A Century of American Whiskey

LDI 1988 Barrel Proof 23 Year Old Rye

The history of MGP distillery has its roots in the mid-19th century, however it is best known for its association to Seagram, who purchased it at the close of Prohibition in 1933. Located in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, the distillery provided whiskey and grain neutral spirits for many of the Canadian distilling giants products for the rest of the 20th century. When an ill-advised move into the entertainment industry saw Seagram collapse in the early 2000s, much of their assets, including the Lawrenceburg distillery were bought up by Pernod-Ricard. They announced in 2006 that they intended to close it, however ended up selling it instead to a holding company in Trinidad called CL Financial. They renamed it LDI (Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana). It was not long however before the new owners would go bust as well, and the distillery was again sold, this time to MGP Ingredients, who renamed it in the process. The company produced and markets some of its own brands, but its main line of business is a huge contract-distilling operation. Among these are a number of well-regarded grain recipes, and several bourbons. Among its biggest customers are Diageo, and former owners, Pernod-Ricard, alongside an extensive list of independent boutique brands. In 2021 it was announced that MGP had acquired Luxco, which would provide it with a new national distribution for its Indiana-produced brands, but also facilitated it with the Lux Row distillery, which opened in 2018.

This 1988 vintage whiskey was distilled by Seagram using a mashbill of 95% rye. It was bottled in 2011 to commemorate the LDI era, which ran from July 2007 until December 2011. Unusually labelled with \"thanks for being part of the success,\" this was gifted to the staff prior to the takeover by MGP.

Legends of the Wild West 15 Year Old Historic Bourbon 96 Proof

This is a \"historic bourbon,\" aged 15 years and titled Legends of the Wild West and featuring 19th century frontiersman and US army officer Kit Carson on the label. This is almost certainly a Kentucky Bourbon Distillers bottling, although the font style used for the Kit Carson is indicative of the company now known as Preservation Distillers.

Preservation is owned by the Allied Lomar in California, who's other products include Very Olde St Nick, Rare Perfection, Wattie Boone and the Vintage Bourbon and Rye bottles. They have been sourcing bourbon and bottling it for several decades, and they are instantly recognisable from their uniform use of the same cursive script-style typeface. Marci Palatella was Julian Van Winkle III's agent in the Japanese market for many years, and their early bottlings were contracted to him at his Old Commonwealth distillery.

The Van Winkle partnership with in the early 2000's ended this agreement however, with the production of bottles such as this moved to Willett distillery, where they were bottled by its owners, Evan Kulsveen's Kentucky Bourbon Distillers. The stills at Willett were silent at this point and KBD were sourcing most of their whiskey from Heaven Hill.

Preservation Distillers have opened their very own distillery in Bardstown Kentucky in 2018, which will produce around 3-4 barrels of pot distilled bourbon per day.

Noah's Mill 15 Year Old Small Batch Kentucky Bourbon 

Launched in the mid-1990s as this 15 year old, nowadays Noah's Mill is a dumping of 4 to 20 year old whiskies, produced in small batches by Kentucky Bourbon Distillers.

Kentucky Bourbon Distillers are the owners of the Willett distillery in Bardstown. Willett distillery was built in 1936, just a few years after the repeal of National Prohibition by Lambert Willett, a former distiller for Max Selliger & Co. The distillery was initially a success, principally through its Old Bardstown and Johnny Drum brands, however it was hit hard by the bourbon slump of the 1970s. The result was an ill-advised move into producing ethanol for the production of \"gasohol,\" spurred by the 1979 energy crises. When that market re-stabilised, Willett was left floundering and eventually closed in the early 1980s. Lambert's granddaughter, Martha Willett and her husband, Even Kulsveen, then purchased the distillery and established Kentucky Bourbon Distillers in 1984. They originally bottled the remaining barrels of 1970s-distilled stock, however as that gradually diminished, they began sourcing barrels from other producers in order to replenish it, becoming one of the most important independent bottlers in Kentucky. The majority of their barrels were believed to have come from neighbouring Heaven Hill, and with these casks they developed a wealth of important brands, including the Willett Family Estate, Noah's Mill and Rowan's Creek. In addition, they contract-bottled brands for other companies, such as the Very Olde St Nick and Black Maple Hill brands. Revered for the quality of their whiskey, their products have become some of the most collectible to come out of Kentucky. One January 21st, 2012, the company re-opened Willett distillery, and have been slowly replenishing its warehouses with its own whiskey ever since.

As of 2020, the Noah's Mill brand has been bottled using whiskey distilled at Willett

Lionstone 8 Year Old Gold Panner Decanter 1969

Lionstone Distilleries was a company that sourced whiskey to bottle in commemorative decanter in the 1960s and 1970s. One of its directors was Even Kulsveen, who would marry Martha Willett in 1972 and is now the owner of the Willett distillery. Later examples of these decanters list the bottler as being located in Bardstown, Kentucky, which likely refers to Willett, however these earlier versions from Lawrenceburg could be from a number of disfferent distilleries.

Larceny Barrel Proof Batch #B521

This bourbon brand is named after John E. Fitzgerald, who first gave his name to the classic Old Fitzgerland label, devised by S.C. Hebst in 1870. John E. Fitzgerald Larceny was introduced by Heaven Hill in 2012 as a more affordable wheated bourbon to its premium Old Fitzgerald line.

Larceny Barrel Proof was introduced in 2019 and is a thrice-annual release from Heaven Hill's Bernheim distillery.

Bernheim is a historic Kentucky distillery. It was established by the Bernheim Brothers in the late 19th century, before passing into the hands of the Schenley company following the repeal of Prohibition. When Schenley were bought over by United Distillers in 1987, the distillery was rebuilt as the new owners looked to consolidate their production to a single facility. When United Distillers became Diageo in 1997, the new parent company were interested in bourbon, and sold the distillery to Heaven Hill. Heaven Hill were established in 1935, but their long-serving Bardstown distillery was lost in a devastating fire in 1996. Homeless for three years, the company acquired Bernheim in 1999, and have produced all of their whiskey there ever since.

New Riff 2015 Single Barrel Bourbon #5984

A single barrel of Kentucky bourbon from the New Riff distillery.

New Riff distillery was established in Kentucky in 2014 by Ken Lewis, recognising thr trend in the bourbon community for greater transparency about the products being produced. The distillery sticks resolutely to the Bottled in Bond Act of 1897, ageing their casks for a minimum of four years, and bottling at 100 proof only from a single distilling season. The operation distils using both rye and bourbon mashbills, and has developed a strong following for its high quality and straight-forward output.

This whiskey was distilled in the summer of 2016 and aged in single barrel #16-10787 untill bottling in August 2020 for Market Basket and Daily Spirits.

New Riff 2016 Single Barrel Bourbon #3298 / Potomac Wine & Spirits

A single barrel of Kentucky bourbon from the New Riff distillery.

New Riff distillery was established in Kentucky in 2014 by Ken Lewis, recognising thr trend in the bourbon community for greater transparency about the products being produced. The distillery sticks resolutely to the Bottled in Bond Act of 1897, ageing their casks for a minimum of four years, and bottling at 100 proof only from a single distilling season. The operation distils using both rye and bourbon mashbills, and has developed a strong following for its high quality and straight-forward output.

This whiskey was distilled on the 28th of November 2016 and aged in single barrel #16-3298 untill being bottled at cask strength on the 4th of February 2021 for Potomac Wines & Spirits..

New Riff 2015 Single Barrel Bourbon #5984

A single barrel of Kentucky bourbon from the New Riff distillery.

New Riff distillery was established in Kentucky in 2014 by Ken Lewis, recognising the trend in the bourbon community for greater transparency about the products being produced. The distillery sticks resolutely to the Bottled in Bond Act of 1897, ageing their casks for a minimum of four years, and bottling at 100 proof only from a single distilling season. The operation distils using both rye and bourbon mashbills, and has developed a strong following for its high quality and straight-forward output.

This whiskey was distilled in the summer of 2016 and aged in single barrel #16-3467 untill bottling in March 2021.

Barton 1792 Bottled in Bond Single Barrel / Daily Spirits

The Barton 1792 distillery is one of Kentucky's oldest, having also been called simply Barton, and Thomas Moore over the years. The site was badly damaged in 2018 when both halves of one of its main warehouses collapsed in the same month, ensuring a likely shortage to come.

The 1792 bourbon label was introduced in 2002 by Barton Brands, back then known as the \"1792 Ridgewood Reserve\" and carrying an 8 year old age-statement. After just two years on the shelves the company was forced to change the name to Ridgemont Reserve following a successful legal challenge from Brown-Forman, who claimed that the similarity of the name and bottle design to Woodford Reserve was misleading. The name remained unchanged for ten years until Sazerac, who had bought the Barton distillery and its portfolio in 2009, who shortened it to simply 1792, after they year in which the state of Kentucky was founded. The 8 year old age-statement had been dropped the previous year, but the rebranding included the first line extensions, such as Sweet Wheat, Port Finish, High Rye and Full Proof.

This is a bottled in bond bourbon, filled at the requisite 100 US proof.

It is from the Sazerac company's Single Barrel Select range, a series of private single barrel versions of their standard core range.