Kentucky Owl Bourbon Is Aiming For A Larger Audience With Its Takumi Edition

The most recent restricted launch from Kentucky Owl, the super-luxury bourbon that shortly achieved cult standing in right now’s hyper-popular whiskey market, is yet one more step in a well-thought-out plan to create a world model. It’s the second bottle to emerge from the model’s worldwide collaboration line that brings in consultants from completely different components of the whiskey panorama to create a one-of-a-kind bourbon with the group at Kentucky Owl. The Stoli Group, the proprietor of Kentucky Owl, hopes that by introducing outdoors parts into the usually closed world of bourbon, they’ll be capable to entice new drinkers into the class and expose them to one thing fully new.

“We thought, how can we introduce high-quality bourbon to folks worldwide that equate American whiskey to Jack Daniels and different manufacturers which have been on the market for years? How can we globalize this model? says Damian McKinney, the Stoli Group international CEO. So, we thought, why not discover one of the best distillers and blenders from world wide and have them work with us to include their experience and concepts and create a completely completely different product utilizing solely bourbon.”

Following final 12 months’s The St. Patrick’s Version, a collaboration with Irish Whiskey Bonder Louise McGuane, which noticed 12,000 bottles promote out in eight months, the newest launch takes drinkers to a wholly completely different a part of the world, Japan. The Takumi Version is a mix of 4-, 5-, 6-, and 13-year-old Kentucky straight bourbons chosen by Grasp Blender John Rhea of Kentucky Owl and blended by Yusuke Yahisa of the Nagahama Distillery, himself a Grasp Blender too. By permitting Yahisa to work on his formulations representing the thriving Japanese Whiskey panorama, the group at Kentucky Owl hopes to marry two types into a completely singular product that can attraction to a broad swath of drinkers.

Because the bourbon and whisky markets proceed their fast growth, quite a few boutique and premium manufacturers have appeared during the last decade. Many have quickly gained loyal followings on account of their willingness to embrace new concepts and roll out thrilling blends. Blue Run Bourbon and Jefferson’s Bourbon are two prime examples of this. Each have challenged the established order, Blue Run with its sneakerization of the bourbon trade and Jefferson’s with its Ocean-Aged bourbons.

Kentucky Owl, launched in 2014, is a main instance of the success that new-old Kentucky bourbons can have which are constructed on the backs of older defunct manufacturers which are resurrected. It was first based in 1879 by C. M. Deadman; like many distillers, it didn’t survive Prohibition, closing in 1916. When Dixon Deadman, the founder’s nice, nice, grandson, relaunched his household’s model, it instantly soared to the highest of drinkers’ consciousness. A part of it was that it had an actual historical past, a part of it was the liquids Deadman obtained to make his blends, and half was the hyper-limited bottlings that shortly had been devoured up.

Dixon remained with the model for some time after its buy by Stoli Group in 2017; he has since moved on. His successor as head blender, John Rhea, introduced in in 2021, brings some severe credentials. A Kentucky Bourbon Corridor of Fame member, he spent his profession at 4 Roses Distillery, a world model that has received many awards and accolades. Underneath his tutelage, the Kentucky Owl model has begun to increase its choices rolling out a number of new merchandise whereas a brand new distillery complicated is being constructed to assist future progress. The worldwide collaboration version bottles are one of many showcase additions to the lineup that the Stoli Group is utilizing to introduce the model to a broader viewers.

‘We’re an ultra-premium firm, so that you by no means need to lose the fairness of what’s an incredible bourbon. Then again, we stay in a world world, and we should be disruptive and difficult round how we do that in a approach the place we will genuinely share what we’ve got. So successfully exporting one thing that’s actually nice requires some outside-the-box pondering. We have to seize folks’s consideration and get them to style our bourbon. As soon as they try this, we’re certain they’ll adore it. We need to be disruptive however not gimmicky; these bottles try this by highlighting the superb abilities, so many various whisky makers worldwide have. We plan on making these an annual launch that can contact all of the corners of the planet.”

By selecting Yahisa as their second accomplice on this endeavor, Kentucky Owl went off the suggestions of a number of consultants within the Japanese whiskey market. In keeping with McKinney, his identify repeatedly appeared in conversations as a rising star in probably the most whiskey-obsessed international locations. His Nagahama Distillery is the smallest one in Japan. Nonetheless, its upcoming single-malt releases are already producing appreciable buzz. They may shortly turn out to be one other cult model in an area that loves them.

The 25,000 bottles of the Takumi Version, which implies “grasp” in Japanese, are being launched now and retail for $150. The liquid inside is a mix of Kentucky bourbon with a combined mash invoice of corn, rye or wheat, and malted barley. It has tasting notes of rye bread and caramel on the nostril, adopted by a touch of fruitiness-cherry, apple, and pear with a clean end.