BARTON 1792 DISTILLERY
Distillery
Founded in 1879
The Barton Distillery — now officially called the “Barton 1792 Distillery” — was started in 1874, by Ben Mattingly in Bardstown, Kentucky, near a bend in the Beech Fork River. He chose the site because of a natural spring on the site (Morton’s Spring).
Tom Moore, an employee there, and another fellow employee bought the distillery and named it Morton Spring Distillery. The two ran it until 1881, when they sold it to a group of outside investors.
Moore stayed as an employee at the shop, but soon grew restless and bought the lot next door to open a brand new competing distillery. His new operation soon outstripped his former employer to the point he was able to re-purchase Morton Spring Distillery, and merge the two operations.
He renamed the combined operation “The Thomas Moore Distillery,” and everything went very well until Prohibition. When Prohibition came to an end, Tom Moore got things going again, but by then he was an old man.
So as soon as production was returned, he sold the property. It was bought and sold and traded a few times, and in the mix of ownership changes, the name got changed to The Barton Distillery.
Eventually future investors came on board and renamed the distillery, the “Tom Moore Distillery.” It was during this time that their 1792, and Barton Bourbon products became very popular.
Sazerac came along and bought them out in 2009, and decided to capitalize on the brand names, rather than historic ones, rechristening the entire operation “The Barton 1792 Distillery.”
Barton the brand produces a very wide range of Bourbons and other spirits, but most of the Bourbon produced at the Barton 1792 Distillery goes into the two namesake Bourbons.
The facility is huge, with 51 individual structures laid out over several hundred acres — including 29 massive storage rick-houses. It is said that those rick-house holds upwards of 2,000,000 barrels of Bourbon, roughly equal to 530 million bottles.
Tom Moore, an employee there, and another fellow employee bought the distillery and named it Morton Spring Distillery. The two ran it until 1881, when they sold it to a group of outside investors.
Moore stayed as an employee at the shop, but soon grew restless and bought the lot next door to open a brand new competing distillery. His new operation soon outstripped his former employer to the point he was able to re-purchase Morton Spring Distillery, and merge the two operations.
He renamed the combined operation “The Thomas Moore Distillery,” and everything went very well until Prohibition. When Prohibition came to an end, Tom Moore got things going again, but by then he was an old man.
So as soon as production was returned, he sold the property. It was bought and sold and traded a few times, and in the mix of ownership changes, the name got changed to The Barton Distillery.
Eventually future investors came on board and renamed the distillery, the “Tom Moore Distillery.” It was during this time that their 1792, and Barton Bourbon products became very popular.
Sazerac came along and bought them out in 2009, and decided to capitalize on the brand names, rather than historic ones, rechristening the entire operation “The Barton 1792 Distillery.”
Barton the brand produces a very wide range of Bourbons and other spirits, but most of the Bourbon produced at the Barton 1792 Distillery goes into the two namesake Bourbons.
The facility is huge, with 51 individual structures laid out over several hundred acres — including 29 massive storage rick-houses. It is said that those rick-house holds upwards of 2,000,000 barrels of Bourbon, roughly equal to 530 million bottles.
Flavor Spiral™
About The Flavor Spiral
caramel
vanilla
spicy
cinnamon
creamy vanilla
oak
sweet
woody
butterscotch
What does Barton 1792 Distillery taste like?
The Flavor Spiral™ shows the most common flavours that you'll taste in Barton 1792 Distillery American Whiskey. It's based on all Barton 1792 Distillery drinks in our large database and gives you a chance to taste Barton 1792 Distillery before actually tasting it.
We invented Flavor Spiral™ here at Flaviar to get all your senses involved in tasting drinks and, frankly, because we think that classic tasting notes are boring.
The Flavor Spiral™ shows the most common flavours that you'll taste in Barton 1792 Distillery American Whiskey. It's based on all Barton 1792 Distillery drinks in our large database and gives you a chance to taste Barton 1792 Distillery before actually tasting it.
We invented Flavor Spiral™ here at Flaviar to get all your senses involved in tasting drinks and, frankly, because we think that classic tasting notes are boring.
Distillery Details
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CountryUnited States
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Established1879
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OwnerSazerac Company
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Visitor CenterYes
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StatusActive
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Address300 Barton Road, Bardstown, KY 40004
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Phone(866) 239-4690
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Website
Dog Dogson's
Smartass
Corner
Corner
For a while the distillery was named "Barton" and they launched the Barton line of Bourbon and other sporots. But there never was a person named "Barton" in the company history. So it seems to have been chosen because it sounded like a good name for Kentucky Bourbon.
The signature "1792 Bourbon" product line got its name from the year that Kentucky became an official state in the United States.
Bardstown is called "The Bourbon Capital of the World" for good reason. In addition to The Barton 1792 Distillery, the town is home to three other massive production facilities, including Heaven Hill, Jim Beam, and Marker's Mark (located just outside of town in Loretto).
The signature "1792 Bourbon" product line got its name from the year that Kentucky became an official state in the United States.
Bardstown is called "The Bourbon Capital of the World" for good reason. In addition to The Barton 1792 Distillery, the town is home to three other massive production facilities, including Heaven Hill, Jim Beam, and Marker's Mark (located just outside of town in Loretto).
Video from Barton 1792 Distillery
Video transcription
Welcome to Whiskey.com, where fine spirits meet, and today I'm in Bardstown, Kentucky at the Barton Distillery, very nice, old distillery. The cool thing is, their tours are for free. Unfortunately, we didn't get a private tour, so we're not doing it in front of a camera but behind the camera, and I will do the sound just afterwards.
The Barton Distillery was sold pretty often, and in 2009, it was sold to the Southern Company who renamed it to the Barton Distillery. And here we see a 18-wheeler unloading the grain for the production.
Every truck is inspected for quality, and if you don't have too many bacteria or molds, or any other substances within the grain, then the quality is right and the truck is ready to unload, and the grain gets to the distillery.
Unfortunately, the distillery is not that focused on tourists yet, and so we can't enter the boiler room where the mash is being cooked. One specialty about the Barton Distillery are the fermenters.
They are located outside and, therefore, they're exposed to the heat and cold of the winter and the summer, and this will give a great challenge to the Master Blender who has to keep these different spirits, keep them level and keep the taste of the Whiskey the same.
And here we see another specialty. This is coal, and this is not charcoal like the guys in Tennessee use for filtering, but this charcoal is actually used to produce the steam that is then used during the distillation to increase the alcohol of the Beer.
And this is the machine room where the water and coal produces the hot steam for the column still. Here we see the column still. At about two-thirds height, the Beer is entered, and you also enter the steam from the bottom, and that then splits the alcohol from the Beer.
The warehouses of Barton are on-site, so you don't have to travel that far from the distillery to the warehouses. And while we walk through the warehouses, you see that there is something on the casks. You can't really see the staves, and that is the distiller's mold.
There is actually mold growing on the cask, but this is not dangerous for the cask or the Whiskey inside the cask, and doesn't affect the cask at all. And here we enter the middle of the warehouse where we have a pendulum that shows how crooked a warehouse is, and if the warehouse has to be loaded on a different... And here we see some leakage.
That is actually not that bad because the leakage stops itself because the Whiskey caramelizes. Thank you for watching, and if you think that your friends may like this video as well, then please share it on the social media.
The Barton Distillery was sold pretty often, and in 2009, it was sold to the Southern Company who renamed it to the Barton Distillery. And here we see a 18-wheeler unloading the grain for the production.
Every truck is inspected for quality, and if you don't have too many bacteria or molds, or any other substances within the grain, then the quality is right and the truck is ready to unload, and the grain gets to the distillery.
Unfortunately, the distillery is not that focused on tourists yet, and so we can't enter the boiler room where the mash is being cooked. One specialty about the Barton Distillery are the fermenters.
They are located outside and, therefore, they're exposed to the heat and cold of the winter and the summer, and this will give a great challenge to the Master Blender who has to keep these different spirits, keep them level and keep the taste of the Whiskey the same.
And here we see another specialty. This is coal, and this is not charcoal like the guys in Tennessee use for filtering, but this charcoal is actually used to produce the steam that is then used during the distillation to increase the alcohol of the Beer.
And this is the machine room where the water and coal produces the hot steam for the column still. Here we see the column still. At about two-thirds height, the Beer is entered, and you also enter the steam from the bottom, and that then splits the alcohol from the Beer.
The warehouses of Barton are on-site, so you don't have to travel that far from the distillery to the warehouses. And while we walk through the warehouses, you see that there is something on the casks. You can't really see the staves, and that is the distiller's mold.
There is actually mold growing on the cask, but this is not dangerous for the cask or the Whiskey inside the cask, and doesn't affect the cask at all. And here we enter the middle of the warehouse where we have a pendulum that shows how crooked a warehouse is, and if the warehouse has to be loaded on a different... And here we see some leakage.
That is actually not that bad because the leakage stops itself because the Whiskey caramelizes. Thank you for watching, and if you think that your friends may like this video as well, then please share it on the social media.
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