ON THE WEB

by KYLE SWARTZ

The facility opened in 2024 on approximately 210 acres and includes two column stills and two 20,000-square-foot barrel warehouses. Sazerac plans to use the existing infrastructure to support production across its spirits portfolio. The company expects to hire additional employees as operations expand.

The Garrard County facility joins Sazerac’ s Kentucky operations, which include Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Barton 1792 Distillery in Bardstown and The Glenmore Distillery in Owensboro.

“ Kentucky has been an important part of Sazerac’ s story for many years, and we’ re proud to continue investing and growing here,” said Jake Wenz, President and CEO of Sazerac.“ Today, nearly 3,000 team members are part of Sazerac’ s Kentucky operations, and we’ re grateful for the opportunity to continue growing that team. Even with all the investments we have made to expand, we need more supply to keep up with demand, and the addition of the Lancaster facility gives us valuable distilling capabilities to support that growth. We’ re excited to become part of the Garrard County community.”

Sazerac has invested in its Kentucky production facilities in recent years. At Barton 1792 Distillery, the company spent around $ 50 million over the past five years in a new boiler house, additional fermenters, expanded bottling operations and three aging warehouses. The projects increased barrel storage capacity by 25 % and included upgrades to equipment and facilities.

In January 2025, Sazerac completed a 10-year, $ 1.2 billion expansion at Buffalo Trace Distillery. The project added a still house, boiler house, bottling operation, expanded visitor center, 20 fermenters and 19 aging warehouses.

Since 2020, Sazerac has invested about $ 40 million at The Glenmore Distillery to upgrade processing capabilities, barrel equipment, distillery controls and bottling lines. The company also continues to add barrel aging capacity in Kentucky, including new warehouse construction in Laurel and Taylor counties.

As the broader alcohol industry goes through a pullback, Sazerac remains in buying mode. Recent purchases include Dirty Shirley Ready-To-Drink Cocktail, an equity stake in SIPMARGS and ongoing efforts to acquire Brown-Forman.

DISCUS PARTNERS WITH WSET TO OFFER SAKE COURSES The Distilled Spirits Council( DISCUS) has partnered with the Wine & Spirit Education Trust to offer WSET Level 1 and Level 2 Award in Sake courses as an approved program provider. The courses expand DISCUS’ existing WSET professional education portfolio, which includes Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 qualifications in spirits.

“ The Distilled Spirits Council’ s partnership with WSET has helped advance spirits professionals and inspire cocktail enthusiasts through worldclass education and qualifications programs,” said DISCUS President and CEO Chris Swonger.“ We are expanding our WSET offerings to include sake, reflecting growing interest in this traditional Japanese beverage and our commitment to delivering high-quality education that supports professional development across the beverage alcohol industry.”

The courses target beverage alcohol professionals, aspiring industry professionals and sake enthusiasts. Students will study sake production, styles, tasting, quality assessment, storage and service. DISCUS will deliver the courses online, with each course concluding with a virtual examination.

The WSET Level 1 Award in Sake covers sake production, key sake styles, service principles and tasting using the WSET Level 1 Systematic Approach to Tasting Sake. The course targets students who are new to sake.

The WSET Level 2 Award in Sake provides additional instruction on ingredients, brewing methods, labeling terminology and production decisions that affect different sake styles. Participants also learn to assess and describe sake quality using the WSET Level 2 Systematic Approach to Tasting Sake. •