Most coverage of Bardstown Bourbon Company leads with the building. The $25 million facility. The 100,000-square-foot campus. The glass-walled distillery designed for transparency. The only full-service restaurant on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. The architecture is genuinely impressive — the building looks more like a modern art museum than a whiskey production facility. But the building is not what makes the bourbon interesting. What makes the bourbon interesting is the Fusion Series — specifically, what the Fusion Series reveals about how Bardstown Bourbon Company actually works. Fusion Series #8, released in 2022, contained 56% three-year-old Bardstown Bourbon Co. distillate blended with 44% twelve-year-old sourced Kentucky bourbon. Two different mashbills from Bardstown's own production. One from the sourced stock. Every percentage, every mashbill, every age, and every state of origin printed directly on the label. This is not how bourbon is typically marketed. Most producers guard their sourcing, their blend ratios, and their mashbill details behind vague language like "small batch" or "carefully selected." Bardstown publishes it all. The Fusion Series was designed from the beginning as a transitional product — a way to release bourbon while the distillery's own production aged, transparently documenting the ratio of house-distilled to sourced whiskey in each successive release. As the Bardstown distillate got older, its percentage in the blend increased. After Fusion #9, the series retired and was replaced by the Origin Series — 100% estate-distilled bourbon. The transparency was the point.
Bardstown Bourbon Company sits on 400 acres of active farmland at 1500 Parkway Drive in Bardstown, Nelson County, Kentucky — the self-proclaimed Bourbon Capital of the World. The distillery was founded in 2014 by David Mandell and the late Peter Loftin, with the first Vendome column still installed in 2016. A second identical still was added in 2018 to meet client demand. In 2022, Pritzker Private Capital, a Chicago-based private investment group, acquired the company. That same year, Bardstown Bourbon purchased Green River Distilling Company in Owensboro, Kentucky, adding additional production capacity.
The numbers tell the growth story: 25,000 barrels annual production at launch. By 2025, the campus houses three column stills and 48 fermentation tanks across two distillery buildings. Including the Green River facility, total annual capacity is approximately 18 million proof gallons and 289,000 barrels — approaching the output of James B. Beam, the largest bourbon company in the world. Bardstown Bourbon Company is now the seventh-largest bourbon distillery in America and the largest custom distiller.
This is what separates Bardstown Bourbon Company from every other distillery on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Approximately 80% of the facility’s production is custom distilling for other brands. Jefferson’s, High West, Belle Meade, Hirsch, Blue Run, Calumet, James E. Pepper, Cyrus Noble, Five Trail, and dozens of other labels have bourbon made to their specifications at the Bardstown facility. The distillery produces nearly 50 unique mashbills for over 30 brands.
The custom distilling program offers what Bardstown calls “500 points of production control” — clients can specify mashbill ratios, grain sources, yeast strains, fermentation duration, distillation proof, barrel type, char level, entry proof, warehouse placement, and aging timeline. The client is involved in the creation, not just the purchasing. This is fundamentally different from traditional contract distilling, where a producer makes its standard bourbon and sells barrels to third parties. At Bardstown, each client’s bourbon is genuinely unique because it is distilled to a unique recipe.
The remaining 20% of production supports Bardstown’s own branded portfolio — the Fusion, Discovery, Collaborative, and Origin series.
Because Bardstown operates nearly 50 mashbills for its clients, the distillery runs more grain recipes than virtually any other operation in America. For its own brands, the primary bourbon mashbill is 60% corn, 36% rye, and 4% malted barley — a high-rye recipe that emphasizes spice and structure. The wheated bourbon (used in the Origin Bottled-in-Bond) swaps rye for wheat. The rye whiskey uses a rye-dominant recipe.
The distillery sources grain locally and maintains the flexibility to accommodate client specifications for non-GMO, organic, or specific heritage varieties. The yeast program similarly runs multiple strains — both proprietary house strains and client-specified strains for custom production.
The original distillery houses two 36-inch by 50-foot Vendome column stills. The second distillery building, opened in 2025, adds a third column still and 48 additional fermentation tanks. The glass-walled design is not just aesthetic — it allows visitors to observe the entire production process from grain to barrel. The transparency extends to the liquid: every Bardstown Bourbon Company release lists its mashbill percentages, age statements, and sourcing origins on the label.
The production team is led by people with deep Kentucky distilling pedigrees. Steve Nally, who spent decades at Maker’s Mark before joining Bardstown Bourbon Company, brought Maker’s production expertise to the new facility. Dan Callaway oversees product development and hospitality, driving the blending decisions behind the Discovery and Collaborative series.
The 400-acre campus includes multiple rickhouses. Bardstown offers a Bottle Your Own program and a single-barrel selection program for retailers. The Origin Series designated 100 single barrels for its 2023 launch, with retailers selecting barrels on-site. The collaborative distilling model means the warehouses hold bourbon from dozens of different mashbills aging simultaneously — a barrel inventory of remarkable diversity.
The Collaborative Series uses finishing barrels from partner producers around the world. Previous releases have finished bourbon in barrels from rum producers, wine makers, brandy houses, and other spirits companies. Each collaboration is a genuine partnership — the partner provides the casks, Bardstown provides the bourbon, and the two teams work together on the finishing protocol.
Mark Erwin is the CEO. Steve Nally brought decades of Maker’s Mark production experience. Dan Callaway drives product development and the blending philosophy behind the branded lineup. The operation is built on a team model rather than a single Master Distiller personality — consistent with the company’s platform approach, where the system and the infrastructure are the differentiators, not one individual’s palate.
Origin Series Kentucky Straight Bourbon — 60/36/4 (corn/rye/barley), 96 proof. 100% estate-distilled at Bardstown Bourbon Company. The product that replaced the Fusion Series. This is the bourbon that proves the distillery’s own production can stand without sourced blending stock. Typically $45. The first expression to carry only Bardstown Bourbon Company distillate.
Origin Series Bottled-in-Bond Wheated Bourbon — Wheated mashbill, 100 proof. Single distillery, single season, minimum four years. $50.
Origin Series Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey — Rye-dominant mashbill, 96 proof. $70.
Discovery Series — Cask strength blends of well-aged sourced bourbons and ryes. Each release uses different sourcing — Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, and occasionally Canadian whisky. Proof varies, typically 110-115. SRP $130-170. The Discovery Series is the blending showcase — each release documents the age, origin, and mashbill of every component in the blend. These are among the most critically acclaimed blended bourbons in America.
Collaborative Series — Finished bourbon expressions created in partnership with other producers. Previous collaborations have included Château de Laubade (Armagnac barrels), Phifer Pavitt (wine barrels), and various rum and brandy producers. Each release is unique and limited.
Fusion Series — Now retired after nine releases. Blended Bardstown’s own young distillate with older sourced bourbon, transparently documenting the ratio. The Fusion releases are collectible as a documented progression — each successive release contained a higher percentage of Bardstown’s own production as it aged. Available on secondary market.
Green River Bourbon — From the Green River Distilling Company in Owensboro, acquired by Bardstown Bourbon Co. in 2022. A separate brand with its own history, mashbill, and production.
Bourbon is not one flavor — and Bardstown Bourbon Company makes that point more aggressively than any other operation in Kentucky. The Origin Series is a high-rye, estate-distilled bourbon. The Discovery Series is a cask-strength blend of aged whiskeys from multiple states. The Collaborative Series is finished bourbon altered by exotic cask types. These are three completely different approaches to bourbon production, executed under the same roof, by the same team. Choosing among them is not about quality — it is about which approach to bourbon your palate responds to.
OAKR’s blind tasting panel evaluates Bardstown Bourbon Company’s expressions without knowing what is in the glass. The panel scores across 100+ flavor notes in 10 macro categories, which means the high-rye spice of the Origin, the aged complexity of the Discovery, and the finishing-barrel influence of the Collaborative are all captured in the same data framework. Explore Bardstown Bourbon Company on OAKR to find your Spirit Match score and see which corner of the portfolio — estate-distilled, blended, or finished — aligns with what your palate actually prefers.
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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.
Bardstown’s portfolio spans three completely different bourbon philosophies. OAKR’s AI palate profiling tells you which approach fits your taste — backed by blind tasting data, not label hype.
