 12 Year. It was spectacular, maybe even better than the Pappy.
Later, I saw another bourbon menu that had the same Weller 12 Year for five times the price I paid. By the end of the trip, I practically drank that $250 pour of Pappy for free.
Leave a Reply