The Whiskey Reviewer A World of Whiskey, Poured Every Weekday
By Richard Thomas
Brown-Forman has indicated that their plans to build an Old Forester distillery and visitors center on downtown Louisville’s Whiskey Row have been delayed by an adjacent fire two weeks ago.
The new Old Forester was supposed to reach completion in autumn 2016, but is now pushed back to sometime in 2017.
The three-alarm blaze gutted the buildings at 111 and 113 West Main Street, slated for development into restaurants, shops and apartments as “111 Whiskey Row.” The Old Forester site is located on the same block, at 117 West Main.
Old Forester in Louisville is slated as a $45 million investment, and appears to be much larger than originally thought by many in whiskey circles. When it was announced last autumn, the Old Forester project was seen as a “tourist distillery” in a fashion similar to the Evan Williams Experience. The latter operates a small still, and while a genuine working concern, produces only a small amount of whiskey. The forthcoming Old Forester distillery, on the other hand, is described by Brown-Forman as something that will double the brand’s capacity.
