Bardstown Bourbon Company Goes Operational

By Richard Thomas

“The Bourbon Capital of the World” has a new whiskey-maker, as Bardstown Bourbon Company went operational this week.

Bardstown Bourbon Company broke ground on their $25 million distillery in October 2014, and moved forward to operational status at breakneck speed. Their 50-foot Vendome-made stainless steel column still was installed this past April, and at that time the company predicted they would be online this month. While teething problems are normal in starting up a new distillery, as is the case for most industrial concerns, that prediction proved sound.

The new distillery currently has a production capacity of 1.5 million proof gallons per year, so describing it as a craft or micro-distillery would be a serious error. To put this into perspective, “craft” distillers are usually described as having a capacity of less than either 100,000 or 500,000 proof gallons, depending on whose standards are used, and George Dickel, often considered a medium-sized example of a major distillery, has a capacity of 2.5 million proof gallons.

Turning the valves at Bardstown Bourbon Company is Steve Nally, the former Maker’s Mark Master Distiller who consulted at Wyoming Whiskey in its early period.

Bardstown Bourbon Company should open to the public in the early part of 2017.