Preservation Distillery in Bardstown: Pot Stills, Tobacco Barns and Which Visit to Book
Updated November 2026 · BourbonTown Tours
Preservation is a family-owned farm distillery in Bardstown, about 50 minutes south of Louisville, that describes itself as 100% pot-distilled and makes bourbon one to three barrels at a time. Book the standard tour and tasting, which runs about an hour, and set it beside Heaven Hill's scale or Willett's small production tour in the same day.
A Preservation Distillery tour puts you on a working farm in Bardstown, about 50 minutes south of Louisville, where, by its own account, a family-owned distillery makes pot-distilled bourbon in batches of one to three barrels. The property is a 40-acre historic tobacco farm, and the distillery works out of old tobacco barns put back into use.
A visit takes one of three forms: a tour with a tasting, a tasting on its own, or a private VIP experience. The standard tour and tasting runs about an hour and the private VIP experience about an hour and a half. For a Bardstown day with two other stops, book the standard tour and tasting and allow 90 minutes on the property. Choose the private experience when Preservation is the stop your group is traveling for.
Preservation is the small-batch end of the Bardstown cluster, and it earns its place in a day by contrast with the stops around it. Our directory of the Kentucky distilleries we visit shows where it sits among the rest.
Quick facts
- Cluster: Bardstown and beyond, with Preservation in Bardstown itself.
- Drive time: Bardstown is about 50 minutes south of Louisville and about 75 minutes from Lexington.
- Visits: the standard tour and tasting, about an hour; the private VIP experience, about an hour and a half; tasting-only visits as well.
- Time to allow: 90 minutes for the standard visit.
- Best for: groups who want a small, family-owned farm distillery next to a larger Bardstown stop.
- Tickets: included, booked once your tour is confirmed.
Which visit to book, and why
Book the standard tour and tasting unless Preservation is the reason for your trip. It runs about an hour. Custom tours typically run three stops, and we can add or subtract on your planning call, so an hour here leaves room for two more stops and lunch.
The distillery sorts its visits into three kinds: a tour paired with tastings, a tasting-only experience, and a private VIP experience. We book whichever one you pick against your dates.
The private VIP experience runs about an hour and a half. It suits a group that wants a private visit with more time at Preservation than the standard tour and tasting gives.
The tasting-only visit is the option for a group that has already walked through a distillery earlier in the day and wants the glass more than the production story.
Preston was wonderful. He shared some interesting facts and information along the way, as well as some great recommendations for the rest of our stay in Louisville. He planned the perfect itinerary for our day in bourbon country!
My group had a great experience with BourbonTown Tours from start to finish! From speaking and emailing with Ron to get our transportation and itinerary ironed out, to spending the day with our driver, Reid.
Our coordination leading up to our tour was great, communication was great. Our driver Tommy was professional, knowledgeable, and punctual. Would absolutely recommend them and use them in the future.
What the visit is like
Preservation is a farm before it is a visitor stop. By its own description, the distillery sits on 40 acres of historic tobacco ground in Bardstown, and the work goes on in repurposed tobacco barns. It is family-owned, and the distillery says it operates without investors.
A small herd of longhorn cattle is raised on part of the land. The farm has on-site limestone water, and the distillery proofs at least one of its bottlings with it. Bardstown's tourism listing places the farm on a thick limestone bed above a reservoir. The distillery also cites local ingredients.
Tastings happen at a reclaimed-barnwood bar and gift shop, and a patio looks out across the fields. The barrels age on the property: the distillery says several thousand of them are resting in its barrel house.
The distillery says the land was once the Ritchie farm on the Beech Fork River, where the pioneer distiller Wattie Boone made whiskey in 1776.
Closed-toe shoes are required on our tours.
How Preservation makes its bourbon
By its own account, Preservation makes bourbon slowly and in very small lots, from stills to barrels to what the barrels lose. Three facts set it apart from its Bardstown neighbors: every drop of its own spirit comes off pot stills, batches run one to three barrels, and the distillery commits to at least six to seven years in wood. The sections below take each one in turn.
Pot stills and batches of one to three barrels
The distillery describes itself as 100% pot-distilled, and it works in micro batches of one to three barrels. It says it coined the term "micro batch" with its Dakota Micro Batch in the late 1980s. A batch that small means the proof moves from one release to the next, which is why the bottle table below gives ranges where a single number would mislead.
Six to seven years in the barrel, at the least
The distillery commits to "a minimum of 6 to 7 years of slow maturation". Its first estate bourbon, distilled on the farm, was released after more than seven years. That bourbon is wheated, made from corn, toasted wheat and dark toast malted barley, entered into the barrel at a low proof and bottled unfiltered at cask strength. It was the distillery's first product distilled entirely in-house, released in December 2024, and it is an ongoing release rather than a one-off.
Some of what is on the shelf was distilled elsewhere. The distillery says its range mixes its own pot distillate with a small number of barrels it acquired over many years.
The angel's share, measured in one barrel
The distillery gives a real figure for what a barrel gives up to evaporation. One barrel held about 150 bottles' worth when it was set aside three years earlier; by the time it became Very Olde St. Nick Straight Outta Bardstown in 2026, it held closer to 100. The difference is the angel's share, the spirit lost through the wood while the barrel ages.
Bottles
Every row below is marked N for allocated. Proofs are as the distillery or published reviews give them, and several change from batch to batch.
| Name | Type | Proof | Allocated (Y/N) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preservation Estate Wheated Pot Distilled Kentucky Bourbon | Wheated Kentucky bourbon, pot-distilled on the farm, unfiltered, cask strength | Varies by batch; reviewed batches 114.6 (2025) and 115.8 (2026) | N |
| Very Olde St. Nick | Rare bourbons and whiskeys in 1-to-3-barrel batches, with changing labels | Varies by release; 127.4, 113.4 and 110.8 for three 2026 festival releases | N |
| Rare Perfection (2026 release) | Kentucky bourbon whiskey | 129.8 | N |
| Cock of the Walk | Wheated Kentucky bourbon, 6 to 8 years, unfiltered | 112.1 | N |
| Pure Antique | 20 year old bourbon whiskey, cask strength | 114 to 122 | N |
| Old Man Winter | Bourbon, a 6 to 9 year marriage of lots, cask strength | 109.8 | N |
| Wattie Boone (6 Year) | Pot-distilled bourbon whiskey, 6 years, low barrel entry proof | 101.8 | N |
| Wattie Boone Vintage Barrel Selection | American whiskey from a bourbon mash bill, distilled in Tennessee and aged 10+ years in Kentucky, single barrel | About 112 to 125 | N |
Three of the 2026 festival releases of Very Olde St. Nick were Straight Outta Bardstown at 12 years, Superfreak "Freakazoid" at 11+ years, and Pirate Booty Rye. Cock of the Walk comes from the distillery's Vintage Barrel Collection, and the distillery calls Pure Antique "the most limited of our offerings", with few bottles available each year.
The gift shop carries small releases that are hard to find elsewhere, when they are in stock.
What pairs with Preservation in one day
Pair Preservation with Heaven Hill for a contrast in scale, or with Willett for a second small production tour. Preservation and each of its Bardstown neighbors are a short drive apart. Leaving the cluster adds road time, since Bardstown to Frankfort is about 50 minutes and Bardstown to Lawrenceburg about 45. Private bourbon tours from Bardstown covers the whole cluster.
The Bardstown and beyond stops, one by one
- Heaven Hill. Home of the You Do Bourbon experience and a connoisseur tasting. From Heaven Hill it is about 5 minutes to Bardstown Bourbon Company and about 8 to Willett. Read the Heaven Hill distillery guide.
- Willett. The production tour is small enough to be a real tour. Read the Willett distillery guide.
- Bardstown Bourbon Company. Home of Rickhouse Barrel Thieving, a one-hour tasting in a working rickhouse, Wednesday through Sunday, where guests taste three whiskeys drawn straight from individual barrels; it is not a tour.
- Lux Row. Also in Bardstown; see the Lux Row distillery tour page.
- Maker's Mark. In Loretto, about 30 minutes south of Bardstown. Allow two hours there, because of checkout lines and bottle dipping, and the bottle a guest dips is one they buy. Read the Maker's Mark distillery guide.
- James B. Beam. In Clermont, part of the same Bardstown and beyond cluster. Read the Jim Beam distillery guide.
Our pairing call
Treat Preservation as the counterweight in a Bardstown day. After Heaven Hill's scale, a farm that fills one to three barrels at a time shows the other end of how bourbon gets made, and a group sees both in one day. Next to Willett's small production tour, it builds a day around small-batch distilling from start to finish.
Lunch on a Preservation day
We book and confirm your lunch reservation, and the meal goes on your tab. When the route leaves no room for a sit-down meal, a box lunch can be built into the quoted price on request. Our view is simple: "You can eat anywhere every day. You cannot visit a distillery every day." Lunch fits around the distilleries, and how to plan a Kentucky bourbon trip covers it in full.
When to go
Preservation is open daily except holidays; hours vary, so check before you go. Sunday hours are shorter and vary by distillery. Holiday dates are subject to distillery availability.
For the trip as a whole, October, April and May are the peak months. Bourbon Festival week in mid-September needs 6+ months. We can sometimes build a day on a week's notice, but distillery tours may already be full. With Buffalo Trace on the same trip, reach out 10 or more weeks ahead. The best times for a Kentucky bourbon tour goes through the year season by season.
How BourbonTown Tours handles Preservation
Once a tour is confirmed, we book its distillery tickets for the actual dates and put every reservation in the itinerary, and Preservation goes in the same way. Tell us which of the three visits you want, and it sits in the itinerary with the other stops.
The tour price covers everything except lunch and driver gratuity: distillery tickets, tasting fees, trip planning by a Bourbon Experience Coordinator, the private vehicle with a professional guide who drives the tour, and a confirmed lunch reservation. The inclusions page sets out all five: See What's Included. A custom private tour runs $275 to $425 per person depending on group size, plus 6% KY sales tax and a 3% booking fee. Standard distillery experiences are included; premium and VIP add-ons are quoted on your planning call.
Every tour is private to one booked group, and groups are never combined. We collect you at your hotel or door in Louisville, Bardstown or Lexington, and custom private bourbon tours explains how the rest of the day is put together.
Bourbon basics
Preservation's pot stills, long maturation and mix of bourbon and American whiskey make it a good stop for learning the terms, and these guides explain them.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a Preservation Distillery tour take?
The standard tour and tasting at Preservation runs about an hour, and the private VIP experience runs about an hour and a half. Allow 90 minutes on the property for the standard visit. A tasting-only visit is also possible. Custom tours typically run three stops, and we can add or subtract on your planning call, so an hour-long visit leaves time for two more stops and lunch.
Is Preservation Distillery's bourbon pot-distilled?
Yes, by the distillery's own account. It describes itself as 100% pot-distilled and makes bourbon in batches of one to three barrels. It commits to a minimum of six to seven years of maturation, and its first estate bourbon, a wheated recipe, was released after more than seven years. Some bottlings also draw on barrels the distillery acquired over many years.
What bottles does Preservation Distillery release?
The range covers the estate wheated pot-distilled bourbon, Very Olde St. Nick, Rare Perfection, Cock of the Walk, Pure Antique, Old Man Winter and two Wattie Boone bottlings. Several are limited releases. Small releases turn up in the gift shop when they are in stock, so treat a particular bottle as a possibility on the day, never a plan.
How far is Preservation Distillery from Louisville?
Preservation is in Bardstown, which is about 50 minutes south of Louisville and about 75 minutes from Lexington. Those times run to Bardstown rather than to the distillery gate. We collect you at your hotel or door in Louisville, Bardstown or Lexington, and Preservation's Bardstown neighbors are a short drive apart once you arrive.
How does the VIP experience at Preservation fit the tour price?
Standard distillery experiences are included; premium and VIP add-ons are quoted on your planning call. The private VIP experience at Preservation runs about an hour and a half. The tour price itself covers everything except lunch and driver gratuity, including the standard distillery tickets and tasting fees. Tell us you want the VIP experience and it goes into the itinerary with the rest of your day.
When is Preservation Distillery open?
Preservation is open daily except holidays; hours vary, so check before you go. Sunday hours are shorter and vary by distillery. Holiday dates are subject to distillery availability. Once your tour is confirmed, we book the visit against your actual dates and confirm it in the itinerary, so the timing is settled before you set out.
Plan your Preservation day
Send us your dates, your group size and the Bardstown distilleries on your list, and we will build the day with Preservation in it. A deposit reserves your date. Your quote includes the full details.