Partial Warehouse Collapse at Barton 1792

At about 11AM EDT this morning, without warning, a whiskey aging warehouse at the Barton 1792 Distillery in Bardstown partially collapsed. No one was injured but about 9,000 barrels are affected, according to Nelson County Emergency Management spokesman Milt Spalding. Although the visible barrels appear remarkably intact, they may be leaking. So far, according to officials, water in the nearby Beech Fork River has not been impacted.

The building, which is about 60 years old, was being repaired. Bardstown Fire Chief Billy Mattingly said the part still standing is very unstable and may collapse as well. The warehouse held a total of 20,000 barrels.

There is no way to say yet how many barrels were lost. Intact barrels, still full, can be salvaged. Even so, the financial cost surely will be in the millions, not just from lost whiskey but also the cost of replacing the building. New warehouses cost about $2 million each. As for the whiskey, the value of a barrel will vary according to its age but let's say a full barrel is worth about $2,000, a low estimate. A loss of 9,000 barrels adds up to $18 million.

Here is one mitigating factor. Because accidents happen, distilleries don't put all of their eggs in one basket. Every warehouse contains a mix of barrel ages, from newly-filled to fully mature.

As the images show, the warehouse was built at the edge of a hill and that is the side that collapsed. This has been an unusually wet spring throughout the region. One possible reason for the collapse is subsidence caused by oversaturated soil. Barton 1792 is owned by Sazerac. As of now, the company has not made any announcements about the accident.

Click here for some drone-shot video of the scene.

Sazerac has released the following statement:

Barton 1792 Distillery is confirming it did have an incident with one of its barrel warehouses, Warehouse #30 today, Friday, June 22nd around 11 a.m. EDT. 

One side of the barrel warehouse collapsed causing structural damage.  No one was inside the warehouse and there were no injuries. 

The Distillery team took proactive measures to access and contain the damage immediately.  The Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection has been on site and the Distillery team implemented a number of actions to minimize any environmental risk.

Barrel Warehouse #30 was built in the 1940s and held approximately 18,000 barrels.  We believe no more than half of the barrels inside are impacted; we are assessing how many of the impacted barrels can be recovered.  A mix of various distilled products at various ages were stored in that warehouse.

The Warehouse incident will not affect normal operations or tourism activities; the Distillery expects to be open for tours on Saturday and it will resume normal business operations on Monday.   Barton 1792’s normal “summer shutdown,” which is when bourbon distilleries shut down for a short time period in the summer for repairs and routine maintenance, began last week. This will not affect bourbon production once the Distillery’s summer shutdown time period ends as already planned.   

It may be several days or weeks before a full assessment of the damage to Warehouse 30 at Barton 1792 is fully complete.  At this time we do not know which Barton 1792 brands or customers will be impacted.