|
--= Click on photos to return
=-- |
 |
|
Linda and John visited the
Barton Distillery twice within about a month. On our first visit, we were hosted by Pam Gover, which is just a little like having Princess Kate show us around Buckingham Palace. Pam has been the brains and talent around the annual Kentucky Bourbon festival since it began, although, with her current responsibilities, she might need to pass that baton to someone else. |
|
--= Click on photos to return =-- |
 |
|
Among Pam's challenges
has been to select and train the people who will be the "face of Barton" to visitors -- the tour guides. Her vision has always been to incorporate people who have, themselves, been a part of Kentucky's whiskey industry or culture, and in Bardstown, that pretty much includes everyone in town. One of her selections was Rick Berry, whose exposure to the distilleries of Bardstown goes back to his early childhood. As Rick puts it, "Just about everyone in Nelson County either was personally involved with commercial bourbon distilling, or was related to someone else who was". Rick's experience, along with Pam's training, shows just how true that statement is. A Barton Distillery tour guide for all of two or three weeks, Rick already shows a sense of authority and knowledge that would put him into the top three, if "American Idol" had a "bourbon tour guide" category. |
| --= Click on photos to return =-- |
 |
|
Unlike some of the
other "tourist-oriented" distilleries, at Barton, the exact tour you're likely to take depends on what's going on at the time. For example, when we toured with Pam a month ago, the aging warehouse we visited was "Z", on top of the hill, where the 1792 Ridgemont Reserve is aged. |
| --= Click on photos to return =-- |
| --= Click on photos to return =-- |
 |
| --= Click on photos to return =-- |
 |
|
We take the tour bus,
which passes the original spring. The spring, hardly bigger than a garden hose, still provides some of the water used in producing Barton whiskey. |
| --= Click on photos to return =-- |
 |
|
There are barrels being
filled in the distillery itself, although they are being filled with brandy, not bourbon being made here. The stills which make bourbon whiskey are being refurbished and have been shut down since last fall; they won't be fired up again until late October or November. |
| --= Click on photos to return =-- |
 |
|
Even in an organization
as large as Barton, there is often just one lonely man, running between barrels filling with fifty-something gallons of precious distilled spirit, and banging a poplar bung plug into place, in order ensure that there will be no leakage... at least no leakage due to a loose bung plug. |
| --= Click on photos to return =-- |
 |
|
On our tour with Rick,
he takes us to warehouse "H", the home of Very Old Barton and the bourbon you will find in bottles with many other labels. It is also the home of Paul Masson brandy, which is distilled by Barton from grape wine produced in California and shipped here to be made into fine brandy. |
| --= Click on photos to return =-- |
 |
|
In this warehouse are
the special commemorative barrel heads celebrating Barton's milestones |
| --= Click on photos to return =-- |