Each year, the Kentucky Bourbon Festival (KBF) takes over Bardstown, Ky., for a fun and thirst-quenching weekend in September. Bourbon flows like the mighty Mississippi, and some whiskey warriors have even proclaimed it as their “Whiskey Disney World.” It is indeed magical, so if it’s not on your Bourbon Bucket List, it should be.
CaskX is a proud sponsor of the event each year, and as a friend of the festival, we were invited to participate in one of many barrel picks the festival committee does at distilleries all throughout Kentucky. The single-barrel bottles are then sold at the festival. (We were also invited last year to pick a barrel at Angel’s Envy.)
This pick happened to be just down the street from me, at the innovative Old Louisville Whiskey Co. Owned and operated by Amine Kar and his wife Beth, Old Louisville opened its doors in 2022 and released its first bourbon right around that same time.
The company doesn’t make its own bourbon; it sources decent barrels from nearby distilleries and continues to age those barrels and sometimes experiments with barrel finishes.
Since being launched, Old Louisville Whiskey Co. has garnered much attention and praise, and if you’re in Louisville, you can even schedule a fun barrel tasting experience at the warehouse.
KBF Picks a Good One
Amine was there to greet us as we arrived at the OLW warehouse located in an industrial neighborhood in Louisville. We learned the company will soon be relocating closer to the city center in a building that once housed a distillery and rick houses in the 1950s and ’60s.
The barrel picking team included about 10 people — from KBF staff to spirits writers to guys from other distilleries. It was a random mix indeed, but that’s the way they like it, according to Stacy Pritchard, Vice President of the Kentucky Bourbon Festival.
We started out with four freshly thieved samples from four different barrels, and we were not told any details about the whiskey so that we weren’t swayed one way or the other.
Our only goal was to taste through the four and come up with our top two. And from there, we would collectively vote on our favorite as a group.
Amine also had a few more samples he shared with us that morning, and it basically felt like we had the keys to the whiskey castle for two hours. It was a blast tasting barrel-strength bourbon and seeing just how different each barrel can be, even if it was made at the same time at the same distillery.
We ultimately chose an 11-year-old bourbon (75% corn, 21% rye, 4% malted barley) made at MGP in Indiana. Well, it was 10 years old and 9 months when we tasted it, but it should turn 11 right before it’s bottled for the KBF.
It was delicious, with notes of toffee, tobacco and cinnamon sugar. The oak influence is definitely there, but it’s not overpowering. It will be bottled as is, so single barrel and barrel strength, as God intended!
Grab a Bottle in September
If you’re fortunate enough to have gotten a ticket for this year’s KBF (Sept. 5-7), you’ll be able to purchase a bottle of the Old Louisville Whiskey Co. pick. And that’s the beauty of the festival — it allows you to meet the makers behind your favorite Kentucky bourbons and also take home memories in the form of bottles.
All the picks the KBF crew did this year will be for sale, so plan on bringing a big bag to store all your bourbon bounty. (They also have lockers available onsite.)
On behalf of CaskX, I would like to thank the KBF staff for inviting us on this bourbon excursion and letting us peek behind the curtains of a barrel pick in Kentucky. And a big thanks to Old Louisville Whiskey Co. for hosting us. Don’t sleep on this brand.
