A curious thing occurs when crossing the grounds of Buffalo Trace Distillery in the company of tour guide Freddie Johnson. As he points out various features, other tour groups point at him.
After more than two decades on the job, Johnson is widely recognized and beloved for personable, mellow-voiced tour narration deeply informed by his family’s generations-spanning association with the Frankfort, Kentucky, distillery. His grandfather began working there in 1912, when it was known as George T. Stagg Distillery, and his father when it was Ancient Age Distillery. “I ran all around the distillery when I was five years old, and the assumption was because my grandfather and father were there, that I would work there, too,” Johnson says. “But when I got out of school during the bourbon bust, there was no job. I’d studied engineering and was recruited by AT&T. I was one of those guys who checks towers in the middle of nowhere when something goes wrong.”
Ultimately, a promise made to his dying dad to continue the family’s association with the distillery brought Johnson into the fold in 2002. It was a move that resulted in him rising to the role of VIP guide, having Buffalo Trace’s line of Freddie’s sodas named after him, and in 2018 becoming the first Black person inducted into the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame.
His tenure at Buffalo Trace aligns neatly with the distillery’s impressive ascent in the bourbon industry. “Back when I started, a busy day here was maybe fifty visitors, and we’d wonder how we were going to handle it,” he recalls. “Now we see 2,000 to 2,500 people on a regular day.” As for why many of those visitors seem drawn to him? “I’ve got a knack for taking technical jargon and explaining it in a way that people can understand,” he says. “Mostly though, it’s because I listen. I don’t just roll on. We take moments and look beyond the obvious. I tell people that if they’re curious about something, they can ask our people doing the work, and they’re amazed by that. Above all, I figure out ways to make my tour inclusive of everyone.”
Johnson’s talent for talking bourbon is now going international, as he recently added the role of global ambassador to his duties. Asked if that means he’ll be spending much of his time abroad, he’s quick to respond: “I came to Buffalo Trace because of my relationship with my dad and granddad, so I want to strike a balance between travel and home. I don’t ever want to lose that connection to being here.”
Indeed, if Johnson lingers too long in the gift shop, he’s beset by so many requests to autograph bottles that he has to politely excuse himself before the throng becomes unmanageable. Fortunately, when a fellow bourbon fan and I had the chance to let Johnson give us a different sort of tour—a guided tasting of the highly coveted, six-bottle 2025 Buffalo Trace Antique Collection—we tucked into a more secluded bar space. To overlap Johnson’s charisma with the twenty-fifth annual release of a portfolio so renowned that devotees simply shorthand it BTAC was a peak bourbon moment, underscored by the subtle synergy that several bottles are named for other bourbon luminaries who also figure prominently in the distillery’s history. Read more about each bottle, including notes from Johnson, below. Which of these pours is his favorite? Flashing a grin, he replies, “It depends on who is buying!”
Sazerac 18-Year-Old Straight Rye (90 proof)
One of BTAC’s two ryes and the only bottle in the set ringing in under 100 proof, the “Saz” delivers the spice, seasoned oak, and leather you’d anticipate of a well-aged rye, without pushing that profile with too much ethanol. “When you think about rye’s relationship to bourbon, sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming,” Johnson says. “But in this case, I think the right balance was found in its overall character.”
E.H. Taylor Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon (100 proof)
Among 2025’s most rabidly anticipated releases was this first new introduction to the BTAC lineup since 2006. Though the bottle doesn’t declare an age statement, Buffalo Trace has disclosed that it’s fifteen years old, near the oldest for any E.H. Taylor expression. Its feat is a pleasing balance of bourbon profile hallmarks—baking spices, sweetness, oak, and a caramel-forward finish. “The first thing you notice is that there’s spice, but it sits very light on your lips,” Johnson adds. “That lingers to the finish, but it’s not coating the inside of your mouth. And I can pick up a bit of the oak, but it’s not overwhelming. It’s more like a little bit of dry syrup.”
Eagle Rare 17-Year-Old Bourbon (101 proof)
This bottle has become such a recognized BTAC mainstay that Buffalo Trace maintained the label’s usual “17 Years Old” statement even though 2025’s iteration is actually eighteen years old. Its nose may impart leather and pepper, but the palate brings sweet caramel and cherry notes with nuanced oak sneaking up at the finish. Johnson credits this to barrels having spent time in several rickhouses (including experimental Warehouse P) that help the final product retain the mash bill’s profile through long aging, like “marinating a piece of meat in the fridge.”
William Larue Weller Bourbon (129 proof)
This is where BTAC skips a few rungs up the proof ladder even as it enters the domain of a wheated bourbon mash bill known for softer, smoother character. “This is uncut and unfiltered from the barrel, so when you take a deep sniff, you do get a little whoof from the alcohol,” Johnson notes. “But with a little bit of water added, I get right to some of those softer fruit and candy notes even as it warms up in my mouth.”
Thomas H. Handy Sazerac Rye (129.8 proof)
Also uncut and unfiltered, this sibling to BTAC’s other rye scrambles the variables by being a third of its age (the youngest of the collection) but nearly forty proof points higher. So, yes, it imparts a one-two kick of heat and spice, but, as Johnson notes, not at the expense of full rye flavor and a mouthfeel that mellows on the finish.
George T. Stagg Bourbon (142.8 proof)
Known for barn-burning proof points, with the 2025 expression being the highest since 2016, George T. Stagg’s uncut, unfiltered intensity isn’t made for bourbon newbies. For those who don’t just abide but appreciate a bit of “Kentucky hug” burn, though, this distinctive pour delivers equally bold notes of tobacco, vanilla, and seasoned oak. “As the viscosity changes with a little bit of water, I also get dark chocolate and marinated cherries,” Johnson says. “It all gradually builds. By the time it hits the back of my palate, my mouth is just watering.”
Steve Russell is a Garden & Gun contributing editor who also has written for Men’s Journal, Life, Rolling Stone, and Playboy. Born in Mississippi and raised in Tennessee, he resided in New Orleans and New York City before settling down in Charlottesville, Virginia, because it’s far enough south that biscuits are an expected component of a good breakfast.
