Distilled: A Peek Inside a Kentucky Icon

Plus: Barrel-aged cigars and bourbon apple butter

DAVID DIBENEDETTO

Here’s something you don’t hear often: My mother-in-law’s bourbon bar is top-shelf. (Patty decorates her Christmas tree with Blade & Bow keys, after all.) It’s not the only reason I enjoy visiting, but it sure doesn’t hurt. Over Thanksgiving, the offerings ranged from Eagle Rare to Pappy to Blanton’s to Colonel E.H. Taylor and everything in between. “’Tis the bourbon season,” we said as we clinked our glasses. If you’re looking to add another element to your bourbon bar (or have a cigar fan on your gift list), check out our piece on bourbon-barrel-aged cigars. For a homemade treat, a little bourbon amps up this recipe for apple butter. And here’s another reason to cheers: Today marks ninety-two years since the repeal of Prohibition. Happy sipping.

President and chief whiskey officer Britt Kulsveen on why the lauded Kentucky distillery does things its own way.

Five worthy brands that bring bourbon’s signature notes to your smoke.

Veteran bartender and restaurateur Jerry Slater has earned critical accolades throughout his career, which includes time at the Seelbach hotel in Louisville, One Flew South, and his former bar H. Harper Station in Atlanta. Slater and his wife, Krista, now run four businesses in Athens, Georgia––the Expat, Slater’s Steakhouse, the Lark Winespace, and the cocktail bar Nighthawks Lounge.

What’s the most popular bourbon you’re pouring?
Old Forester is in our old-fashioned, and we sell a lot of those.

What’s the bourbon you’re drinking after-hours?
Russell’s Reserve or Old Grand-Dad 114.

What’s your dream bottle?
I do love me some Pappy 20. There was a bottle being passed around at my wedding.

Your most popular bourbon cocktail?
Bufala Negra (a drink Slater created in 2007).

And your favorite bourbon cocktail?
Old-fashioned.

Is there a new brand or bourbon you’re excited about?
Hidden Barn and the relaunch of Heaven Hill’s Bottled-in-Bond 7-year.

Other than your own bar, where’s the best spot to drink bourbon?
Delilah’s in Chicago.

Neat? One cube? Crushed?
Three medium cubes.

Whiskey and time make this fall spread divine.

Happy Repeal Day! On this date in 1933, the Twenty-First Amendment officially ended Prohibition, and bourbon lovers have been celebrating ever since.

Vermont-based WhistlePig Whiskey marks the occasion with the opening of WhistlePig Vault, its new tasting room and bar set inside a historic bank building on Louisville’s Whiskey Row.

Buzzard’s Roost keeps the party going with a barrel roll and parade outside its Whiskey Row tasting room and the release of an eight-year-old 2025 Repeal Day single-barrel bourbon.

Bourbon fans know Michter’s Distillery releases its twenty-year-old Kentucky Straight Bourbon only occasionally, and only when it’s deemed to be exceptional. That time is now, as allocations are shipping to liquor stores, bars, and restaurants across the country.

The first thousand bottles of Garrison Brothers’ 2025 Cowboy Bourbon—blended from ultra-concentrated barrels and this year clocking in at 146.4 proof—will go on sale December 6 at the distillery in Hye, Texas, followed by a wider release.

Have a whiskey history buff on your gift list? From the origins of the alembic still to Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve, bourbon educator and author Robin Robinson explores The History of Whiskey through a hundred representative bottles, objects, and more.

Premium tastings, culinary pairings, and the “World’s Largest Bourbon Auction” headline the Kentucky Bourbon Country Auction and Celebration, a new event set for February 13–15 in Louisville. Tickets for individual events and all-access passes are on sale now, with proceeds benefitting the Bob Woodruff Foundation.

—Tom Wilmes, G&G contributor

A few weeks ago we sat down in Louisville with comedian Jim Gaffigan, the cofounder of Fathertime Bourbon, for a conversation about Gaffigan’s entry into the business, his family, working bourbon into a new comedy set, and more. A video of the full interview is now up on our YouTube channel. Watch it here.