Costco does not hide the distillery on this one. Kirkland Signature Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey is made by Barton Master Distillers at the Barton 1792 Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky. The Barton name is on the bottle. Barton has been running in Bardstown since 1879. Sazerac bought it in 2009. Sazerac also owns Buffalo Trace and W.L. Weller. That ownership link is real. It is not a claim that the Kirkland bottle is Weller in a plain suit.
The usual lineup is three 1-liter expressions, all from Barton. Small batch is 92 proof. Bottled-in-bond is 100 proof. Single barrel is 120 proof. Reported warehouse prices have sat in the same band since the bottles showed up in 2021: about $19 for small batch, about $25 for bottled-in-bond, and about $30 for single barrel. Those are reported shelf prices from shoppers and product write-ups, not a Costco nationwide guarantee. If your warehouse is out, the item is often seasonal rather than gone for good.
What you are buying is a liter of known-maker bourbon at a markup Costco can live with. You are not buying a barrel pick with a story, and you are not buying the same liquid as 1792 Small Batch just because the still house matches. Same distillery, different brand, different lot. People who like the bottled-in-bond and the single barrel tend to like them as weekday bottles, not as allocated trophies.
Ohio is the catch, and it is the same catch as the Whiskey Tour of America box. Ohio is a control state. Distilled spirits move through the Ohio Division of Liquor Control and OHLQ agency stores. Ohio Costco warehouses generally sell beer and wine, not a liquor aisle full of Kirkland bourbon. A reader in Chillicothe who wants this bottle needs a state that lets Costco sell spirits, or a legal retail path that actually lists it. Mailing a case home is not the workaround.
Bottom line: if you can buy it near those prices, the single barrel is the one bourbon people tell each other to grab, and the small batch is the easy everyday liter. In Ohio, the page is a reference for a trip, not a shopping list for the local warehouse.
Must be 21. Drink responsibly.
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