The Whiskey Reviewer A World of Whiskey, Poured Every Weekday
Old Taylor in its heyday
(Credit: University of Kentucky)
Marking the progress Master Distiller Marianne Barnes and her team are making in their painstaking restoration of the historic Old Taylor Distillery, the site now has a brand to go with it: Castle & Key.
One of the issues confronting the resurrection of the Old Taylor Distillery was what to call it’s bourbon (Old Taylor will also produce gin), since the brand attached to the distillery’s namesake, Colonel E.H. Taylor, belongs of Sazerac and Buffalo Trace. Old Taylor is the name of the distillery, but not of what that distillery might produce in the future.
Production of Castle & Key’s bottled-in-bond bourbon is planned to begin this summer. As Barnes puts it, “The core of Colonel Taylor’s vision with bottled-in-bond was building a relationship of trust with his consumer, providing a literal guarantee of bourbon’s authenticity and, by extension, quality. Our goal is to embrace and enhance that vision, creating products and sharing the story from the plow to the bottling line.”
Castle & Key also plans to introduce a KY native botanical recipe gin this year, rye whiskey by 2018, and, then, traditional style bottled-in-bond bourbon to honor the Colonel’s legacy.
When the founding partners, Will Arvin and Wesley Murry, first saw the 1887 distillery, it had sat decaying for over 40 years, and some of the out-buildings had been harvested as architectural salvage. Despite the decades of neglect, Arvin and Murry recognized the potential of the site with much of the existing buildings and equipment in a salvageable condition. “Under the rubble and overgrowth, there were 100 year old buildings that were still structurally sound and architecturally astounding, and while a number of people seemed to have passed on this hidden treasure, we knew it could be revived to make great spirits,” notes Arvin.
Combining vision, passion and talent, the team is bringing the distillery back to life using existing, new and re-purposed equipment and materials. State of the art distillation equipment manufactured by Vendome Copper & Brass Works has recently been installed positioning Castle & Key to begin production this summer with an annual capacity of 12,000 barrels per year. In addition to distillation capabilities, the facility has two barrel storage buildings, one of which is the longest bourbon rick house in the world measuring almost two football fields in length.
