Sazerac to move Tennessee whiskey production

Sazerac’s Tennessee whiskey business is preparing to relocate to the city of Murfreesboro, with plans for a new distillery, bottling plant, warehouses and visitor centre.

The distillery’s new location will overlook a five-acre lake

The company intends to build two barrel warehouses, which will each have space to hold approximately 20,000 barrels.

Set within the 55-acre site, the visitor centre will overlook the five-acre lake and is scheduled to be up and running by 2020.

For the time being, master distiller John Lunn and distiller Allisa Henley intend to continue distilling Tennessee whiskey in their three pot stills at the firm’s Newport location in Tennessee.

The stills and existing barrels will all be moved to the new site once it is completed, but the oldest liquid is currently only one year old. The firm said it will still be several years before the whiskey is bottled and released, and a name for the distillery is still to be decided upon.

Lunn and Henley have already burned their second batch of sugar maple in Lunn’s back garden to make the charcoal the whiskey must be filtered through by law in order to be called Tennessee whiskey.

Lunn said: “We’re looking forward to having a new home for our distillery in Murfreesboro and we’re excited about being so close to Middle Tennessee State University and partnering with their students in the fermentation programme.”

Sazerac acquired the Tennessee distillery in 2016 for an undisclosed sum.

The new distillery is expected to generate full-time jobs for between 20 and 25 people, and will offer tours and tastings through its visitor centre.

It expects to attract 50,000 visitors within five to 10 years and job opportunities will be announced in late 2019 or early 2020.