barton 1792 distillery

My husband and I are new to KY, but he is a Bourbon connoisseur so we have been traveling the Bourbon Trail. As enjoyable as the big distilleries are, the smaller craft tours are also awesome. They don't give you a stamp on your passport or help you earn your Bourbon Trail t-shirt, but still a good stop! Barton's was a great start to our Valentine's Day tour. The day was snowy and cold, but the tours were packed! There were so many at the 10:00 tour they divided us up into smaller groups. They wisely deviated from the tour and had us begin with the tasting. Good variety of Bourbon tastings-there is a choice of 4, you get to choose 2. Choices are Very Old Barton, 1792, Egg Nog and the not as of yet on the market Bourbon Ball Chocolate Liqueur. The Egg Not is seasonal, so it may or may not be available when you tour. The hint of nutmeg makes it great for Bourbon infused french toast! The Bourbon Ball Chocolate Liqueur is meant to mimic the traditional KY Bourbon ball candy and is delicious. It would be great in coffee as an alternative to Baileys Irish Creme. To end your tasting you are also offered an actual bourbon ball and a free bung (a white poplar stopper for the bourbon barrel). The tour itself is unique for several reasons. First, it's FREE!! The tour guides are informed, friendly, personable and are welcoming questions. Second,is the "white dawg" portion of the tour! I won't ruin it by explaining what you get to do, but think fun. Third, they are one of the few distilleries that still sell their barrels to the general public. Their gift shop offers bungs and char for sell to use in/on your grill as a unique take home souvenir. Note-there is a bit of walking with this tour as you go from distillery to the rick houses. In addition, there are multiple stairs. We didn't have anyone in our group unable to do the stairs, but I did notice an elevator. Whether or not they use it to make the upper levels handicap accessible is a question you will have to call about if that is a concern for members of your party. Also, this is not a polished, dog and pony show type distillery, but is a great stop! You can't go wrong stopping at any of distillery as you can learn something new every time on every tour!

We have visited several distilleries all over Kentucky and this is one of our favorites. The tours/tastings are complimentary. Tours start at the top of the hour and last approximately 45 minutes. Much of the tour is outdoors. Our guide was very knowledgeable and friendly. She answered any and all questions.The gift shop and tasting areas are very nice. I highly recommend the Bourbon Ball Chocolate Liqueur. Yummmy!

We had a private tour of the Barton distillery and it was probably one of our favorites on our trip. The distillery is not as polished and tourist-friendly as the others, which I actually preferred. Our tour guide went into great detail over every aspect of the distillery, which was great. I highly recommend a private tour here.

I have been on several bourbon and whiskey distillery tours, and I must say that my trip to Barton's was one of my top two of all time. We had Janie for a guide and she was amazingly descriptive and made the tour fun. A shipment of rye was coming in while we were on the tour, and Janie grabbed some for us. And once the tour was over, she gave us bourbon samples and she gave a lot of detailed information about many things for sale in the gift shop. I normally don't buy anything on distillery tours, but I bought over $100 in tasty bourbon and other items. The tour was not crowded, and we appreciated that. I bet if we would have gone down the street to Jim Beam or Maker's Mark it would have been very packed. All in all, it was an excellent experience.

We went on the Lamplight night tour at this distillery and it was wonderful! The tour guide was a wealth of knowledge. The bourbon tasting at the end of the tour definitely warms you up :)

Having missed this a couple times while in Kentucky touring Distilleries..,we finally had the time to stop at Barton's.Owned by the same folks who also own Buffalo Trace... the setting and the architecture will remind you a little of Buffalo Trace as well!We stopped in on an afternoon during the week and went on a small tour with 4 other people!The folks in Kentucky are generally friendly what struck me immediately was how genuinely happy they were to see us and how much fun we had with our tour guide who did an excellent job of explaining Barton's history and the current production methods! The ladies that were there that day treated us like we were special and we really enjoyed the stop as well as the Bourbon tasting at the end! If you're there around the Holidays... make sure and pick up a couple bottles of their Eggnog!! It's (I think) the best of any down there!

At the last minute on our way to Louisville to see more distilleries, my husband found that there was another distillery (off the official tour) really close to us and we decided to add it into our schedule. So glad we did, it was our favorite tour of the day. It reminded us of Buffalo Trace, which we love, and found out later it is a sister company! Our tour was very informative and fun. They have the only fermenting tanks that are OUTSIDE (that I have seen) because of how long ago they built their distillery. Very cool place, and 3 samples- the egg nog was yummy too!

After visiting another distiller we stopped by Barton's to pick up a bottle as a gift. Unfortunately my husband could not muster up a tasting - which was a shame since it was free. What I wanted to give feedback on is the staff at Barton's - friendly, helpful, outstanding. Next time we will be sure to visit this distiller and get the full effect. (the smell in the air at this distiller was awesome)

Can you really complain about a tour that costs nothing and you still get free samples of bourbon at the end of the tour?The tour was pretty good, we were just passing through so we had to choose just one tour, we don't have a comparison against the other distilleries tours. It's free. We learned more about bourbon than we already knew. We got to see the white dog coming off the still. We also got to smell and taste the white dog, interesting in itself. Overall, very good experience! And really, free sample of their finest bourbon, can that really be complained about?

This was our first visit to Bardstown and we were there for the Bourbon Festival. What an enjoyable day. After visiting the downtown festival area, we decided to take a tour of the closest distillery-- and that was Barton.The tour was terrific, the guide quite knowledgeable and made the visit quite nice. We learned a lot about the making of bourbon whiskey, as well as the history of the distillery. Having toured Jack Daniels, we had certain expectations of what the tour was likely to be. It exceeded those expectations! And unlike the tour of Jack Daniels, there were complimentary tastings included! We ended up buying a couple of bottles and it was a great introduction to the town of Bardstown! We hope to be back!

My husband and I visited four distilleries in Kentucky as our own "Bourbon Trail" tour. This small working distillery was our favorite tour. The tour is free (a nice plus), but what I really enjoyed was the feeling we were in a working facility, not a show for tourists. Occasionally we'd have to step aside as semi trucks delivered grain and other products. Our tour guide (I'm so sorry I've forgotten her name!) was young, enthusiastic about the company, and very knowledgable. The tour does involve going up and down some steep stairs. Barton is not on the "official" Bourbon Trail, but well worth a visit. The town of Bardstown is picturesque as well, and I highly recommend Mammy's Cafe for lunch! One note of warning--the distillery does occasionally shut down for a while during the summer months, so call ahead.

We very much enjoyed out tour, and our tour guide was quite engaging and well-versed in the history and functioning of the distillery. Very nice peek at the barrels aging in the barrel house, the bottling and packaging area was very nice, and the samples given at the close were very good. Very friendly people, not an insulated tour that walks you down hallways, peering through windows into where things are going on.

Hard to give a partial review, because we were unaware that many distilleries shut down in the summer, this one was one of them. Nothing to see, just barrels sitting in the warehouse and the shipping department. They were running a small bottling line of vodka for another customer. I do have to say that our guide was very informative, probably the best of the 4 distilleries we toured, even without production. This being last tour we took, I had many questions and the guide was able to answer almost all of them.

The guide was excellent - took us through the process in an informative, entertaining manner. Most of the time we were in the barrel room where it was very comfortable although outside temps were in the nineties. The tastings were varied and all very good. This was my favorite of the three distillery tours I took on the bourbon trail. And it was FREE!

We took a tour of the distillery and our guide was so knowelgeable and great! It was so hot that day though, but we loved it all and came in for tasting. We purchased a few things we could not get in Canada. We recommend this tour!!