Buffalo Trace Distillery Brings Bourbon to Brits with Bold London Experience

Fancy a whiskey? If you’re in London and after a taste of the tipple – whether it ends in ‘ey’ or just ‘y’ – you don’t have to go searching too hard. The city is filled with fantastic bars and spaces paying homage to the amber-coloured liquid. If, however, you want an immersive experience detailing the history and range of products from a single distillery, then you wouldn’t get far. Until now at least. Last week saw the opening of Buffalo Trace Distillery London bringing the distillery’s 200-year-old history and Kentucky origins to the heart of Covent Garden, in a first for the brand outside of the USA. A confident bet on the power of a branded experience, it’s easy to see how it will create lifelong fans of the Kentucky drink.

“In the heart of Bourbon Country, USA, Buffalo Trace Distillery has been dedicated to the craft of making the finest American Whiskey for over 200 years. Our deep commitment to the timeless craft of ageing and distilling, alongside a keen focus on experimentation and innovation, has enabled Buffalo Trace Distillery to become the World’s Most Award-winning Distillery, earning the loyalty of fans around the globe,” says Andrew Duncan, global brand director at Buffalo Trace Distillery.

Here in the UK, bourbon flies slightly under the radar (for now, at least) folded as it gets into the broader category of ‘whiskey’. In the US, however, it’s a mainstay. Bourbon is a protected category in the US, and it was recognised as such by Congress in 1964. So it follows that all bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon. To be labelled ‘bourbon’, the drink must be made with at least 51% corn and be stored in new containers made of charred oak. 

"Opening Buffalo Trace Distillery London is a momentous occasion for our distillery and we are thrilled to bring our experience to the United Kingdom. At Buffalo Trace Distillery London, we’ll offer a space for spirits novices and lovers to learn more about a whiskey type they are perhaps less familiar with – bourbon. Our aim is to inspire visitors to broaden their palates, and perhaps their cocktails, and we’re hopeful after learning about bourbon and tasting it, they will add it to their drink list,” says Jake Wenz, CEO and president at Buffalo Trace Distillery.

The space is a hybrid of lavish flagship store and experiential marketing opportunity. It’s an invitation for enthusiasts and neophytes alike to taste a range of Buffalo Trace Distillery’s products across two different tasting experiences and to learn about the history of bourbon, with an option to then stock up on bottles and merch to take home too. A lot of the offerings will be exclusive to the store, and rarer whiskeys will become available at surprise times during the initial opening months. 

The third oldest distillery in the world, and one that has only seen six master distillers at its helm, there’s a lot of history and legacy for any guest stepping foot through the store’s doors to discover. A choice of two immersive experiences is on offer. The first is ‘Taste of the Trace’, a guided tasting of three key products in the distiller’s line up: Buffalo Trace Bourbon, Sazerac Rye, Bourbon Cream and the option of a Buffalo and Ginger Ale cocktail sample. The second, ‘Tradition and Change: Crafting the Most Awarded American Whiskey’, is a deeper dive across the brand’s premium product offerings like White Dog Mash #1, Buffalo Trace Bourbon, Eagle Rare 10-Year-Old, E.H. Taylor Small Batch, plus a small pour of a Buffalo Trace Old Fashioned.

The 2,000-square-foot space, located at 32-33 Long Acre, is a sleek reflection of the care and craft that goes into each bottle produced by Buffalo Trace Distillery, and it has been completely renovated to speak to tradition and the future simultaneously. Dark wood and rich shades of orange and green are completed by copper accents which elicit the spirit of the distillery’s Kentucky base while translating it into the language of a modern, chic bar. 

To further celebrate the opening, Londoners were invited to become “perfectly untamed,” following research commissioned by Buffalo Trace Distillery which found that a quarter of Brits rarely do anything spontaneous. This extended to something as simple as picking up a call from an unknown number, with 40% of respondents confirming that they won’t. A further 26% said they preferred to communicate via social media instead of over the phone. 

There was an unexpected finding: one in five said that answering an unplanned call had led to something surprisingly good. Riffing on this, Buffalo Trace Distillery posed a challenge – in an experience designed by Golin, a global public relations agency – over the bank holiday weekend: pick up a ringing phone inside a classic British phone box. The reward to those who dared answer the call was a once-in-a-lifetime private tasting at the space before the official opening on May 6th.

Discovery, learning, and a good time converge at the Buffalo Trace Distillery London. Andrew Duncan, global brand director, says: “Our London location brings the same genuine and authentic experience fans love about our flagship home in Kentucky to a new generation of spirits enthusiasts, allowing them to discover all that Buffalo Trace Distillery’s award-winning brands have to offer.”