Is Stoli Building a New, $150M Distillery for Kentucky Owl Bourbon?

Janet Patton, the best bourbon reporter in Kentucky, has a story in today's Lexington Herald-Leader headlined, "Stoli plans $150m Bardstown distillery for Kentucky Owl Bourbon."

The gist is that the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) has approved $2M in tax incentives for the project.

These KEDFA announcements usually are the first we hear of new distillery projects in Kentucky. The tax incentives are 'if come,' meaning that they only receive the benefits if they actually do the project. This is just a proposal at this point, by no means a done deal. Incentive recipients don't appear to be under any time pressure. Angel's Envy, for example, received its KEDFA approval several years before the distillery was actually built.

Although they are now doing some contract distilling at Bardstown Bourbon Company, everything Kentucky Owl has released to this point has been sourced from an undisclosed Kentucky distillery or distilleries. Earlier this year the brand's creator, Dixon Dedman, sold Kentucky Owl to the parent company of Stolichnaya Vodka. It is Stoli's only brand in the American whiskey space.

Although well-aged bulk bourbon has been in very short supply for the last decade or so, small caches can still be had for the right price. That is why most new non-distiller producer (NDP) brands are very limited availability and super premium. The main way Kentucky Owl differs from other NDP bourbons is it debuted at a price about twice what similar brands charge. That was their bold innovation and it succeeded. Each release has sold out quickly and Kentucky Owl commands a high price on the underground secondary market.

Why? The product is good, too woody for my taste, but many people like that sort of thing. Equally as good bourbons are available for much less, but Kentucky Owl has developed a cachet.

Although the new Bardstown distillery is just a proposal at this point, it is no doubt a serious one. For that kind of money, it will be a plant on the order of Bardstown Bourbon Company or Lux Row. It will join those two newcomers plus Barton 1792, Heaven Hill, and Willett as tourable bourbon facilities in the immediate Bardstown vicinity, with Jim Beam and Maker's Mark each about a half hour from town. All of these new distilleries are a huge deal for the economy of Bardstown and Nelson County.

One assumes Stoli will pay particular attention to the international market for bourbon and whether or not they pull the trigger will depend on continued strong export growth. Stay tuned.