On this, the last day of National Bourbon Heritage Month, it seems fitting to note that with its plan to create a $30 million Old Forester Distillery and bourbon experience on Louisville’s Main Street by fall 2016, Brown-Forman is returning to its own Whiskey Row heritage. The new distillery will be located in two 1850s-era brick and cast-iron buildings at 117 and 119 W. Main St, that were once bourbon warehouses — including Brown-Forman’s at 117 W. Main, which it occupied from 1900-1919. Unlike the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience a few blocks away, which has a microdistillery that produces one barrel per day, the Old Forester Distillery will allow Brown-Forman to double production of its founding brand.
Although it produces one-third of the state’s bourbon in Louisville, Brown-Forman has up till now concentrated its tourism focus on its Woodford Reserve distillery in Versailles, Ky. Its return to Whiskey Row, and its role in preserving historic buildings that were at one point in danger of demolition, is well worth toasting – with Old Forester, of course.
