Sazerac Company, Inc.

Sazerac Company, Inc. is one of the largest privately held spirits producers in the United States, tracing its lineage to a New Orleans coffee house from 1850 and now spanning bourbon, rye, and specialty liqueurs from coast to coast.

History & Heritage

The Sazerac story begins in 1850 with the Sazerac Coffee House in New Orleans, a French Quarter establishment that served the cocktail now credited as America's first, the Sazerac. In 1869, Thomas H. Handy purchased the Coffee House and began building it into a spirits business, acquiring and marketing liquor brands under the Sazerac name. The company took its modern shape in 1948, when the Magnolia Liquor Company, owned by Malcolm Woldenberg and Stephen Goldring, purchased the Sazerac Company. The Goldring family's involvement deepened decades later: starting in 1984, William Goldring began buying up shares of the company until he owned it outright.

From there, Sazerac grew through a long string of acquisitions that reshaped American whiskey. In 1989 it picked up McAfee's Benchmark and Eagle Rare from Seagram, and in 1992 it acquired the George T. Stagg Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky, later renamed Buffalo Trace Distillery. W.L. Weller's wheated bourbon brands joined in 1999, followed by the A. Smith Bowman Distillery in 2003 and the Barton 1792 (Tom Moore) Distillery in 2009. In 2010, Goldring sold his stake in Republic National Distributing Co. to focus fully on Sazerac. The buying continued into the following decade: Southern Comfort and Tuaca from Brown-Forman and Paddy Irish Whiskey from Pernod Ricard in 2016, nineteen spirits brands from Diageo in 2018, and Early Times, Canadian Mist, and its Ontario distillery from Brown-Forman in 2020. More recently, Sazerac acquired BuzzBallz in 2024 and both SVEDKA Vodka (from Constellation Brands) and Western Son Vodka and Distillery in 2025. The company is owned by William Goldring and his family, and its headquarters remains at 101 Magazine Street in New Orleans, though its principal office has shifted to Louisville, Kentucky, reflecting the company's growing focus on bourbon production.

The Whiskey

Sazerac now operates 18 distilling and bottling facilities worldwide and controls production from mash to bottle across its portfolio. Buffalo Trace Distillery, its flagship Kentucky operation, crafts bourbon from a mash bill of corn, rye, and malted barley aged in new charred oak barrels, and is the source of Buffalo Trace Bourbon, Eagle Rare, Blanton's (widely credited as the world's first single barrel bourbon), E.H. Taylor, W.L. Weller, and the ultra-premium Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve. Sazerac Rye, a Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey, and Thomas H. Handy Sazerac Rye also trace back to Buffalo Trace lineage. The Barton 1792 Distillery contributes the 1792 Ridgemont Reserve line of bourbons, aging spirit across 700,000 barrels of capacity spread over 29 warehouses and still using copper pot stills for portions of its production. In New Orleans, the Sazerac House runs a micro-distillery that makes one barrel of rye a day, aged six years before release. Sazerac's non-whiskey holdings include Fireball Cinnamon Whisky, Southern Comfort, Legendre Herbsaint Liqueur (an anise-flavored absinthe substitute known simply as Herbsaint), and Peychaud's Bitters, the historic aromatic bitters invented for the original Sazerac cocktail. The company has committed more than $1.05 billion to expanding its U.S. facilities, including new rickhouses and added bottling capacity, and has partnered with Meridian Biotech on sustainable production methods, including a byproduct conversion facility.

Why It Matters

Sazerac's scale and the depth of its Buffalo Trace portfolio have made it one of the most decorated producers in American whiskey. Buffalo Trace Distillery was named Global Distiller of the Year and American Distiller of the Year by Whisky Magazine in 2022, the same year Blanton's Bourbon won World's Best Single Barrel Bourbon, George T. Stagg was named World Whiskey of the Year, and Thomas H. Handy Sazerac Rye was ranked the second finest whiskey in the world. Buffalo Trace has collected more than 40 distillery titles since 2000 and over 500 total awards for its whiskeys. Sazerac Company was named American Whiskey Producer of the Year at the International Spirits Challenge for a fifth consecutive time in 2024, and took seven top honors at the 2025 World Whiskies Awards and Icons of Whisky Awards, including Campaign Innovator of the Year for Weller Millennium and World's Best Single Barrel Bourbon for Blanton's Straight from the Barrel. At the 2024 Spirits Business American Whiskey Masters, the company earned 27 medals, including two Master medals for Thomas S. Moore Cabernet Sauvignon Finished Bourbon and 1792 Aged 12 Years. For The Sentinel Room, Sazerac's reach shows up quietly through Legendre Herbsaint Legendre Liqueur, a direct link to the anise-forward tradition that shaped the original Sazerac cocktail.

Visiting the Distillery

The Sazerac House in New Orleans offers complimentary one-hour tours with interactive exhibits and free tastings, though reservations are required. The building houses a museum, bar, tasting rooms, and the micro-distillery where Sazerac Rye is made. Paid experiences such as a Whiskey Grid Tasting, Tropical Cocktails tasting, The Sazerac Cocktail Tasting, and a small-group "Meet the Distiller" tour are available with advance booking. Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky, also offers public tours and has repeatedly been recognized as Visitor Attraction of the Year, including in 2024 and again in 2025 for its Buffalo Trace Distillery London location.