Home » Buffalo Trace Distillery awarded Level II Accredited Arboretum Status

Buffalo Trace Distillery awarded Level II Accredited Arboretum Status

Distillery launches online tool for public to explore distillery gardens and plant life

By The Bourbon Flight

Historic Buffalo Trace Distillery is owned by the Sazerac Co.

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Buffalo Trace Distillery, nestled on the banks of the Kentucky River, is best known for its vast bourbon portfolio, but anyone who has visited knows the magnetic allure of this Franklin County Distillery goes far beyond the bottles of whiskey it produces. Namely, the natural beauty of Buffalo Trace Distillery alone makes it worth the visit.

The distillery, which has accessioned close to 4,000 plants, has just been awarded Level II arboretum accreditation by the ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program and the Morton Arboretum. The ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program is the only global initiative to officially recognize arboreta at various levels of development, capacity, and professionalism. Buffalo Trace Distillery is also now recognized as an accredited arboretum in the Morton Register of Arboreta, a database of the world’s arboreta and gardens dedicated to woody plants.

Buffalo Trace has long offered complimentary, in-person tours focused on its bourbon and history and occasionally guided tours of its gardens, which have been a big hit. Now fans can learn even more about Buffalo Trace’s diverse collection of plant life, with a new online tool designed to provide more information about each of the plants represented on site. To use the tool, visit BuffaloTraceDistillery.com and navigate to the Arboretum & Botanical Gardens Tour under the Visit Us tab. Here users can research the Distillery’s plants by family, genus, or location on site and even explore the Distillery grounds by map.

The new feature offers a way to explore the more than 400 acres of lush gardens, carefully manicured lawns, and the resplendent variety of trees on the grounds. From the Albert B. Blanton Botanical Gardens surrounding his 1934-built residence on the Distillery’s campus, to the floral displays adorning the Visitor Center and the landscapes in between, all of the flourishing life at 113 Great Buffalo Trace is in areas accessible to visitors in-person, and now online too.

This new online database allows Buffalo Trace Distillery yet another way to share its gardens and support its Level II arboretum accreditation. This level of accreditation granted by ArbNet requires a public education program, at least 100 labelled woody taxa varieties, and a documented inventory of accessions. The Distillery has currently accessioned and mapped about 4,000 plants, of which there are 1,600 trees, 1,000 shrubs, and 1,400 herbaceous perennial plants.

To see the stunning displays of plants at Buffalo Trace Distillery in-person, self-guided and pre-registered, guided tours of the Distillery’s grounds are available.

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