Thousands of whiskey barrels fall in Barton warehouse

Sazerac-owned Barton 1792 Distillery is assessing the damage of around 9,000 barrels after one of its maturation warehouses collapsed.

Thousands of barrels plummeted to the ground at the Barton 1792 Distillery

The incident occurred at 11am (EDT) on Friday 22 June at the Kentucky-based distillery, when one side of the barrel warehouse caved in.

Warehouse 30 was built in the 1940s and is estimated to hold approximately 18,000 barrels.

“We believe no more than half the barrels inside are impacted; we are assessing how many of the impacted barrels can be recovered,” the company said.

A “mix of various distilled products at various ages” was stored inside warehouse.

The distillery said it could be “several days or weeks before a full assessment of the damage” is completed, adding that it does “not know which Barton 1792 brands or customers will be impacted”.

The team took “proactive measures” to reduce the damage immediately and took a “number of actions to minimise any environmental risk”.

No one was inside the distillery at the time of the collapse and there were no injuries.

The incident has not affected “normal operations or tourism activities”, the distillery said. It is expected to “resume normal operations” today (25 June).

Barton 1792 began its summer shutdown for repairs and maintenance last week.

The incident “will not affect Bourbon production once the distillery’s summer shutdown time period ends as already planned.”