Frankfort, Ky. – Signs of renovation are being made in the Buffalo Trace Distillery In Kentucky, from the floods that flooded the whiskey manufacturing campus he backed down. But executives say that the thorough task of inspecting any barrel of Bourbon touched by high water will take time.
Historical distillery has resumed the shipping and expects spirits to reopen its bottling operation in the next few days, Jake Wenz, CEO and president of Sazerac Co. and distillery. The campus could reopen the visitors soon in a limited way, but for now it is closed to the guests until Sunday.
“The restoration of this national historical milestone is our highest priority to guarantee a quick return to making award -winning whiskey, awarded and welcoming guests from all over the world,” Wenz said in a statement.
Frankfort -based distillery, Kentucky, which produces some of the most sought -after Bourbon brands, was flooded by flooding waters of the nearby Kentucky river after days of downpours Outstanding rivers at levels close to records through parts of the state of Bluegrass.
Now that the murky floods are gone, cleaning in Buffalo Trace is progressing. Teams of engineers and restoration experts have been evaluating damage to the buildings that were flooded.
The general amount of damage is still being determined, said the distillery.
These damage evaluations include some of the barrels full of aged whiskey. Bourbon obtains its flavor and gold brown during aging. The workers were able to move some barrels of Bourbon to the upper floors of the storage stores before prolonged rains produced floods.
The inspections of any barrel touched by the flood began on Thursday and will continue until each is carefully evaluated, a process that could take several weeks to complete, said the distillery. He has not said how many barrels they were affected, but said he does not expect any significant loss of inventory.
“This is a very involved process, including barrel inspection, as well as a rigorous quality test that we do with all our products,” said Harlen Wheatley, teacher distiller of Buffalo Trace.
According to his experience of previous floods, the distillery is “safe from our process” and that successfully recovered the barrels affected by the flood, Wheatley said. The distillery has markers of several high water brands of previous floods within its buildings.
“A lot of heart and soul enters each product we make, so our team is dedicated to trying with great scrutiny each barrel possibly affected by floods to ensure that there are no problems,” he said.
The teams began to clean the distillery visitors center, where the flood reached the first floor. During repairs, the distillery said it plans to reopen a modified version of its visitors center as soon as possible.
As a first step, the distillery plans to operate a modified retail center from its visiting registration center. Access will be through an email reserve system offered first to people who had visits interrupted by floods.
Buffalo Trace Distillery is owned by Sazerac and its popular Bourbons include Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare and Wl Weller brands.
