The facility formerly known as the Old Taylor Distillery is open for business. Kind of.

The new ownership is offering contract aging in its enormous warehouses, one of which spans two football fields. I know at least one brand that is currently contract aging there and several others are negotiating space to store whiskey. This is good news for a facility that everybody wanted saved, but nobody wanted to pony up the millions to save it.

Old Taylor was last used in 1972. (For a deeper look into the Old Taylor history, read Chuck Cowdery’s recent post.) Peristyle LLC purchased the facility last year and said it will invest $8.5 million to rebuild.

A new name has been selected, but distiller Marianne Barnes says it’s going through “IP protection” and the company hopes to announce the new name in September. According to intellectually property website inventively.com, Peristyle has three trademarks–Castle Proof, The Bourbon of Proof and Taylorton Station.

Sazerac owns the Old Taylor trademarks. I imagine Sazerac will soon start pressuring the owners to stop using Old Taylor in its communications. As Sippin Corn reported earlier this year, the two have been in the middle of a trademark battle.

As for the property, the facility looks beautiful, the ornate grounds perfectly landscaped. The manicured exterior is a promise of things to come.

Inside the distillery, though, is a glimpse of much work to be done. They’re still planning to have a stills spitting out spirit in early 2016. The column, doubler and gin stills are currently under construction at Vendome. Barnes says they hope the interior is ready to receive the stills later this month.

The six 22,000-gallon and 15 11,000-gallon fermenters are in great shape, though, and the 1930s- to 1950s-era pipes, gears and link belts are all being refurbished.

The company is actively seeking contract whiskey storage arrangements, hoping to fill up their 31,000-barrel ricked warehouse and 65,000-barrel concrete warehouse, which will use pallets.

Here’s an inside look into what is easily the most-beautiful bourbon facility. (See my 2013 photo essay of Old Taylor. For all photos from the most-recent shoot, please see FredPhoto.net.)