Short answer, yes, and Penelope has never pretended otherwise. The brand was born when a New Jersey dad-to-be decided to celebrate his daughter's arrival by building a bourbon, and from the very first bottle he sourced the whiskey rather than building a distillery. So the real questions are which distilleries fill the bottle, what two guys from Jersey actually do to that sourced stock, and what changed when MGP bought the whole company. Pour one and let me walk you through it.
Penelope has one of the better origin stories in modern whiskey, and it has nothing to do with a 200-year-old Kentucky family. In 2018, a New Jersey guy named Mike Paladini found out he and his wife Kerry were having a daughter they would name Penelope. He wanted to mark the moment with something lasting, so he and his childhood buddy Danny Polise set out to build a bourbon brand and named it after the baby. That is the whole thing. No fake heritage, no invented colonel, just two friends and a kid on the way.
What happened next is the part that matters. Penelope grew fast, like fastest-growing-brand-in-the-country fast, and in 2023 MGP bought the whole thing for a deal worth up to roughly 216 million dollars. The founders still run it. So Penelope went from sourcing whiskey from MGP to being owned by MGP, which makes the usual sourcing question kind of funny to ask, but we will ask it anyway.
Penelope is sourced whiskey, and it has been completely open about it from day one, which makes it one of the more honest non-distiller producers out there. The juice comes from MGP, now the Ross & Squibb distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, which the brand has used since the very first bottle. There is also confirmed stock from Bardstown Bourbon Company in Kentucky in the mix.
Here is the wrinkle that makes Penelope unusual. Since the 2023 acquisition, the brand is now sourcing from its own parent company. MGP owns Penelope and also distills it, which means the supply chain that used to be a contract arrangement is now in-house, and the founders get access to older and rarer MGP barrels they could never have touched as a small upstart. So is it still sourced? Technically yes. Practically, Penelope and its distillery are now the same family.
The chart below shows the two confirmed sources. Slices are even because exact proportions are not published and shift by release. Tap either one to read the full guide.
Source Split
These are the confirmed distilleries behind Penelope. Slices are shown evenly because exact blend proportions aren’t public, and the badge shows how confident the sourcing is. Since 2023 Penelope is also owned by MGP, its primary source. Tap a slice to read the full guide.
Plenty of brands buy MGP bourbon and bottle it as-is. Penelope’s whole trick is that it does not. The signature move, right from the flagship Four Grain, is blending three different MGP mashbills together to build a single bourbon, which gives it a rounder, more layered shape than any one of those recipes would have alone. That blending instinct is the brand’s actual fingerprint.
From there they push into wood. The Architect is finished with French oak, the Toasted Series rests bourbon in a second freshly toasted barrel, and the brand works with Speyside Cooperage to chase specific cask effects. None of that is passive bottling. It is recipe design and barrel work layered on top of good sourced stock, which is exactly the kind of value a thoughtful producer is supposed to add.
Penelope’s range has gotten big, but the on-ramp is simple.
Start with the Four Grain Straight Bourbon, the white-label flagship and the clearest expression of the three-mashbill blend, friendly and easy around forty dollars. When you want more intensity, step up to the Four Grain Barrel Strength, which takes the same recipe up to full proof and shows what the blend can really do. The Architect is the French-oak-influenced pick for people who like a sweeter, woodier profile, and the Toasted Series is the dessert-leaning crowd-pleaser. Most of the core sits between forty and seventy dollars, which is fair for what is in the bottle.
Now that MGP’s cellars are in play, the limited end of Penelope has gotten genuinely interesting. The brand has bottled very old MGP stock, including a 17-year light whiskey, the kind of age statement a 2018 startup could only dream about before the acquisition. The Toasted Rye has pulled down top medals, and the various Cooper Series and single-barrel store picks are where enthusiasts hunt. None of it is brutally allocated yet, but the older and more limited releases move quickly, so grab one when you see it.
I could rattle off tasting notes, but I will not, because the notes you read online are one person’s palate on one evening. That is close to useless for telling whether you, specifically, will love a bottle or let it gather dust.
You might ask, “Grady, how do you know that?” Welp, one, I have been doing this a long time, and two, we built OAKR exactly for this. Every bottle gets poured past a blind tasting panel and scored across more than a hundred flavor notes in ten big categories, no labels, no hype in the room. Then the app reads your palate, the flavors you actually chase, and hands you a Spirit Match score for any bottle, the whole Penelope range included. So before you grab a Four Grain or splurge on Barrel Strength, you find out whether that blended, rounded profile is yours. That is the difference between buying a bottle and buying the right one.
Is Penelope Bourbon sourced?
Yes. Penelope is distilled at MGP’s Ross & Squibb distillery in Indiana, with additional confirmed stock from Bardstown Bourbon Company. Since MGP acquired the brand in 2023, Penelope is now sourced from its own parent company.
Who makes Penelope Bourbon?
It was founded in 2018 by Mike Paladini and Danny Polise, who still run it. The whiskey is made at MGP/Ross & Squibb in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, which has owned the brand since 2023.
Where is Penelope distilled?
At MGP’s Ross & Squibb distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, with some Kentucky stock from Bardstown Bourbon Company. The company itself is based in New Jersey but does not distill.
Is Penelope worth the money?
The Four Grain is a solid, affordable everyday bourbon, and the Barrel Strength and older limited releases offer real depth. Penelope is generally fair value for thoughtfully blended sourced whiskey.
What is the best Penelope to start with?
The Four Grain Straight Bourbon for an easy, affordable intro, or the Four Grain Barrel Strength if you want the fuller-proof version of the same recipe. Run either through OAKR first to see how it matches your taste.
Penelope went from a baby announcement to one of the fastest-growing bourbons in the country by doing one thing well, blending sourced MGP whiskey into something with its own character. The only question left is whether that character fits your taste, and that is exactly what OAKR was built to answer. Match your palate against Penelope on OAKR before you spend a dime.
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Bourbon enthusiast, spirits industry analyst, and the voice behind OAKR's distillery guides, brand reviews, and bourbon education content. Visiting distilleries, dissecting mashbills, and translating the craft into data since 2024.
Penelope blends MGP recipes into its own profile. OAKR’s blind-panel flavor data shows you whether it actually fits your taste.
