Whiskey Without Distilling

Update 4/21/25: Gregg Snyder, former Chicken Cock master distiller, has left that post to join veteran-owned, Bardstown-based Four Branches Bourbon in an advisory role.

When the modern whiskey era and the dawn of craft distilling arrived in the early 2000s, most fledgling craft players “sourced” whiskeys— buying aged distillate from other, larger suppliers— while waiting for their juice to mature. Utah-based High West famously sourced aged rye whiskeys from MGP, using those as the cornerstone of some great whiskeys while its distillery was being built. Others, like Woodinville Whiskey in Washington, chose never to source whiskey, waiting years for its own distillate to mature. Still others, like Smooth Ambler of West Virginia, chose a middle path, blending sourced whiskey with its own make.

Then another business model came upon the American whiskey scene—the producer that’s solely a blender and bottler, with no plans to build a distillery. Their focus is on the art of blending and barrel finishing. Like a chef going to market to buy provisions, they shop for specific parcels of aged whiskey and barrels for finishing, and then whip up their own creations—all without distilling a drop of whiskey themselves. Some of those expressions are now the most sought-after bottles on the market.

Rare New Breed

Barrell Craft Spirits

This method is, of course, a fine old tradition in Scotland, where independent bottlers have done it for years and scotch whisky blender Compass Box is a modern progenitor. But it’s been less well known in the U.S. Kentucky’s Barrell Craft Spirits (BCS) has been a star of this genre in modern times. This Louisville blending house was founded in 2013 by Joe Beatrice, a former marketer and longtime homebrewer who fell in love with whiskey after his first time tasting it straight from the barrel. He took inspiration from those Scottish independent bottlers and set out to create a company that specialized in bottling blended whiskeys at cask strength. In 2017, Tripp Stimson—who previously had an eight year-stint in Brown-Forman’s R&D department— joined the brand, and he oversees operations, including development of Barrell’s blends. Two years later, chef-turned-bartender Nic Christiansen was enlisted as a blender, and she now manages the brand’s single barrel program.

BCS moved into a new 31,000-square-foot, $15 million facility last year. The place has eight steel blending vats, including four 6,000-gallon tanks and four that hold 10,000, and that’s where the team assembles its blends. Over the years, it has purchased bourbons, ryes, rums, single malts, and other spirits from 67 producers—65 of them from the U.S. and two from abroad. Today, its total inventory comprises tens of thousands of barrels aging in warehouses across a variety of states—including one in the Louisville suburb of Shively, about 8 miles from its new headquarters, which Barrell bought around the same time as the move.

Barrell begins each project with a concept, typically involving either a desired flavor profile or a specific finishing cask. Beatrice, Stimson, and Christiansen taste through samples and select the ones with characteristics that fit within that concept. (They also keep an eye out for samples that would elevate other projects in the works.) “We have a plan of what we think is going to happen, and we already know it isn’t going to work out that way,” jokes Stimson. “But the process is going to bring you to a product that is directionally accurate, though it most likely won’t be exactly what you were looking for.”

That process was a bit of a learning curve for the BCS team. Barrell didn’t have its own facility back then, so it worked with much smaller volumes and relied on outside contractors to help blend each batch. Beatrice sold his first batches to retailers and bars case by case until the brand gained momentum. “The process is a bit like a leap of faith each time. Learning to be comfortable in the chaos of the unknown is key,” says Stimson.

BCS’s popular offerings are its batch-numbered bourbons—which typically feature liquid from Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee. Each iteration features a unique recipe—comprising different mashbills, age statements, and sources—and tends to taste differently from the previous one. The team starts by creating small-scale pilot blends, which are tasted against earlier batches. Once the blend is selected, the team begins creating it by dumping barrels and tasting constantly to ensure that it’s coming along well. BCS doesn’t place a limit on how many whiskies can go into a blend—some have included components numbering in the mid-to-high teens.

Four Gate Whiskey Co.

A fellow blender and neighbor of BCS is Four Gate Whiskey Co., which isn’t as big, but scores consistently high ratings. It was founded in 2018 by whisky enthusiasts Bill Straub and Bob D’Antoni. The two partners take a different approach, with a focus that’s more localized in its sourcing: Four Gate’s 2,700-barrel inventory comes from 7 undisclosed distilleries in Kentucky, and MGP in Indiana. And unlike Barrell, it uses Bardstown Bourbon Co. to do the actual blending, but with detailed recipes and carefully monitored instructions.

Four Gate prefers mashbills with high-rye ratios. “What we really like is a rye whiskey or a high-rye bourbon, because we do a lot of barrel finishing, and that high-rye content tends to stand up well to different barrel finishes—particularly if you use [a barrel that’s] sweet,” says Straub, who’s the chief blending officer. Four Gate sources whiskeys ranging from 2–13 years old, with many being purchased at around 6 1/2 years old. The company doesn’t typically include whiskeys younger than 7 years in its blends, but if a specific lot of young whiskey shows promise, it’ll be purchased and held until it comes of age.

The blending process at Four Gate is similarly focused. Each blend starts with a base whiskey that Straub and D’Antoni both like, which acts as a foundation. Next the pair starts making “micro-blends” at home, adding other whiskeys in smaller quantities to tack on complementary flavors to the base. Typically the blends include two or three whiskeys, with the base whiskey accounting for roughly 60% of the blend.

Once they land on a micro-blend they like, Straub and D’Antoni taste it along with members of Kelvin Cooperage, a longtime close collaborator. The Kelvin team makes suggestions for finishing casks, recommending sweeter casks like port and rum for spicier blends, and more savory oak or mizunara for blends that fall on the sweeter side. Once everything is decided, the team sends the information over to Bardstown Bourbon Co. for the physical blending of each batch, always done to Four Gate’s specifications.

Lost Lantern

Lost Lantern Spirits was founded in 2018 and debuted its first whiskey in 2020. It has perhaps the most unusual business model of any independent bottler, with a focus entirely on craft whiskey. Its sourcing list includes a plethora of top craft distillers, including Balcones, Frey Ranch, Cedar Ridge, Corbin Cash, Woodinville, Westland, New Riff, Mc- Carthy’s, and many more.

While much of Lost Lantern’s focus is on single-barrel and single-distillery whiskeys, it also offers proprietary blends. Those include Far Flung Bourbon I (a blend of Frey Ranch, Watershed, Boulder Spirits, and Still Austin), Far Flung Bourbon II (Starlight, Kings County, Smooth Ambler, and Wollersheim), Far Flung Rye (Cedar Ridge, Middle West, Starlight, Tom’s Foolery, and Wollersheim), Flame (a smoky blend of Del Bac and Santa Fe Spirits), Shadow (a blend of peated American single malts from Boulder Spirits, Cedar Ridge, and McCarthy’s), and American vatted malt (Balcones, Copperworks, Santa Fe Spirits, Triple Eight, Westward, and Virginia Distillery Co.)

“Just as all of our single casks showcase something unique about a particular distillery, we want our multi-distillery blends to showcase something unique about the whiskey world,” says co-founder Adam Polonski. He notes that Far Flung Bourbon I’s goal was to spotlight liquid from states and distilleries that had never before been seen in a blend. The Far Flung rye project started with a similar intention, but, after realizing that most of the components were distilled in the Midwest, the team decided to turn it into a regional blend instead. He plans to continue making Far Flung bourbon expressions, with each new version featuring a different set of distilleries.

“Think of it like classical music,” Adam muses. “A great single cask is like a violin recital or solo—beautiful and nuanced. But a great blend is like the full orchestra, [with] many different components coming together in different ways to make a harmonious whole that no instrument could produce on its own.”

Rare Character

Among the most celebrated new whiskey blenders is Kentucky-based Rare Character, whose blends are fetching sky-high prices on secondary markets. Some of its labels are resurrected brands like Fortuna and Brook Hill, while others are new creations including Old Cassidy and Pride of Anderson County. Except for Fortuna, nearly all are single barrel offerings. Rare Character has given them a multiplicity of brand names, all aimed at making each one special. “A big problem with bourbon brands is that they need to be consistent,” co-founder Pablo Moix told Whisky Advocate this past summer. “I wanted to pivot to making odd or unusual whiskeys—they still have to be approachable and good—and bottling those.”

Producer Buys Blender

Penelope Bourbon

Another popular blender is New Jersey-based Penelope Bourbon. When Penelope was born in 2018, all of its liquid was sourced from MGP’s Ross & Squibb Distillery. In 2021 Penelope was acquired by MGP, and became one of its star brands. The sale obviously changed the nature of the relationship. “We went from being a customer to being a partner,” said co-founder and master blender Danny Polise. While some 90% of Penelope’s stocks still come from Ross & Squibb, it has also started to make use of whiskey distilled at MGP’s Kentucky distilleries Lux Row and Limestone Branch.

The MGP deal has had a sizable impact on how Penelope creates its blends. Polise, whose background is in engineering, formulates all his blends on paper using data that list technical specs of his inventory, from mashbill and age to where each barrel was stored in the rickhouse. Tapping into the knowledge gained from tasting thousands of barrels over the years, he groups together lots that might work together and uses them as a starting point. The brand’s inaugural release—which is still the flagship today—is a four-grain bourbon that’s blended from three different mashbills.

Cask finishing features prominently in Penelope’s repertoire. Polise says the brand’s secret lies in knowing exactly which ones to select; he does that by ordering samples of the wines or spirits that previously filled the casks, to get a sense of what exact flavors each cask will contribute.

Stills For Hire

Some blenders, rather than buying premade whiskey, hire distilleries to make their recipes on contract. Though smaller contract distillers tend to only make whiskeys using a proprietary mashbill, most of the major operations allow their blender clients to customize things to their individual specs. The idea is to give those blenders the same level of control over the liquid’s profile as a distiller, without actually owning a distillery.

2XO

One blender who relies entirely on contract distilling is Dixon Dedman. After reviving the Kentucky Owl label in 2014 and moving on in 2021, he founded his own finishing label called 2XO (which stands for Two-Times Oaked.) He uses liquid that comes from two undisclosed distilleries. The stocks themselves were laid down in 2015, but both distilleries are currently producing new liquid for the brand. Dixon ultimately has control over the mashbills, and can change them if he wishes.

Unlike many others, 2XO’s blending process is a one-man show. Dedman doesn’t taste his whiskey as part of a panel or team. He goes into each blend with an open mind, and prefers to develop specific flavor profiles over time rather than trying to bend the whiskeys to fit a concept. He adds that there’s a lot of trial and error to that approach, which he likens to putting together a puzzle. He credits the brand’s success to the quality of the contract liquid, which has a relatively low entry proof of 110. The brand offers only bourbon, but Dedman is working on a Maryland-style rye, expected to be ready next year.

15 Stars

15 Stars is a fresh face on the scene, founded in 2019 by father and son team Rick and Ricky Johnson, whose backgrounds are in the popcorn business. The pair released their first whiskey in 2022. They started out by contract distilling through Bardstown Bourbon Co.’s custom distilling program, using an heirloom black corn as the base grain, though that distillate hasn’t yet made its way into any of the label’s blends. When it comes to blending, the Johnsons prefer working with older liquid. (That excludes their own contract-distilled new make—comprising two-thirds of their entire inventory—which they’ve held back for extended aging.) They’ve released blends made from older sourced whiskeys from undisclosed producers in Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee. That mix has been fruitful so far, but we won’t get to taste any of those heirloom bourbons until sometime in 2026.

Chicken Cock

Kentucky-based Chicken Cock, founded in 2012, follows the contract method as well. Distilling veteran Gregg Snyder runs the show as master distiller, and nearly all of Chicken Cock’s liquid is also distilled through Bardstown Bourbon Co.’s custom distilling program, which gives blenders nearly complete control over the distillation process. Along with selecting the mashbill, Snyder also dictates how the grains should be cooked, and which enzymes and yeast are used in fermentation, among other steps. Snyder’s control even extends to the barrels Bardstown uses for aging, choosing medium toast No.-3 char barrels from a West Virginia cooperage. “Essentially, we’re using their kitchen and their cooks, but I get to orchestrate it,” observes Snyder. He visits Bardstown every six months to taste through his barrels to evaluate how they’re progressing.

What’s most impressive about these blenders is just how well their offerings have fared critically. Four Gate, 15 Stars, and 2XO all currently hold the status of having never scored below 90 points with our tasting panel. Barrell has released over 20 separate bottlings that have scored 93 points or higher, and has made two appearances (in 2022 and 2023) on our Top 20 list—competing against and beating out many big-name producers. These blending houses have also been known to outscore the very same distilleries they’re sourcing from, which stands as a testament to the individual talents of these blenders.