American Whiskey Report: May 2024

May is when brands and their PR reps skip right over Mother’s Day to start pitching Father’s Day whiskey stories. Fortunately, that’s not all that has happened in May. More than a dozen new whiskeys have been released into the world this month. The Whiskey House of Kentucky, one of the world’s most technologically advanced distilleries, is poised to come online and start contract distilling on July 1, the non-branded distillery completed its final hiring just last month. And Wild Turkey will soon reopen its visitor center to tourists after a long renovation.

BCS Mizunara

Product Releases

• Barrell Craft Spirits has released a new Mizanura cask finished Bourbon with a derived mash bill of 76% corn, 20% rye, and 4% malted barley from whiskeys distilled in Indiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky. It is 116.42 proof.

• Fortune’s Fool, launched by Former anesthesiologist Juliet Schmalz in 2019, has released The Overture, a Kentucky straight rye whiskey aged in Seguin Moreau Cooperage barrels. It has a mash bill of 62% rye, 30% corn and 8% malted barley and is bottled at 109 proof.

• Rare Hare Spirits, part of the Playboy Spirits collection, has released a sourced 20 year Tasmanian single malt whiskey finished in port casks called The Tempest.

• Texas-based Milam & Greene has released its first Bottled-in-Bond whiskey, a Kentucky-distilled Bourbon with a mash bill of 70% corn, 22% malted rye, and 8% malted barley. It was produced in 2019 and barreled in char 4 barrels.

• RD1 Spirits has released a tasting box of its wood-finished Bourbons, finished with Amburana, Maple, and French Oak, respectively. There are 200ml bottles of each of the three products, and tasting mats and a guided tasting video are available at the brand’s website.

• Liberty Pole Spirits has released Old Monongahela Full Proof Rye Whiskey, which has a mashbill of 74% total rye, composed of 61% Pennsylvania grown rye and 13% malted rye, and 13% wheat and 13% malted barley.

Amrut Tropical

• Bardstown Bourbon Company’s latest Collaboration release is an American whiskey blend of two straight rye whiskeys finished in Amrut Indian Single Malt barrels for 18 months then blended with two straight Bourbons.

• Tom’s Town Distillery in Kansas City has released Tom’s Town Bottled-in-Bond Rye with a mash bill of 64% rye, 32% corn, and 4% malted barley. This release is available across Kansas and Missouri and was previously only available at the distillery.

• Spirit Hound in Colorado has released Straight Malt Whisky, finished in Kentucky Breakfast Stout (KBS) made from 100% Colorado-grown barley.

• Heaven Hill has released its Spring 2024 Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond decanter featuring a 10-year Bourbon distilled in Spring of 2014.

Sagamore Spirit Small Batch 2024

• Sagamore Spirit has released a small batch rye whiskey made from the distillery’s triple-distilled high rye and low rye mash bills.

• Kentucky Peerless has released its second rum barrel finished Bourbon, a sweet mash Bourbon barreled at cask strength.

• J. Mattingly 1845 will release Mogadishu Mile Commemorative Bourbon. A portion of sales proceeds will go to Kentucky Wounded Heroes.

• Buffalo Trace has released Weller Millennium, a blend of straight wheated Bourbon and straight wheat whiskeys distilled in 2000, 2003, 2005, and 2006.

• New Riff Distillery has released ‘Ol New Riff Bourbon and ‘Ol New Riff Rye, the latter of which has a mash bill of 65% balboa rye, 30% Yellow Leaming and Blue Clara heirloom corn and 15% two-row malted barley, and the former of which has a mash bill of 60% Yellow Leaming and Blue Clarage heirloom corn, 26% balboa rye and 14% two-row malted barley.

People News 

Caitlin Bartlemay with McCarthy's lineup

• Hood River Distillers has named Caitlin Bartlemay Master Distiller of the Pacific Northwest’s oldest and largest distillery. Bartlemay started with the company in 2010 in logistics.

• Bardstown Bourbon Company has hired Peter Marino as President of BBCo, Green River, and all associated brands.

• We lost Jefferson’s Bourbon co-founder, Kentucky Bourbon Hall-of-Famer, and Bourbon historian Chet Zoeller this month. Zoeller wrote Bourbon In Kentucky, which was published in 2009. He then went on to found Jefferson’s with his son, Trey Zoeller. Read his obituary.

Other News

Wild Turkey’s visitor center is reopening after a long renovation. Campari, the group that owns Wild Turkey, is also building a second distillery on the campus that is expected to open in 2025.

• Beam-Suntory has rebranded as Suntory Global Spirits, dropping the Beam name ten years after its acquisition. The company has doubled in value in the last decade and has become the #1 global player in Bourbon and Japanese whiskeys.

• Frey Ranch Distillery has just signed a distribution agreement with Southern Glazer Distributors, which will allow distribution of the brand to expand into Indiana and Florida this year on top of existing markets of Nevada, Oregon, Ohio, Texas, and California. Read more about Frey Ranch Distillery.

• The Gazebo Festival in Louisville at the end of this month, featuring Louisville native Jack Harlow, is leveraging Bourbonism with support in the form of cocktails from Jim Beam.

• Wild Turkey’s visitor center is reopening after a long renovation. Campari, the group that owns Wild Turkey, is also building a second distillery on the campus that is expected to open in 2025.