The Hendersons Move From Angel’s Envy To True Story

By Richard Thomas

When Wes Henderson teamed up with his father Lincoln, a veteran of Brown-Forman whiskey-making and Hall of Famer, to found Angel’s Envy, the father-and-son team did more than establish another sourced whiskey brand. Their company was built around the concept of secondary maturation, more popularly known as finishing, which was still a novel concept in American Whiskey when the flagship ruby port-finished Angel’s Envy Bourbon was first introduced in 2011. In the early 2010s, it was not uncommon to see (ignorant) croakers on whiskey forums declare that if the bourbon was moved to a second barrel for another round of aging, it was no longer bourbon. More than any other brand in America, Angel’s Envy popularized the practice of cask finishing bourbon

Another thing Wes and Lincoln did was start a family company. Lincoln Henderson passed away in 2013 and Angel’s Envy was bought by Bacardi in 2015, but West remained at the helm and brought more and more family to work at the company through the decade. Wes Henderson finally left Angel’s Envy in 2022. The next year, he bought The Kentucky Castle, an upscale hotel located in the vicinity of the renowned Keeneland race track, along with some surrounding property, and announced the intention to build a $92 million distillery.

The move should not have surprised anyone. Henderson grew up in the business, and as he puts it “my comfort aroma isn’t apple pie, but fermenting mash.”

Upon that news in 2023, it was inevitable that Wes Henderson would launch of a new whiskey brand in 2024: True Story. Henderson already has the experience of taking Angel’s Envy from a sourced whiskey brand; to building and operating an urban distillery; and to transitioning from sourced whiskey to in-house production. Now that experience is being applied to an all-new venture, with the help of sons he trained in the business and former colleagues. At the introduction of the True Story team at their launch event earlier this week, there were so many Hendersons involved I was left wondering who was not there. His old CFO from Angel’s Envy has come over to True Story, and Henderson has brought in the doyen of bourbon-style Kentucky hospitality, Peggy Noe Stevens.

The experience puts True Story on a familiar launch pad: start with sourced whiskey, put an interesting and worthy finish on it, take that to market. Henderson has done exactly that with True Story Bourbon in particular. This is a five to six year old Kentucky bourbon (most definitely not MGP, but sourced through three undisclosed Kentucky distilleries), given a finish of six months in Portuguese white Moscatel casks. Like the Ruby Port chosen for Angel’s Envy, Moscatel is a dessert wine, and one that has not been chosen as the basis for any finished whiskey in regular production. My initial thoughts were that the choice gave the underlying bourbon a whisp of dry wood, but also a layer of syrupy fruit cocktail flavor. True Story Bourbon is bottled at 90 proof and should retail for $59.99.

Also in this initial release is True Story Rye. This is a blend of MGP’s familiar 95% rye with a 91% rye made at an undisclosed Northern Kentucky Distillery (the remainder of both mash bills is malted barley). After five to eight years of aging, the whiskey is given a finish of up to a year in Amburana, PX and Oloroso Sherry casks. The Amburana is the exotic choice: it is a South American wood used principally to age Brazilian cachaca, but which lately has become a trendy wood choice for American whiskeys, noted for imparting a strong cinnamon-forward character. In this instance, my initial impression was the rye took on a musty, rum cake with raisins character, one that leaned heavily on the baking spices and even had a trace of sandalwood to it. This bottle was done at 100 proof and had a $69.99 price tag.

The sketch for the overall plan is to build the distillery and bind up True Story not just as a whiskey company, but also as part of a visitor experience that would combine the Kentucky Castle with the whiskey, horse racing and other bourbon sites (Woodford Reserve and Castle & Key are both also located in Woodford County, only 15 miles away). It’s an ambitious plan, but one begun and pursued by a seasoned and talented team.