Harlan Wheatley – Master Distiller at Buffalo Trace Distillery

Buffalo Trace Distillery is located in Frankfort, Kentucky and is home to more bourbons than I’m likely to ever sample. And some of those bourbons are the stuff of legend (I’m thinking about Pappy Van Winkle here). But even those that don’t have quite as much legend behind them are top picks for many of us. We were able to sample some unique and interesting spirits during our visit, but the tasting was second to our visit with master distiller Harlan Wheatley and our tour lead by Kristie Wooldridge.

Buffalo Trace is a large facility with several brick buildings scattered over the campus. The parking lot is adjacent to one of the warehouses and a short walk took us to the tasting room building that also houses the gift shop. Kristie met us there and walked us outside, past several buildings to what may have been the smallest building we encountered. But once inside we were introduced to Harlan Wheatley, Master Distiller for Buffalo Trace Distillery, who gave us a brief history of the distillery and how he goes about crafting its products.

I asked Harlan about his marketing strategy and he explained, “Marketing strategy for Buffalo Trace is primarily through word of mouth. We spend very very little dollars on advertising. It’s more about authenticity and connecting customers to our brands and our taste.” He gave an example that hit home for me, explaining that if my primary drink was Scotch, they probably have something that would appeal to me. He mentioned some whiskeys that I have heard of but not yet experienced, like Sazerac 18 year old Rye and Eagle Rare 17 year old.

Buffalo Trace has a lot of varieties under its umbrella. Harlan explained that while most distilleries use one recipe for its production, “We are know for our variety. We have the most variety in the business. And we also do a lot of experimentation that allows us to develop for future tastes. We have about 18 different bourbons now. Eagle Rare is our most decorated bourbon. Our offerings range from Pappy Van Winkle at 250 – 300 for the 25 year old and down to Benchmark at $10.”

While the Buffalo Trace brand was only launched in 1999 Harlan is proud to explain that, “We have 240 years of tradition. There are 400 plus people working here to deliver on our brands.” The Buffalo Trace brand was established in order to create a presence and identity that customers and visitors could identify with. There were plenty of different labels and beverages being produced at the facility so it was confusing for customers to connect their preferences to a single name.

All the buildings were build by the original master distiller E. H. Taylor of “Old Taylor.” Buffalo Trace bought back the Old Taylor brand in 2002 and have turned into a sought out brand. The combination of single barrel, barrel strength, and small batch have been part of the E. H. Taylor legacy.

Harlan hasn’t stopped creating new taste experiences. “Our Experimental Collection is our special batch label. We started in 1997 with a chardonnay barrel aged bourbon. We now have about 2,500 experimental barrels in our warehouses. Starting this year, every day we run our experimental operation. We’ve dedicated one person to run our long list of experimental recipes in a dedicated facility.” Some of those experiments will be highly sought after while others may never see the light of day.

Harlan says about his experiments, “Today everything we do is documented so that we know what recipes were made and how they turned out. There are no rules about what to do and what the results need to be. We just try to learn.”

One of Buffalo Trace’s signature brands is Blanton’s. It was the first single barrel bourbon that sold in 1984 for the price of $25 per bottle. At that time it was looked on as a bad idea as most bourbons sold for around $8. Harlan explains, “Blanton’s took about 2 years to take off. History has shown that the move was indeed a good one with single barrel bourbons and other premium offerings growing in popularity. Today Blanton’s sells for about $60 when the average bourbon brings around $20.”

I asked Harlan what he usually chose to take off his own shelf. Harlan said that his favorite is Buffalo Trace. “It’s small batch, always tested against the very first batch we made.”

Kristie then lead us on a tour of the facilities beginning with the vats.

There were vats in almost every stage of fermentation including just being filled to one covered with a heavy veil of carbon dioxide, and others ready to be drawn to the distillers.

We walked the catwalks that connect the buildings and were able to get a great view from atop an outdoor walkway from where we could see most of the campus.

There was a wedding reception being set up on the ‘club house,’ a building with a long and I’m sure, interesting history, where politicians (Frankfort is Kentucky’s capital city) met frequently in years past.

Our last stop before the tasting room was the Blanton’s bottling house where every bottle of Blanton’s is hand labeled. One of 7 different horse statue tops is put on the bottle and the black wax is dripped by hand around the top to seal it.

It’s amazing to think that every bottle of Blanton’s on every liquor store shelf goes through this process.

We ended our tour back at the tasting room where we were able to taste a variety of drinks including Harlan’s “Wheatley Vodka” and a bourbon cream drink that is promised to make a terrific topping for an ice cream sundae.