Buffalo Trace Just Celebrated Seven Million Barrels Since Prohibition

 

Big news in the bourbon world: on Wednesday, April 12, Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky rolled out its seven millionth barrel of whiskey since Prohibition ended in 1933, according to a press release. The momentous occasion was celebrated with an intimate gathering of mostly employees. The late warehouse supervisor Jimmy Johnson, the first African-American warehouse foremen in Kentucky, rolled out each millionth barrel from the distillery before this one. Though he has since passed, his son and third-generation employee, Freddie Johnson, continued his father’s legacy and, with some help from his grandson, rolled the seventh million barrel into a warehouse named Warehouse V.

 

Warehouse V previously held the sixth millionth barrel produced, having been rolled in by Jimmy Johnson in 2008 at the age of 92. The distillery plans to bottle the bourbon from the six millionth barrel this summer and offer 375 ml bottles to charities for fundraising efforts. The liquor from the seventh one likely won’t take ten years to be bottled, as Buffalo Trace is confident that it won’t take another decade to fill a million barrels of spirit: the celebrations included the dedication of a newly opened warehouse, freeing up even more space for production.