Stories
From the Distillery
Long-form writing from our master distiller and head bartender — single barrel picks, tested cocktail recipes, rickhouse architecture, and the patient art of Kentucky bourbon.
Buying GuideBourbon Gifts That Land: What to Give at $40, $100 and $250
A gift bottle has to clear two hurdles most guides ignore: the recipient probably already owns the obvious ones, and you have no idea what their palate is. Real budget tiers with real prices, the accessories that are a waste of money, and the shipping rules that ruin more bourbon gifts than bad taste does.
Eleanor Hayes
Master Distiller, Bourbon & Oak
FundamentalsBourbon Proof, Explained: From 80 to 136 and What Actually Changes
Proof is the most visible number on a bourbon label and the most misread. The four legal limits that govern it, why barrel entry proof matters more than bottling proof, how strength climbs in a rickhouse, the arithmetic for cutting a barrel proof bottle at home, and where higher proof stops being better.
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RecipesThe Best Bourbon for an Old Fashioned, Tested Behind the Bar
Most guides hand you ten bottles and back-label tasting notes. The variable that actually decides an Old Fashioned is what happens to proof after a 30 second stir. Here is the arithmetic, the 100 to 115 proof window, our house pour, and the expensive bottles you should never put in this drink.
Read MoreCollectingHow to Start a Bourbon Collection Without Wasting Money
Buy for profile before rarity, avoid the secondary market early, ignore the hype cycle, and build a shelf you actually drink from. A practical framework for the first year of collecting.
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TravelThe Kentucky Bourbon Trail: How to Actually Plan It
How many stops to book in a day, where to base yourself, how the passport works, what it costs, and the designated-driver problem nobody warns you about until you are standing in a rickhouse at 11am.
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CollectingThe Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, Explained
The most chased annual release in American whiskey. What each of the five bottles is, why the proof and age change from year to year, how allocation works, and which one to start with.
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Buying GuideDoes Older Bourbon Mean Better? What Age Statements Really Tell You
Bourbon ages faster than scotch, peaks earlier than people assume, and can be ruined by too long in the wood. What an age statement legally means, why no age statement is not a warning, and when paying for years is genuinely worth it.
Read MoreFundamentalsHow Bourbon Is Made, Step by Step
Grain to glass, explained properly: mashing, the sour mash trick, fermentation, double distillation, the charred barrel, and the years in a rickhouse where Kentucky weather does the actual work.
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CollectingHow to Store Bourbon (And Whether It Actually Goes Bad)
An unopened bottle of bourbon will not improve in the glass and does not age like wine - but it can absolutely be ruined. Cork failure, light, heat cycling and the half-empty bottle problem, explained.
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FundamentalsHow to Taste Bourbon Properly
Most people taste bourbon in a way that guarantees they miss most of it. Nosing technique, the right glass, how much water to add and when, and how to build a flight that does not exhaust your palate by the third pour.
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FundamentalsWheated vs High-Rye Bourbon: How the Mash Bill Changes the Glass
Every bourbon is at least 51 percent corn. What fills the rest decides almost everything you taste. Here is what wheat and rye each do, how to tell which you prefer, and which bottle to buy once you know.
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FundamentalsBourbon vs Whiskey: What Actually Makes a Bourbon
It does not have to come from Kentucky. It does not have to be aged a minimum number of years. Here is what the federal standard actually requires, what it forbids, and why those six rules produce the flavour you recognise.
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Buying GuideThe 10 Best Bourbon Bottles - And How to Actually Buy Them
Most best-bourbon lists rank bottles you have no realistic way of buying, then stop at the tasting notes. This one gives you the full spec on all ten, explains how allocation actually works, and tells you exactly what to pour instead when the bottle you want is gone.
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CraftsmanshipThe Art of Barrel Selection: A Master Distiller's Guide
Behind every great single barrel bottling is a quiet, slow walk through a Kentucky rickhouse — and a master distiller who knows exactly which barrel to tap. Here's how that decision actually gets made.
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RecipesSummer Cocktails: 5 Bourbon Recipes to Beat the Heat
Five bourbon cocktails we actually serve at the distillery in July — the classic Mint Julep, the Smash, a perfect Whiskey Sour, the modern Paper Plane, and a Bourbon Lemonade that ends every garden tour.
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Distillery NewsNew Rickhouse Opening: Expanding Our Aging Capacity
Rickhouse No. 7 is now standing on the south edge of the campus, adds 20,000 barrels of capacity, and is the first metal-clad warehouse we've ever built. Here's why that matters for what's in your glass.
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