Augusta Distillery lately welcomed greater than two times the collection of guests—about 200—it will in most cases host on a Saturday afternoon. Many had reservations for the hour-long “pardon our mud” excursion, which starts with a sampling of bourbons pulled immediately from barrels adopted by means of a guided glance across the 45,000-square-foot facility, lately present process in depth renovations. Maximum visitors decide so as to add on a pour of Buckner’s 13-year-old single-barrel bourbon. Ever for the reason that esteemed San Francisco International Spirits Pageant named it the most productive general bourbon in June, the distillery, positioned in Augusta, Kentucky, a hill-locked hamlet of one,200 citizens kind of fifty miles upriver from Cincinnati, is as regards to the one position to style what judges deemed the arena’s best possible bourbon.
“It used to be by no means a broadly allotted product initially, however one of the vital large retail outlets would have it on their cabinets,” says Augusta Distillery president and cofounder Ryan Edwards. “Now not anymore.”
Referred to as the “Oscars” of spirits awards, the San Francisco International Spirits Pageant is the biggest and longest-running pageant of its type. In a double-blind tasting procedure, a panel of sixty-five judges awarded Buckner’s 13-year its best possible ranking of double gold. The bourbon then received the most productive single-barrel bourbon, 11-years-and-older class, ahead of being named best possible general bourbon, topping a aggressive box of 503 entrants.
“We had been all high-fiving and hugging; there have been some tears,” Edwards says. “It used to be a great second simply to appreciate the contest we had been up in opposition to and be known as somebody who can put in combination a bourbon with a super palate and that individuals love to drink.”
The Augusta Distillery group on the San Francisco International Spirits Pageant.
Along with the International Spirits pageant, this 12 months the American Distilling Institute named a 15-year-old model of Buckner’s single-barrel (Innovative Conflict veteran Captain Phillip Buckner based Augusta in 1786 as a buying and selling submit alongside the Ohio River) the Perfect Craft Bourbon and Perfect Craft Whiskey in america.
Now not strangely, the high-profile recognitions have sparked an entire new degree of pastime within the start-up distillery and its merchandise, however Edwards says it hasn’t altered its marketing strategy. Based in 2018 by means of 5 companions—4 of whom are husband-and-wife—Augusta Distillery opened its customer’s heart final 12 months in a circa-1883 construction as soon as used to upholster horse-drawn carriages. Arrangements are underway to put in dual column stills and comparable apparatus with the capability to provide kind of 14,000 barrels a 12 months. Distillation is anticipated to be up and working by means of February, as regards to the time development is finished at the distillery’s first rickhouse.
So, how did a start-up distillery in a small river the city produce a head-turning bourbon that stood out a few of the large boys? The solution starts with sourcing, a tradition more and more embraced by means of new manufacturers and bourbon drinkers alike. From there, it boils all the way down to having a nostril—and palate—for just right bourbon.
To supply the primary batch of Buckner’s 13-year, as an example, Edwards decided on ninety-two barrels from a list he’s gathered over a number of years and persevered to age. The manufacturing run yielded about 10,000 bottles. “Even supposing each unmarried barrel is, by means of definition, a unicorn, there are large tasting profiles that we’re in search of,” he says. Buckner’s will have to be “proper down the golf green of what I believe all bourbon will have to aspire to be.” Constituted of a conventional mash invoice of roughly 70 p.c corn, 20 p.c rye, and 10 p.c malted barley, the bourbon drips with vintage caramel and vanilla flavors complemented by means of peppery spice and a slightly of warmth, with notes of mellow oak and stone fruit.
Buckner’s 13-year single-barrel bourbon.
Augusta Distillery lately launched the primary in its Outdated Path 8 sequence, an 8-year unmarried barrel, and plans to unlock Buckner’s 10-year unmarried barrel, the 3rd and ultimate installment to hold the Buckner’s identify, in November. The plan is for the entire distillery’s merchandise, whether or not to start with sourced from any other distillery or sooner or later made and elderly at its facility, to be Kentucky-made, single-barrel bourbons elderly for no less than 8 years and bottled unfiltered at cask power.
“We’ll all the time be a purchaser,” says cofounder and board chairman Lance Bates, who, with partner Lalani Bates, additionally renovated and opened the within sight Beehive Augusta Tavern. “As a result of even if we commence making our stuff…it’s going to take 8 years ahead of we will be able to promote it.”
Pulling bourbon for the bottle-your-own River Evidence Collection on the distillery.
Discovering the ones barrels, alternatively, has turn into more and more tough because the call for for elderly bourbon continues to skyrocket and extra new avid gamers input the marketplace. “When one thing hits, you’ve were given to find out about it and be keen to shop for it extraordinarily briefly if it suits your taste profile and age,” Edwards says. “Any manner we will be able to in finding it’s what we’re doing. Barrel agents, speaking to our distillery companions without delay—you pay attention a rumor, and also you chase it down.”
The contest for barrels has grown so fierce that, nowadays, Edwards regularly buys them sight unseen. “Actually, they’ll promote inside hours, so it’s whoever says ‘sure’ first,” he says. “Alternatively, if you’ve purchased an excellent quantity of barrels and you already know what the mash invoice is, the way it used to be produced, and the place it used to be saved, you might have a undeniable degree of self assurance that you’ll paintings with nearly all of what you purchase.”
Which raises the query: If you happen to’ve been a success at sourcing and bottling high quality bourbon, why make investments $30 million plus to construct a manufacturing distillery and growing old warehouses? “To every their very own, however for me, to be actually original, it’s were given to be grain to glass,” says Edwards, who along with his spouse lately renovated a circa-1801 former bar and brothel into the twelve-room Augusta Visitor Space.
For Bates, an Augusta local with two-hundred-year-old circle of relatives roots within the house, it’s additionally about offering jobs and attracting guests to a picturesque riverside the city that, till now, used to be in all probability best possible referred to as where the place George Clooney went to highschool. “Our core challenge is to create jobs and an financial ecosystem that is helping the neighborhood,” he says. “We additionally imagine we will be able to make nice bourbon.”
