In 1773, three McAfee Brothers named James, George and Robert left Virginia westward to explore the uncharted territory that would later become known as Kentucky. Traveling by canoe at first, the McAfee Company eventually followed a native trail overland that led to the great buffalo crossing, where the brothers surveyed the land now home to the world’s most award-winning distillery ? Buffalo Trace Distillery. The surveyor marks left behind are known as benchmarks and this bourbon whiskey honors the pioneering spirits of these early American explorers.