BARDSTOWN, Ky.—Heaven Hill said today it’ll release its 2018 limited edition release of Parker’s Heritage Collection Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey in September.

Since we’re still in July, I think that’s enough heads up. Agreed? Plenty of time to buy a tent and find a line to wait in to get your hands on what’s commonly a highly coveted bottling.

According to a news release, the bourbon was aged seven to eight years in the upper floors of Rickhouse Q, followed by a four-month rest in barrels previously holding French orange curaçao liqueur. Of the 12 Parker’s releases, this is the second barrel-finished bourbon. It will be bottled at 110 proof (55% abv), non-chill filtered and sell for an MSRP of $89.99.

The Parker’s Heritage Collection, originally named in 2010 as an honor of past master distiller Parker Beam, was originally conceived to showcase the extraordinary quality and broad range of Heaven Hill’s American Whiskey holdings. Beam, who died in 2017, battled Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (also called Lou Gehrig’s disease) for several years, leading Heaven Hill to direct a portion of its proceeds from the most recent five editions (2013-2017) to ALS causes. Those releases, “Promise of Hope” Bourbon, the “Original Batch” Straight Wheat Whiskey, the Kentucky Straight Malt Whiskey, the 24-Year-Old Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon, and the 11-Year-Old Single Barrel, respectively, have raised over $1 million dollars toward ALS research and patient care. Heaven Hill will continue with this cause-related campaign by contributing a portion of proceeds from sales of this edition to the ALS Association.

This 12th edition will feature the same upscale 750ml bottle as the previous 11, but with a beige label. With previous releases having won multiple awards from Whisky Advocate magazine, Whisky Magazine and the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, the series stands as some of the most critically lauded American Whiskeys in recent memory. Past bottlings have won awards ranging from “Best North American Whiskey” to “American Whiskey of the Year” to “Best of Show, Brown Spirits.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Bourbon enthusiasts can now enjoy cocktails during visits to the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience at its new bar, ON3. This cocktail corner adds a unique asset to the Visitor Center with cocktails and Bourbon flights available during tour hours.

According to a news release, the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience allows visitors to see an operating Artisanal Distillery, where one barrel of Bourbon is distilled each day. The guided tour takes a peak into distilling on Whiskey Row from the 1890’s to the present. Now, visitors can also stop by or top off their tour experience with a cocktail at ON3. Each drink, handcrafted by mixologist Karla Plott, offers a creative twist on different Evan Williams Bourbon and Heaven Hill Distillery products.

“ON3 adds a valuable taste of hospitality to the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience,” said Jeff Crowe, EWBE general manager. “We are thrilled to have Karla craft memorable cocktails that will leave visitors with a long-lasting impression, as well as showcase Evan Williams Bourbon in a new way.”

The bar is located on the third floor of the Visitor Center on Louisville’s historic Whiskey Row at 528 W Main St. The official was July 4, 2018. The bar will be operating every Thursday and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

If you stand on the Main St. sidewalk with your back to the new Old Forester Distilling Co., you’ll see George Garvin Brown’s picture painted on the east-facing wall of Merle’s Whiskey Kitchen. From that angle, Brown’s fixed gaze peers over your head and at the 19^th Century brick edifice behind you, which long-ago housed Brown-Forman’s offices.

The distillery’s third floor provides a better view of the static, stoic Brown: you’re now eye-level with the black-and-white image, and it seems, silly or not, wherever you go on premise, Brown’s eyes are ever watching this rebirth of his bourbon creation, a whiskey many regard as unimaginably underappreciated.

Just two years from its sesquicentennial birthday, Old Forester’s case sales remain vastly overshadowed by its 22-year-old sibling, Woodford Reserve. And compared to Brown-Forman’s mega-brand, Jack Daniel’s, the world’s most popular whiskey, which it purchased in 1956, “Old Fo’s” total inventory is a mere splash on the floor.

Yet loads of Louisvillians and spirits pros in the know claim it as a favorite beloved for its bargain price, back bone of spicy rye and accents of stone fruit and caramel. Though I have yet to find a bartender who doesn’t love it, the dozen or so Brown-Forman employees I’ve asked about it will acknowledge their preference for it over Woodford only in hushed whispers. Seems that all public praise—unless one works specifically for Old Forester—is saved for the brown spirits found in the slumped-shoulder bottles filled in Versailles, Ky.

Now, however, it appears Old Fo’ is getting its proper due. Seventeen years ago, B-F, began extending its product line, albeit cautiously. To the reliable line of 86-proof proof standard and the stellar 100-proof Signature came Birthday Bourbon. This was a whiskey B-F master distiller Chris Morris said at a recent

press conference, “used to be something we couldn’t give away at $39,” but today people wait in long lines to pay triple that price. Fourteen years later, Old Forester launched the first of its four-expression Whiskey Row series, a lineup that has been wildly successful.

Then, four years ago, B-F announced plans to build a distillery in the very spot where Brown-Forman set up its downtown offices in 1882: Whiskey Row, where 89 other booze-related businesses operated. That distillery opens today, and if you’re a whiskey fan, you’re going to love it.

Old Forester Distilling Co. is the finest example of a purpose-built tourist distillery in the state—and that’s saying a lot given the likes of flashy, full-production facilities like Kentucky Peerless Distilling and Angel’s Envy just blocks away. Why? Because no distillery in the country has a working cooperage on premise except this one. When bourbon gets 100 percent of its color and 50 percent of its flavor from the barrel, it’s about time someone figured out out how to make barrel coopering the pièce de résistance of an actual distillery tour. (Check out my short video of the charring process on my Facebook page, and make sure to have your sound on.)

The reality is such a feature is prohibitively expensive. The specific and uncommon machinery, ventilation and labor required to create such a working exhibit surely claimed a sizeable chunk of the $45 million cost of the project. But when you see it in action, you’ll deem it shareholder money well spent.

The rest of the tour is much like others’: a story told with ample visual and palpable cues, concluding with a whiskey tasting. All good stuff, necessary parts of the experience.

The heart of the distillery is a 44-foot-tall, gleaming copper-clad column still approachable via a stroll through the gift shop (naturally) and a short ascent up a series of stairs vaguely resembling a Gothic church altar. The visual message is clear: this is a working distillery, and you’ll see how whiskey is made.

About 100,000 proof gallons of Old Forester will be distilled here, but all its mash will be cooked at Old Forester’s larger Shively distillery. Once cooked, the mash is moved to the 119 Main St. distillery where it’s fermented and distilled. According to our tour guide, about 20 percent of Old Forester’s annual production will derive from Whiskey Row. (Update: According to WDRB.com, brand president Campbell Brown wants to boost business to 1 million cases, a five-fold increase over now.)

Within its 70,000 square-feet are four, 4,500-gallon fermenters and a 900-barrel rickhouse in the building’s rear. To understand the difficulty of setting up a working distillery and cooperage in a tight, urban space never designed for such occupancy, filled barrels weighing more than 500 pounds each must exit the front of the building, be loaded onto a flatbed truck and then hauled around the block to the back of the building where they’re stored for aging. At a production snail’s pace of about 15 barrels a day, the rickhouse will be filled in roughly six months. (For comparison, Jim Beam’s Booker Noe Plant in Boston, Ky., produces 1,500 barrels daily; Heaven Hill, 1,300.)

Visitors will see a sophisticated modern bottling line as well, one filling 15 bottles per minute—less than one-tenth the speed of B-F’s Shively bottling operation.

Though Old Forester Distilling Co. will be the site of private single-barrel selections and where many of its special releases will be made, its creation wasn’t only about having a new production site. Such an operation could have been built for far less than what the company spent on the Main Street site.

The new distillery is about driving consumer education, increasing brand awareness and adding fuel to the fire of bourbon culture. It’s also a statement that the bourbon boom is far from a bust, and that it’s time to celebrate these halcyon days.

To Fo’ fans like me, this also about a prized brand getting its due: a home bearing its name and a high-profile location where others can learn just how good this whiskey really is.

Tours operate daily: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (the only days when production is in full swing), Monday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, 12-5 p.m. Cost for tours is $16.

For fans of Copper & Kings American Brandy Distillery in Butchertown, the opening of its ALEX&NDER rooftop bar has been a long time coming. They knew it would represent more than just another good watering hole, they knew it would be first rate like everything else the state’s lone brandy distillery does: innovative, modern, artistic and just plain cool, too.

ALEX&NDER is the manifestation of a brandy-centric cocktail bar envisioned by owners Joe and Lesley Heron. And since they make gin and absinthe as well, expect those on the list, too.

“Who wouldn’t want to have a bar where nearly all of what’s featured on the shelves is your own products,” said Joe Heron. Wines and cocktail amendments C&K doesn’t make, but which are needed for drinks with classic lineage, are interspersed throughout the bar, but by and large, all else bears the & for which its known.

Nope. No bourbon or tequila. (Yet at least.) This is all about grape distillate, not grain or agave.

“Our timing was just great—OK, we were lucky as hell,” Heron told me months ago when the overhaul of the distillery’s upstairs party room—a glass-walled, third-floor space with a dramatic view of Louisville’s skyline—began. “The law (prohibiting drinks sales at distilleries) changed in our favor, and we were really eager to take advantage of it.”

Want crazy good brandy cocktails? This is your place. The bartenders here have mad skills, and you’ll recognize them from around town.

Wait, what’s that? You’ve never had a brandy cocktail? Then class is in session, a class you’ll never cut, I’m sure.

You’ll recognize many names on the list: side car, Negroni, old fashioned, etc. But if you’re an open-minded cocktail fan, prepare to be wowed by the brandy and gin-based versions you’ll get here.

On Monday’s Industry Night preview, I had only time for one (a Negroni, of course) before leaving. It was fabulous; one of the best I’ve had in Louisville. My wife raved equally about the Gin Gin Mule made with C&K’s ginger beer—the most flavorful ginger beer you’ll find in this market. (Don’t buy it if you don’t want to get hooked on it.)

ALEX&NDER is gorgeous, spacious and includes an expansive outdoor deck. Go see it for yourself. If you’ve grown fond of events held in the courtyard downstairs, just wait until you come upstairs.

You’ll have plenty of opportunities to visit: Wednesday and Thursday, 5-11 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 5 p.m. to 2 a.m., and Sunday, 5-11 p.m.

Experience great cocktails like you’ve never had them in Louisville. Go to ALEX&NDER.

American whiskey is hot. We’re experiencing a bourbon boom and a rye renaissance, and though brandy isn’t whiskey, domestic versions of that potent potable also are on the rise. We make great liquor here!

So, if you heard about the launch of American Whiskey magazine this past Tuesday in Louisville and thought, “Well, ‘bout time,” you’re not alone.

That’s not the only bit of irony tied to this good news, great booze story.

It was London-based Paragraph Publishing, owner of Whisky magazine, that moved to launch a Yankee version. Redcoat distillers (of Scotch and Irish whiskeys) still own the lion’s share of the global market, but over the past few years, Yankee liquor has consumed a sizeable-enough number of that mag’s editorial and advertising pages that it saw fit to give North American spirits a publication of their own. (Expect stories on Canadian whiskey also.)

Whisky Advocate, a terrific U.S.-based spirits publication, is like Whisky magazine in that it takes a global look at distilled grain spirits. It has for years been the lone whiskey authority, yet while that mantel will be challenged, there’s PLENTY to write about.

Shares of advertising between the two will be another concern altogether. Launching a print publication in this era of the Internet seems foolish to some, but I think there’s plenty of room for profitability in this space since American spirits, as a whole, lack coverage. It’s my hunch that if you print it, they’ll read it, and that the mag will do well.

Dozens of local bartenders have told me that Louisville customers, by and large, aren’t whiskey savvy—much less bourbon savvy—which tells me we have lots to learn. Good thing there’s a new print piece to further that education.

If you plan to read it (here’s the link to subscribe for $19.99 a year), don’t expect bourbon only. Shocker, I know, but some in the Bluegrass don’t cotton to the notion that the sun doesn’t rise and set solely on distilleries cooking 51 percent corn mashbills. As I mentioned, American rye whiskey is on a rocket ride, and malt whiskey (the base great for Scotch) is bubbling up from the craft distillery level at an impressive rate. As I wrote about recently, Woodford Reserve will release a malt whiskey in June, and you can expect other large(ish) distilleries to follow suit in due time.

Bottom line is this magazine will serve to highlight more of what’s happening in Kentucky, where most of the nation’s spirits are produced. How whiskey is made here is very different from what happens overseas—not better, just different. Same for the people who make it: different, not better. I’m looking forward to reading (and writing) about more of what happens long before a bottle hits a retailer’s shelf. And I hope you will too—especially since these people are your neighbors.

Storied contract whiskey producer MGP Ingredients announced today it’s bringing a pair of its own rye whiskey brands to market under the Rossville Union label. Some drinkers may not know it, but the Lawrenceburg, Ind., distillery has filled the glasses of millions under the names of Bulleit Rye, George Dickel Rye and High West Rye and dozens of others.

In recent years, the contracting giant released its own George Remus Bourbon and Till Wheat Vodka.

According to a news release, the two Rossville rye expressions are “named after the founding distillery in Lawrenceburg, Rossville Union.” The creation “represents a historic return to the home of crafted rye whiskey and honors a spirited tradition that dates back more than 170 years in America’s original ‘Whiskey City.’”

Rossville Union Master Crafted Straight Rye Whiskey is 94 proof, at least 4 years old and offers balanced flavors of oak, rye spice, smoke and a fruit-forward palate.

Rossville Union Master Crafted Barrel Proof Straight Rye Whiskey is bottled at barrel proof (112.6 from a mingling of 83 barrels) and delivers abundant notes of vanilla, oak, caramel and spice notes.

Rossville Union Master Crafted Straight Rye Whiskey retails for $39.99 per 750-ml bottle, while Rossville Union Master Crafted Barrel Proof Straight Rye Whiskey will sell for $69.99 per 750-ml bottle. Both products will launch in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio and Wisconsin as of June 2018.