Bourbon roundup: 2 new bourbons to launch; Woodford to make big Kentucky rye investment

Gege Reed, Louisville Courier Journal
·4 min read

Kentucky's bourbon industry is constantly churning out new products and this month is no exception. This month, Rabbit Hole Distillery and Four Roses each have a new product on tap, and the latter is also going through its first brand refresh in almost two decades.

In an effort to keep modernizing the industry and its commitment to Kentucky, Woodford Reserve also recently announced a five-year commitment to buy rye from Kentucky farmers in hopes to uncover an open-sourced rye variety that will grow well in the state.

Here's what to know about three new happenings in Kentucky's bourbon industry:

Rabbit Hole releases limited-edition product in its Founder's Collection

Rabbit Hole Distillery is launching a limited-edition release in the Rabbit Hole Dareringer Founder’s Collection. The award-winning Dareringer Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in PX Sherry Casks has a more pronounced sherry profile.
Rabbit Hole Distillery is launching a limited-edition release in the Rabbit Hole Dareringer Founder’s Collection. The award-winning Dareringer Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in PX Sherry Casks has a more pronounced sherry profile.

Rabbit Hole Distillery is launching another limited-edition release in its popular Rabbit Hole Dareringer Founder’s Collection. This double-barrel bourbon is defined by historic casks made with 60-year-old American white oak.

“Rabbit Hole represents a commitment to pushing bourbon beyond its traditional boundaries and with our Founder’s Collection, we take our creativity a step further," founder Kaveh Zamanian said in a news release. "For this, our fourth Founder’s Collection release, my team and I set out to honor our core offering of Dareringer Straight Bourbon Whiskey. We selected rarefied casks for secondary aging and finishing and harnessed the profound sherry notes of the wood to illustrate how the right combination of cask and whiskey can have a transformative effect on flavor and texture."

Zamanian went on to say the team is "especially proud of this exceptional bourbon and look forward to sharing it with those who favor one-of-a-kind whiskeys."

The Dareringer Founder’s Collection embodies Zamanian's fascination with barrel aging to re-imagine Rabbit Hole’s award-winning Dareringer Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in PX Sherry Casks through a more pronounced sherry profile. It is comprised of 65% corn, 25% wheat and 10% malted barley, according to the release.

A total of 2,444 sequentially-numbered bottles will be released for sale at Rabbit Hole Distillery and for purchase at select retailers for a suggested retail price of $295.

Four Roses releases Ten Recipe Tasting Experience Kit, plus a brand refresh

Four Roses' Ten Recipe Tasting Experience Kit allows fans to taste each of the 10 proprietary recipes that makes Four Roses bourbon the mellow yet complex liquid consumers have come to know and love.
Four Roses' Ten Recipe Tasting Experience Kit allows fans to taste each of the 10 proprietary recipes that makes Four Roses bourbon the mellow yet complex liquid consumers have come to know and love.

Four Roses Distillery is celebrating 135 years and for the first time, is releasing a Ten Recipe Tasting Experience Kit that will allow bourbon lovers to taste each of the distillery's 10 proprietary recipes. The Kentucky-based bourbon brand also announced its first brand refresh in nearly two decades.

The tasting kit will include 50ml bottles of each of the 10 non-chill filtered recipes derived from both Mashbill B and Mashbill E, further broken out by each yeast strain. It will be available for purchase starting in mid-July at the Four Roses Visitor Centers in Lawrenceburg and Coxs Creek, and also at select retailers in Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, and California for a suggested retail price of $129.99.

Four Roses brand refresh features brightened labels with gilded borders on all bottlings to add a more contemporary look to the brand’s design, and a new typeface, Publico, "adds a timeless elegance," according to the distillery.
Four Roses brand refresh features brightened labels with gilded borders on all bottlings to add a more contemporary look to the brand’s design, and a new typeface, Publico, "adds a timeless elegance," according to the distillery.

In honor of its anniversary, Four Roses is also modernizing its look while remaining true to its roots with "a familiar feel," according to the release. Fans can still expect to see the four rose clusters while new elements will be introduced, such as an engraved rose cluster on the corks of each bottle. Brightened labels with gilded borders on all bottlings also add a more contemporary look to the brand’s design, along with a new typeface.

Woodford Reserve announces five-year commitment to buy rye from Kentucky farmers

In an ongoing effort to bring the production of rye grain back to Kentucky, Woodford Reserve has announced a five-year commitment to purchasing the grain from local farmers while working with the University of Kentucky to conduct research.
In an ongoing effort to bring the production of rye grain back to Kentucky, Woodford Reserve has announced a five-year commitment to purchasing the grain from local farmers while working with the University of Kentucky to conduct research.

Woodford Reserve has announced a five-year commitment to purchase grain from local farmers while working with the University of Kentucky to conduct research. The legacy distillery will run small distillation trials on 10 varieties of rye to determine their flavor nuances that impact bourbon.

Rye is notoriously difficult to grow in Kentucky because of its generally warm, humid climate as such, it is mainly sourced by distillers from the cooler climates of Canada or Europe. To overcome these challenges, more than $1 million will be invested collectively by partners in the development of an open-sourced Kentucky variety over the course of the program, according to a news release announcing the initiative.

"If we can bring rye back to Kentucky, it would not only support farmers but give a sustainable grain to whiskey producers across the state,” Master Distiller Elizabeth McCall said in the news release. “Sustainability is a topic I care passionately about and, working with partners, we can make a big impact."

Woodford Reserve will purchase the rye grown by four farmers in the trial for the next five years. The grain will be used in production and distillery trials to run sensory tests on the final distillate.

Woodford Reserve Rye is now being offered.
Woodford Reserve Rye is now being offered.

“We need to find a rye variety that is well suited to our region of the country,” Sam Halcomb, president of the Kentucky Small Grain Grower’s Association and Managing Partner of Walnut Grove Farms, the family farm behind the initiative, said in the release. “Woodford Reserve has been very receptive to those ideas, and they’ve been very patient to work with us as a family farm and allow us to experiment with some things and support us in those experimentations.”

Reach Features news clerk Gege Reed at greed@courier-journal.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: New bourbon: Rabbit Hole Dareringer Founders Collection, Four Roses