American Spirits

Amber Waves of Grain…

Coming to America

During the 1700’s a great number of immigrants from Scotland and Ireland came to the United States seeking a better life for themselves and their families. Skilled in distilling whiskey in their homeland, these New World farmers quickly turned to distilling their excess crop when poor roads made it difficult to deliver grain to the East Coast markets. By the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1784, the first commercial distilleries had been established in what was then the western Virginia county of Kentucky.

Sazerac acquired the Tom Moore Distillery in 1944 and changed the name to Barton. Despite extensive modification and modernization, the distillery today still looks essentially the same as it did in 1944. In continuous operation for over 60 years, the Barton distillery stands as a tribute to a rich tradition of whiskey making in Nelson County, Kentucky.

Sazerac assumed the legacy of Tom Moore, a Kentuckian, whose product earned him a national reputation as one of the finest bourbon distillers in the country.