Buffalo Trace Distillery Reviews

It's smooth from start to finish. I love it and apparently so do a lot of other folks.

Amazing tour. Lee was a great tour guide. Best tour yet.

Had a good time, would love to have seen the barrels go across the barrelcrossing.

Excellent FREE tour with samples at the end! I was hoping for some Pappy or Blanton s but they were all out. Our guide, Jimmy C, was very knowledgeable and friendly! I would say this is the only distillery you need to visit!

This is the oldest continuously operating distillery in the United States. We drove 6 hours to get here and we were glad we did! What a gorgeous and interesting place. Dinner in the Elmer T. Lee Clubhouse was amazing. Our tour guide, Freddie, told us a ton of fascinating information about this distillery and about bourbon in general. Watching Blanton's Bourbon get bottled (by hand) was educational and fun. We sampled the very hard to get Pappy Van Winkle bourbon, ate filet mignon for dinner, and enjoyed Bourbon Cream with chocolate pie for dessert. The parking was easy and the grounds are stunning. If you get the chance, go!

Visited twice during our Bourbon Trail adventure, even though it isn't an official part of trail we love their bourbon and and wanted to visit...both times we went there wasn't time for a tour but we did get a private tasting with an intern who really knew his stuff...very affable, glad we made his acquaintance and appreciated his time and attention...beautiful grounds and wonderful distillery...wish Elmer T Lee was still widely available ...we will return one day and take the tour...well-stocked gift shop

Some of the staff was rude. Disappointing selection. Clean facilities with good COVID-19 procedures.

So excited to visit Buffalo Trace and it did not disappoint even during covid. Still got a tour of the distillery and tasting. So worth the stop along the bourbon trail. You may even score some Blanton's like we did!!

Huge facility. Very crowded. The gift shop has all the products that display nicely. Free parking.

The tour experience was fantastic. And it was free, including an ample tasting. Do not skip if you are in the area and enjoy bourbon. Go even if you don't like bourbon, it's still worth it. The campus is enormous and interesting to walk around and do some sightseeing.

Took the Hard Hat tour today and had an amazing time. David was our guide and he was absolutely fantastic. The tour was fun, informative and engaing. I would highly recommend anyone who has a passion for bourbon to take this tour!! Gift shop was awsome as well!!

Bomb experience. Our tour was amazing. It was stop 11 of 11 and I was still impressed and amazed of the beauty and variation of tour. The grounds were beautiful, I would love to host a party here. They guide was fun and knowledgeable and it felt unique. I loved getting to view the older rooms and small bottling lines. A must for anyone going on the bourbon trail. Also amazing gift shop with a huge variation!

Great place to visit. Tours are free and end with a nice tasting experience. Grounds are beautiful. We spent some time walking around after the tour to take pictures. Of all the bourbon tours we took, this was our favorite.

This is the 9th brewery or distillery I have been to and it is the best. Nice tasting room and lots of goodies to buy. The tours are 45 min and end with the tasting.

What a pleasure this tour was. So much history! The tasting was very good. Thanks, Dave!

One of the oldest distilleries in the area. The location is beautiful, the people were very friendly and the tour informative. This is also a free tour! The tasting at the end is straightforward. My family and I left with a new favorite, bourbon cream!

Rick, our tour guide for the Barrel tour, was phenomenal! Getting to see the journey of the barrels from receiving, filling, and storage in the rickhouse, then dumping and bottling... of course followed by a tasting of Wheatley Vodka, Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, Bourbon Cream (with root beer), and finished off with a bourbon ball... was an unforgettable experience.

Your tour was great but not having Blantons to sell is unacceptable. This is the 3rd time I've been and have only gotten it once from there. I was told they were out. If you only have a certain amount to sell from the gift shop then it should be spread out over the week. Anyways the Buffalo Trace story was great and I scored a bottle of Blantons at the liquor store a mile down the road.

Enjoyed the tour, the campus is very eclectic and old school. Its a must if you're into the distilleries.

Wow what a great place rich in history and information

Great tour, kind staff, great products and very clean.

Excellent place to tour and learn about them and bourbon is general.

Unlike many other distilleries, tried one has free tours which include tasting

We went on the Trace tour and also the Hard Hat tour. Both were fabulous, interesting and really informative. All of the tours are free and you are treated to samples of bourbon at the end!

We had a fun time, even as non-drinkers. (They offer a Root Beer sample for non-drinkers at the end.) Learned about the angels share of bourbon and many other things from a great tour guide.

Buffalo Trace Distillery is a great place to kick off a tour of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Steeped in history and tradition, it s staffed by people who clearly take great pride and pleasure in what they do. The tour was well done, with a few surprises along the way (think secret doorway ). The tasting at the end of the tour was among the best we had on our trip. Who knew that root beer was good with bourbon?! Highly recommended.

Beautiful grounds to walk around and great options for tours.

One of the best bourbon distillery around. It s the oldest so they kept their authenticity. I went to the free tour and it was really good. The merchandise in their gift shop are well designed and good quality.

Excellent products and a wonderful tour. One of the best distilleries in our region. We keep a bottle on the shelf at our office.

Tour was great, very informative, One problem....couldn't hear the guide well at all.

Informative and generously free tours and tastings. It is an especially neat detail that the historic buildings are still being used for their original purpose. A must see in Frankfort.

Fun tour, absolutely stunning facilities, and funny tour guide. We greatly enjoyed our time here. The only negative was that we were watching hundreds of bottles of Blantons being bottled and boxed about 3 feet from us, but they were sold out in the gift store. That was quite frustrating, as we have been on the search for a bottle for a few years now and it was sooooo close!

Such a wonderful place to visit, and the home of the most amazing, highest rated, bourbon on the planet--Pappy Van Winkle. Great tours and great samples, afterward!

One of the BEST distilleries I have been to - great tours, beautiful grounds, tons of history, and a great staff (Lee did an outstanding job!). The gift shop is loaded, too! This one is a must for the bourbon lover!

Call in advance for a hard hat tour. It is free, just like the regular tour, but you will get a more in-depth look at the distilling process.

Great tour.....Jimmy was an awesome guide....good info

Their customer service is not just served in a bottle. I am still blown away by the (extensive) attention and kindness I was shown by high ranking officials of the corporation regarding a question that could have easily been dismissed or passed off. I also visited the distillery last December and can say the same about every person I met there. Their passion, knowledge and love for what they do shines through. And you can t say it s just because they are getting their daily dose of their angels share because we also visited many other distilleries in the area and although I left one with a pretty copper cup and a nice family photo next to a gorgeous fire, we had the worst tour guide. Not at buffalo trace though. The entire tour was fun and engaging. I can t wait to go back!!

We toured Buffalo Trace, Four Roses, and Wild Turkey. Buffalo Trace was definitely the favorite. Campus has a beautiful historical feel and you can tell people who work there take pride in what they do. Also found my 2 favorite bourbon products (Eagle Rare and Bourbon Cream). Highly recommend

Best distillery tour I've been on. The tour guide Mark was informative and made the tour fun. The tasting and the end was great.

Buffalo Trace Distillery is where I gained an appreciation for Bourbon. It is like going to a winery where they teach you about all of the subtle tastes in the bourbon and the history. We had a wonderful tour of the distillery and it sits on a lot of beautiful real estate. Can't wait to go back

A very nice distillery with lots of history. The tour is very worthwhile, with free grafting at the end. The bourbon is very good.

Great Tours! Do yourself a favor and reserve a Hard Hat Tour

Great distillery. Tour and tasting is free and if you don't have time for a tour just ask for a tasting and they will be glad to fit you in.

My favorite Kentucky bourbon tour! You get to see a lot of history and operations, including a live bottling operation. They are very generous with the tastings after a FREE tour! The grounds are beautiful as well.

Fun tour guide. Tour guide was informative and friendly. Doing what they can due to covid. I'll go back.

One of the best distilleries in the country. Beautiful area and the new expanded gift shop really opens up the welcome area.

Wonderful place that has unfortunately become too commercial in response to demand. It s not their fault but don t get your hopes up. Availability of Blantons or EH Taylor at the gift shop is not guaranteed. Book your tour months advance. And be prepared to wait any day of the week. We waited in line for an hour to get a chance for one bottle of Blantons, which the fortunately had early in the morning. It was likely gone by noon.

Super friendly staff, and they provide a fun and informative tour. Definitely make this one of the distilleries you visit!

This was my first distillery experience. Great free date! See when David will be giving a main tour! He so obviously loved what he does so I learned quite a bit and appreciate the history and culture of bourbon making. Enjoyed the free samples too! Bourbon Cream is my favorite! Enjoyed free dark chocolate bourbon balls also. Wished we could have stayed for the Valentine's dinner and bourbon pairing.

Did a Ghost Tour with Debra tonight and was very disappointed. I think she may have been hitting the Bourban all day and should have sat the evening tour out. She's not engaging and her story telling is far from good. The property is beautiful but I'd pass on the tour if you get her as a guide. We did do a quick tour from the gift shop earlier and it was great. This is a must visit Distillery.

Lots of history here. We had a great tour guide, Lindsay. Nice to see the hands on approach to bourbon. AND IT S FREE!! The do need better signs so you know where to go for tours.

Our favorite of the distillery tours. Very informative and the fact that the tour was at no charge only added to the appeal.

Absolutely loved the distillery tour. Our guide was engaging, knowledgeable, personable and funny. Buffalo Trace really knows how to show off! The gift shop was filled with unique and reasonably priced gifts. Definite must see if you're a Bourbon fan!

Fascinating and beautiful old distillery. Great place to walk around their beautiful grounds. Tours and tasting were very informative and fun! Top notch gift shop and extraordinarily friendly tour guides. Each one will tell you exciting stories of history and techniques for tasting bourbon. Don t miss it!

We really enjoyed our tour. The facility was in full production and they were even having a malfunction which our guide did a fantastic job describing! At the end you sample Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, White Dog, Wheatley Vodka, and Bourbon Cream! No Pappy, but no surprise...

Unbelievably amazing customer service and truly impressed at the lengths they will go to ensure customer satisfaction...

Mark Brown, you have customers for life!

An unbelievable free tour with a tasting at the end. Our guide was extremely passionate about the distillery and everything that goes on there. He taught us about the full whiskey making process and even showed us the bottling plant.

The great Ole community. Smells in the air and refreshing.

This was an awesome stop. The nostalgia of this place is incredible.

This is my 5th Bourbon tour and the best by far. Complementary tour, they do not even charge like Woodford does.

We had a great tour guide that was so informative.

You can smell the sour mash all over the place. Beautiful architecture, great people. So friendly.

Wish I could've taken Home a couple cases of Blanton's bourbon.

Our favorite tasting experience in bourbon country! We loved the Bourbon Cream so much we ended up taking a bottle home for Thanksgiving and it has since become a tradition. Great service with knowledgeable and fun staff!

While in Kentucky, decided to drop in at Buffalo Trace Distillery and take a tour. It s easily accessible and just minutes off I-64 in Frankfort. We took the basic tour, which like all the tours, lasts about an hour and includes a tasting afterward.

We had Jeff as our guide. He was incredible! He did a wonderful job of weaving the development of the region with the history of bourbon making. He also described well how various aspects of bourbon making the mash bill, fermentation, distillation and aging affect the flavor profile of the product. He was proud to point out that Buffalo Trace is the oldest continuously operating bourbon distillery in Kentucky. The distillery is a designated National Historic Site. It has many old, historic buildings as well as new ones. In fact, a new barrel house was under construction at the time we took our tour.

I knew some about bourbon making, but I learned a lot more on this tour. If you re in the Frankfort region and want to take distillery tour, seriously consider Buffalo Trace. All tours are free of charge including the more involved tours. Check on-line to see what tours are available and when.

Cool place to visit but they don't sell many of their whiskies on site so they don't compete with local business. They do have a free tour and sampling at the end.

Toured 9 distilleries on the bourbon trail, and our group of 10 all agreed this was the best tour of them all.
Value: the tour is free
Timing: book as far in advance as you have a date, they fill up fast
Tasting: buffalo trace, eagle rare, white dog, and their bourbon cream (remember its free)
Tips: take the hard hat tour for an in-depth experience. You can buy their bourbons in the gift shop, but it depends on what they get from their distributor. On rare occasions they have blantons, but don't count on it.

I offer my highest recommendation. Book far ahead!

Could not have been more pleased with this tour! Welcomed our dogs with open arms and were able to participate in the tour with us (minus the bourbon sampling). Incredibly informative on how they make bourbon and the tour was rich with history- so cool to see the old warehouses still in use. Would recommend it to anyone- bourbon lovers or not.

We were the last tour of the day on a Saturday and we had gone to two other distilleries beforehand. Our tour guide told us she "just got into bourbon" and couldn't answer a lot of questions and just read script like. It felt super rushed and they showed us a movie?! Every other distillery tour we went on at least put in some effort. You got a small tasting at the end and it was really crowded upstairs.

Overall super disappointing compared to other distilleries. had really been looking forward to Buffalo trace. I would skip this distillery and spend my time elsewhere.

Wonderful experience! I arrived too late for a tour, but the kind and friendly staff let me join the last tasting of the day. The server for the tasting did an amazing job and shared some great whiskey knowledge in a compelling and memorable way. I couldn't believe the tasting was free; very generous! My only disappointment was they didn't have much bourbon to sell in the gift shop; was hoping to snag some WL Weller. Taxes must be higher in KY, because the bottles of buffalo trace in their shop were $5 more than what they charge at stores in GA. Plenty of fun bourbon swag to buy, though! Would definitely go again and recommend it to friends.

The setting is beautiful. You and almost feel the history around the brick rickhouses. It is a great tour. My only knock is it was so busy moving around was a pain and the wait was 30 minutes to check out.

Don is the best tour guide! He was engaging, knowledgeable, and responsive to his audience. By far my favorite of 4 distillery tours I've been on.

Nice place, lot of history, great tour and gift shop.

Awesome distillery experience. Good informational tour work tasting and bonus, it's free!! Will definitely be back to visit.

Easy from parking to signing up for a tour. The grounds we're phenomenal!!!

Tours are great here, BUT... 99% chance the only bourbon whiskey product they'll have in the gift shop is the Buffalo Trace bourbon that is readily available in most every package store in America. If you're looking for a bourbon whiskey product that is unique and not readily available in many stores, visit any one of the other distilleries in the area such as Woodford or Wild Turkey both within 20 minute drive of each other. I've been to all of these half a dozen times with same results of each. I have expressed this sentiment to Buffalo Trace personnel. Their competitors can do it, and have fewer labels in there product line as Sazerac does. Make the visit as worth while as the competition does. Don't have to have Pappy Van Winkle on the shelf everyday, but have something besides your most common Buffalo Trace or the occasional lowest tier Eagle Rare. Please treat your fans/visitors that travel great distances to a better gift shop experience than what has become the norm here. Thank you

If I am ever in the area then I want to get the tastiest whiskey here.

There is so much history here, and the tasting at the end is great. The tour is always free. There is a special hard hat tour that you need to sign up for ahead of time. Would love to have done that, and will do it next time we come

Wake that dog up! Wow I was very impressed with the tour and our tour guide, Freddie. If you have any interest at all in Bourbon, this is a must Free tour. 21+ can sample 2 product's, bring a friend and you can try all 4, albeit half.

5 Star Whiskey 5 Star Facility 5 Star Distillery Don't be miss this great stop.