Barton 1792 Distillery

Went for a tasting with a tour group… hostess was very nice — facility was just meh. In fairness, I’d already visited Maker’s Mark and Buffalo Trace… Barton was a very distant 3^rd place compared to the others.

One of the most informative tours you will ever get. started the grain dump through tasting. Not the typical tourist trap, gate keeper greets you at the entrance, very friendly folks in the shop. Tour and samples (and chocolate) is complimentary! Don’t miss this one.

This was our first tour of a distillery. It was informative but certainly not the best. We are glad we went to two other distilleries. The part that really ruined it for us was the tour guide, Shelia. About ½ the wuestions I asked where answered with «I don’t know». Very disappointing. You should still do their tour, just hope you get a different guide.

We took the free estate tour with Stella. She was a terrific guide. It is a very small group tour (5 people max) and lasts 2 hours. We saw everything that goes into bourbon production from start to finish. We were able to see and smell a lot! I totally recommend this tour even if you have been on a lot of bourbon tours. The bottling line is very modern and impressive. They distill only bourbon but bottle other spirits that are delivered by tanker. The barrel filling process was interesting and we were invited to hammer a bung into a just filled barrel.
The samples were good and we bought bottles of the bourbon cream which is delicious.

Thought this was a very good tour. Smaller distillery with big time production. Wish they made bourbon that could only be bought at the distillery. Learned a lot about the bourbon making process. Tasted 2 bourbons, the very old Barton and 1792. Ironically, the 1792 was originally formulated in 2000.

Took several out of town folks from my work there during a group meeting. This distillery is not on the bourbon trail, but that means the tours and tastings are free! The tour took a little over an hour. Our guide, Jericha, was knowledgeable and funny and everyone was entertained. Highly recommended if you’re in the area.

1792 was the product that took my bourbon virginity, so I was pretty pumped to visit the distillery. Maybe my expectations were too high because I had previously visited other distilleries… but… here we go, ya’ll.
What to expect on this tour:
*Peering through windows to see the bourbon making process rather than being right in the action.
*Parts of the property have more of a manufacturing feel than a place where time honored craftsmanship takes place.
*Very small product variety when compared to other nearby distilleries.
*Views of a less than charming property, mostly asphalt and dodging semi-​trucks.
What I appreciated about Barton before arriving:
*Super helpful staff (Terri in particular) that answers phones and coordinates the tour times.
*Easy to find location, smack dab in the middle of Bardstown. Really if you are staying anywhere in town you could ride a bike or walk there.

Off the Bourbon Trail tour, but interesting. Mass producer with small visitor center/​store. Staff was nice and very knowledgeable. Wish we could have seen more of the facility from the inside, but the rickhouse was best part. If you are looking for the barrel chat for your barbecue — they had the best deal — $ 10 for good size bag.

Tour and tasting is complimentary here. The tour was the most informative of all we did. We truly learned a bunch. The bourbon was ok. The Bourbon Ball Crème liquor was yummy. We grabbed a bottle of that and off we went. Overall, a nice stop.

This was our 5^th distillery stop on our trip and probably one of the best tours we had. The tour and tasting are free and start on the hour. Our tour guide was very informative and gave a great tour. The tasting included either 2 bourbons or a bourbon and their special chocolate bourbon liquor. They also had amazing bourbon balls to try. The gift shop was very nice. Overall a great visit and not one to skip.

We visited Barton distillery while traveling on our anniversary. We were doing the bourbon trail and found Barton. It seems because of a disagreement, Barton is not a member of the bourbon trail. This means it is a hidden gem. The tour guide was very knowledge and provided a great tour. Of course, the best part of the tour was the bourbon tasting. Old Barton, 1792 and a chocolate liquor that can only be purchased at the distillery. Even if you aren’t a bourbon fan, these tours are fun. I recommend them if you are from Kentucky or just traveling through the state.

These guys wowed and impressed me.
Best bourbon balls on the trail? Delicious chocolatey version of baileys which was the best drink for non-​whiskey people on the whole bourbon trail too.
I however enjoy my whiskey and liked Barton’s 1792 Ridgemont. Spicy and just about the price I was expecting. All the bottles you buy here come signed by the master distiller? What wowed me even more was the very old barton sold 80 – 100 proof. The tour let us try 86 and it had a very powerful kick and a pretty good flavor. It isn’t exactly sipping whiskey, but it knocks the socks off anything bottom shelf besides buffalo trace’s weller. Supposedly its an old recipe from when all bourbon’s were more or less the same and tasted like that.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t buy much cheap bourbon. Jim beam, evan williams, and many low end products taste horrible to me. You have to hide some of them in coke and still can’t drink them. Its just good to have strong flavors like a rye when mixing. Unless you want to go smooth and higher end like four roses or makers mark.
Anyway, very impressed with their operation. Definitely helped sell me on their product.

I have been on several bourbon and whiskey distillery tours, and I must say that my trip to Barton’s was one of my top two of all time. We had Janie for a guide and she was amazingly descriptive and made the tour fun. A shipment of rye was coming in while we were on the tour, and Janie grabbed some for us. And once the tour was over, she gave us bourbon samples and she gave a lot of detailed information about many things for sale in the gift shop. I normally don’t buy anything on distillery tours, but I bought over $ 100 in tasty bourbon and other items. The tour was not crowded, and we appreciated that. I bet if we would have gone down the street to Jim Beam or Maker’s Mark it would have been very packed. All in all, it was an excellent experience.

This facility is home to a substantial bottling operation, where they churn out cases of vodka and margarita mix for their parent company, Sazerac. This gives the tour a fast-​moving, industrial component that is very cool to see in action. The bottling area is shiny, new, and modern, contrasting sharply with the buildings and machinery on the distillery side of the tour.
Each of the aged, but well-​restored distillery buildings contains equipment that was state of the art in the first half of the twentieth century. It was impressive to see their operational and old-​fashioned pot still, hammer mill, and processing machinery.
The tour here is informative and interesting, but is contained within a small area and doesn’t feature much in the way of scenic grounds. That said, a few of these tours involve a good amount of walking, so the limited area might be a perk for some visitors.
The bourbons here were all pretty good, but somewhat boring. This might have been a better first stop of the day on a Bourbon Trail trip, before we’d gotten spoiled by some of the other more interesting bourbons.

Last year, when we came to Bardstown, we ran out of time and skipped over Barton 1792 and drove out to Jim Beam instead. Big mistake! This year, Barton was the first place we stopped, even before our hotel.
The tour is free and relatively short, especially compared to other distilleries. However, much of that is due to the fact their fermentation tanks are outside and sealed instead of inside and open like most others. Each distillery does things a bit different and Barton is no exception to this rule.
The gift shop is smaller than the big boys, but there are some neat finds inside.
Don’t pass up a visit to Barton! And, don’t forget they are closed on Sundays, so make sure you plan accordingly.

wasn’t in our original plans to visit, but glad we did. didn’t do the tour, but the gift shop folks were friendly and informative. free tasting was nice and the inexpensive, autographed bottles were a great find for my collection. it’s not on the bourbon trail, but don’t pass it up, when you’re in the area.
note to collectors: they still seem to have a good supply of the harder-​to-​find TRUE six year old (only at 83 proof, though). the hand signed bottles are a great find at $ 13!

This place is awesome. One of the Kentucky Bourbon Craft Tours.
Tasting and tour was free.
They took us on a 30 – 45 minute tour through their buildings, the making of their bourbon, and the warehouse.
My favorite was the 1792 Bourbon, but I ended up buying a bottle of Very Old Barton’s Bourbon because it was slight similar in taste and cheaper.
I would highly recommend visiting. The employees are very energetic and very knowledgeable.

Nice informative tour and best of all free. Tours are an hour, small because they are not on the bourbon trail. A lot of similarities to Buffalo Trace, because they are owned by the same company. Must do, includes two tasting portions and a bourbon barrel stop.

Some of the nicest folks we met on our tour around this Bourbon-​soaked region of central Kentucky, which is especially handy when showed up about halfway through their first tour of the day and asked nicely if we could just skip all that tour stuff and have a tasting.
See, we were used to tastings in wineries, where there’s not much in the way of a tour unless you pay for it. In Kentucky, however, pretty much all the tours are free (including this one) and end with a tasting.* However, they didn’t have any problem with us having a tasting at 10:30 in the morning, and it’s a great thing to be able to drink that early.
The grounds are small, as they’ve just started doing tours here, but the gift shop is nice and has a bunch of 1792-​themed merchandise, including some nice highball glasses, one of which we purchased.
Even though we didn’t take the tour, this seems like a great place to start your tours, because you won’t have as many people visiting and you’ll be able to get closer to the process and ask more questions. And you can probably talk them into an extra bourbon chocolate ball, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
* — I assume that’s because of some byzantine complication of if they ask you for money for a tasting, then they’re a bar and all the rules that come with that.

A free tour and free drink by itself merits a good review, but I think they have several other things going for them here.
I think this distillery only began offering tours in May, so we weren’t dealing with big crowds. And the gift shop, like the tour, is pretty no-​nonsense. Not a lot of mythology or hyperbole or propaganda films. Just trinkets and a tasting bar. It’s also something of a plus that you can now get a good bourbon tour without getting lost in the countryside. This one-​hour tour takes you through the warehouses and the bottling facility. The bottling operation is huge — they do a lot of contract bottling for other products — and is probably the highlight of the tour. At the end, you get a couple of free tastings (bring your own chaser), and we got a complementary souvenir bung and bourbon ball.
The only real negatives: no babbling brooks and charming countryside. You’re walking through parking lots. Also, I think we blew it by coming in the summer, since the distilling operation shuts down for the summer months. And it’s not exactly artisanal stuff happening here. This is a *factory* show, and a massive one at that. Finally, note that it’s not an official stop on the ‘Bourbon Trail’ yet either.