Buffalo Trace Distillery has built a series of 10 new 58,000-square-foot warehouses. Already, the distillery says, it has found the taste consistency in the new warehouses, which are seven stories tall, metal clad with insulation with wooden floors. What’s especially noticeable about the new warehouses is that they are heated by a patented heating system in the floors with dual zones so temperature in each warehouse can be managed independently.
The distillery has found the taste in whiskey stored in the new warehouses is much more consistent than in whiskey stored in older warehouses on the distillery’s main campus.
“Consistency in a taste profile is much harder to maintain than most people realize,” said Harlen Wheatley, master distiller. “Any time you bring a new element into the equation, it has the potential to change the result.
“We’ve worked very hard to ensure our new aging warehouses are consistent in the taste profiles for which Buffalo Trace Distillery is known,” he says. “We test all barrels in the new warehouses every 12 months and run them through a full sensory analysis to compare them to our “standard” for that brand at the part in its aging cycle and also compare them against barrels which have been aging the same amount of time in our more established warehouses on our main campus.
“We’re really happy the taste is consistent across the board and look forward to being able to release them once they’ve reached their aging potential. Along the way, we’ll continue to monitor them and run tests as we do with all of our aging barrels to make sure they are meeting or exceeding brand standards of quality.”