The sprawling 400-acre grounds of the Buffalo Trace Distillery has the feel of a bustling college campus. A place of higher learning and storied tradition. And of course, any proud, longstanding university must have its own motto, a slogan that its alumni proudly pass onto those who follow in their stead. At Buffalo Trace, it’s: “Honor Tradition, Embrace Change.”

Reciting such a slogan is one thing, but actually living it out is another. At Buffalo Trace, they very much embody their motto though, and today two of their top must-visit destinations are what they’ve dubbed “Bourbon Pompeii,” the unearthed site of the original distillery, and Warehouse X, home to precision experiments across myriad maturation variables. Tradition and change.

I visit the distillery just before July 4th, and with flags waving and patriotism flowing freely, it felt like the perfect time to soak up the knowledge of good ol’ American made bourbon. You can keep your apple pie and baseball, bourbon is the lifeblood of this country.

My instructor for this in-depth educational tour is the inimitable Freddie Johnson. He’s a boundless source of knowledge and enthusiasm, greeting all passersby with “daddy-O” before delving into the little known story behind yet another nugget of wisdom. He’s the 3rd generation of his family to work at the distillery, and his grandson will soon become the 4th. If it’s happening at Buffalo Trace, then Freddie knows about it, and his personable storytelling will likely leave you feeling as if he divulged a hidden secret he’s never told anyone before, although he probably shared the same gem of an anecdote with a dozen other people that very same day.

For Johnson, one of the fundamental keys of the distillery and its unquenchable thirst for experimentation is not to discover the next big or best thing, but instead to understand all of the finer points of why a bourbon turns out the way it does. “If I make a bourbon and you liked it, it’s my responsibility to know what I did so I can keep on doing it,” he explains.

An oak tree is to bourbon as a grape vine is to wine

Buffalo Trace has some 14,000 experimental barrels stowed away in their warehouses. There are prized Japanese Mizunara oak casks. There’s peated malt. French oak. The list goes on and on. All told, they currently have approximately 400,000 barrels spread across 15 warehouses. Within the next eight years, they’ll have room for 1 million, with a new warehouse being constructed every six months.

One massive experiment which the distillery recently tackled was the Single Oak Project, which let consumers call the shots by determining their favorite from a selection of bourbons produced to highlight different variables: barrels made from the top or bottom of a tree; different barrel chars, grain sizes, and stave seasoning times; varying barrel entry proofs and warehouse styles and mashbills. All told 192 different bourbons were produced, and the winning bottle will now be added as a mainstay to the product line – you’ll just need to wait until 2025 to see it on store shelves.

“An oak tree is to bourbon as a grape vine is to wine,” Johnson says. In other words, every factor down to the most minuscule of details makes a difference. Its place, its soil, what grew near it, what grew on it, all encapsulating its unique composition and terroir.

Another essential variable to the outcome of a whiskey is an individual barrel’s location within a warehouse. “Barrels in the warehouse are like real estate: location, location, location,” Johnson says. Within a single warehouse, walking from one row to the next you’ll notice different smells, humidity levels, and temperatures, micro-climates working their magic in distinct ways. As you walk, Johnson may tap this barrel or that one, judging how filled it is, and how delightful its contents may be. “It’s like picking fruit,” he says.

Never short of one-liners, Johnson sums up the difference between the different floors of a warehouse thusly: “Top floors produce bottom shelf.” So when you trek down to the murky, cool bottom levels of one of their warehouses, that’s where you’ll find the gems of their product line, bourbon which will soon go into the bottle as Pappy Van Winkle 20, 23, or 25 year old. Johnson also confirms a popular theory many Buffalo Trace fans have. “Weller and Pappy are the same,” he says, “just aged in different locations for different times.”