FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The long history of bourbon production at Buffalo Trace Distillery has been connected to the Kentucky River — summed up as a blessing and curse by a plaque on the grounds.

In the 1800s, long before the Buffalo Trace name was attached to the distillery, the river served as a floating highway to bring in grain and other production essentials and to transport barrels of whiskey to markets along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Even today, river water cools down production equipment. But the river flowing past the distillery flashed its destructive side in April.

A massive flood, caused by days of unrelenting rain, sent the Kentucky River surging over its banks, inundating most of the 200-plus-acre distillery grounds on its main campus in Frankfort. Nearly every phase o

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