Four Roses Cox's Creek Warehouse Facility (April 2009)

Four Roses Cox's Creek Offices and Gift Shop. Master Distiller Jim Rutledge is on the right.

Four Rose distills at their Lawrenceburg facility and then trucks the fresh spirit here to Cox's Creek (about an hour away) where it is barreled and aged.
Four Roses Four Roses Rack Warehouse barrel boubon whiskey distillery
Four Roses has 20 single story barrel warehouses, each with a footprint of one acre.

These warehouses are unique in the bourbon industry. Traditional warehouses can be 7 stories high and the interior temperatures vary greatly from the bottom to the top floor.

Four Roses uses single story warehouses to help keep their product more consistent.
Four Roses Four Roses Rack Warehouse barrel boubon whiskey distillery
Whiskey is trucked in from the Four Roses distillery in Lawrenceburg KY. Here it is unloaded, mixed in the desired recipes, and barreled.
Four Roses Four Roses Rack Warehouse barrel boubon whiskey distillery
These huge tanks are filled with freshly distilled whiskey by arriving tanker trucks. They actually rest on scales so each load can be weighed.
Four Roses Four Roses Rack Warehouse barrel boubon whiskey distillery
Barrel filling station. The worker is spinning the barrel to bring the bung hole to the top.

The barrel is filled with whiskey and then sealed with a poplar bung. (I did get to seal one myself)

The full barrels weigh about 500lbs and are carried away on a conveyer to be loaded in a truck.
Four Roses Four Roses Rack Warehouse barrel boubon whiskey distillery
Full barrels waiting to be trucked over to a warehouse.
Four Roses Four Roses Rack Warehouse barrel boubon whiskey distillery
Another view of the bottling line.
Four Roses Four Roses Rack Warehouse barrel boubon whiskey distillery
Bottling and labeling is a very manual process. Some export whiskey is shipped in bulk and bottle there. Contract whiskey is also shipped out in bulk.
Four Roses Four Roses Rack Warehouse barrel boubon whiskey distillery
The Cox's Creek sensory lab. Gary Fields gave us the tour through the facility.
Four Roses Four Roses Rack Warehouse barrel boubon whiskey distillery
Filtering apparatus. The whiskey passes through this long stack of filter pads.
Four Roses Four Roses Rack Warehouse barrel boubon whiskey distillery
Inside one of Four Roses 20 warehouses.
Four Roses Four Roses Rack Warehouse barrel boubon whiskey distillery
Four Roses uses tractor-trailers to move barrels around the facility. This is a load of newly filled barrels being delivered to the warehouse.
Four Roses Four Roses Rack Warehouse barrel boubon whiskey distillery
Four Roses keeps a herd of cattle to maintain the grass. They also sell some of the calves.
Four Roses Four Roses Rack Warehouse barrel boubon whiskey distillery
The cattle typically use the woods for shelter against the weather, but sometimes a trailer can be pretty appealing.
Four Roses Four Roses Rack Warehouse barrel boubon whiskey distillery
Barrels either waiting to be filled or to be trucked over to a warehouse.
Four Roses Four Roses Rack Warehouse barrel boubon whiskey distillery
More of the bottling line.
Four Roses Four Roses Rack Warehouse barrel boubon whiskey distillery
A pond on the property.
Four Roses Four Roses Rack Warehouse barrel boubon whiskey distillery
Guess who's car this is?
Four Roses Four Roses Rack Warehouse barrel boubon whiskey distillery

Bourbon Street Photography

Four Roses Cox's Creek Warehouse Facility (April 2009)