Learn about the progress of reviving the Historic Site of the Old Taylor Distillery, hear the story of the owners and get a sneak peak of what's going on inside! View this email in your browser THE HISTORIC SITE OF THE OLD TAYLOR DISTILLERY Long story short - they all fell in love...



Will Arvin was looking for a new project. He decided to follow his heart and pursue his passion and fascination with the bourbon industry he grew up around in Nicholasville, KY. When searching for a distillery site, he stumbled upon a defunct limestone castle distillery that was once a Kentucky bourbon icon. He fell in love with the site and quickly realized the potential for it to be brought back to its former grandeur.



Wes Murry was a hedge fund manager in Lexington, KY and was introduced to Will through a mutual friend. In hearing Will tell the story of Colonel Taylor and his distillery, Wes was initially skeptical. Will and Wes met out at the distillery the following weekend and as Anne Murry, Wes’ wife, recalls, “as soon as we started walking around the property, I knew Wes was going to be involved.”



As soon as they acquired the distillery, Will and Wes hired an excavator to clear the decades of overgrowth. What they found was a distillery in surprisingly good shape despite 40 years of neglect. Better still, much of the original distillation equipment was in repairable condition and re-usable.



About a year after they purchased the site together, they started their search for the person who would oversee production, that they could share in ownership, and most importantly develop the products and bring them to life. Marianne Barnes, the former Master Taster for Brown-Forman (whose notable brands include Woodford Reserve, Jack Daniel's and Old Forester), was getting a lot of attention due to her fast rise through the production ranks. She was quickly setting herself apart from the pack, and both Will and Wes knew she was the right fit for their vision.. After finally accepting their invitation to meet at the Former Old Taylor Distillery, Marianne made the decision to join their team. It quickly became apparent they would make history bringing the distillery back to life. Our Mission Adopting and enhancing the Bottled in Bond Act’s goal of product authenticity to build a lifelong relationship of trust with our customers. Reviving the historic site of the Old Taylor Distillery to connect guests with Colonel E.H. Taylor’s vision of bringing a distinguished and authentic experience to Kentucky bourbon. We are rebuilding and re-pointing the old stone walls around the property, and while we are fortunate that most of them were in great shape, a few needed a little extra attention. We will be leveling the ground to install a stone patio and seating area where guests will be able to enjoy the relaxing sounds of Glenn’s Creek. Work is well underway on "The Old Taylor Spring", the 10.5' deep natural spring that the Old Colonel used as the water source for his bourbon. We are cleaning and rebuilding and plan to restore the spring back to its original beauty. This photo (above) is the circular portion of the peristyle, which covers the key-hole shaped spring. The roof is almost entirely complete. Next is lighting and concrete improvement! The interior of the castle (the main distillery building) is undergoing major improvements. This photo above shows one of 15 carbon steel fermentation tanks that will be sand blasted and painted in order to preserve them. We are using 6 for our current distilling, and the others will remain in place for future expansion. We hope to grow fast, and with your help, we will! Our target is to have the castle ready to produce spirits by January 2016. Our Master Distiller, Marianne Barnes, has been in her new lab, creating the grain recipes for our new brand. We had our first tasting last Friday. Our favorite samples were both around 120 proof distilled on a 2.5 gallon pot still. While they were both grainy, as you would expect, they had a spicy and fruity complexity that got us excited! We can't wait until she has the next round ready to taste! The "old" National Distillers Column still was onsite, however way too large for our purposes. Our new, smaller still is being built by Vendome Brass & Copperworks out of Louisville. KY. We plan to produce 20-30 barrels a day, which is an ambitious number for a new player to the industry. The gardens are being designed by renowned gardener Jon Carloftis. He has used old photographs of Colonel Taylor's gardens as inspiration to create new landscaping for our beautiful distillery. We are also well underway designing and planting gardens for a quarter mile long botanical trail, the herbs from which will be used in our gin. We also plan to become a Monarch Butterfly Weigh Station, a stop along their migration path. Our barrel warehouse (which is the longest of its kind) has a new roof and new gutters. We are also tuck-pointing the brick walls and repairing any damaged wooden ricking. This will ensure it is able to hold 31,000 500 pound whiskey barrels! Existing trees along the sides of the warehouse have been removed in order to increase sun exposure. We have also installed new fans to increase air circulation. We have begun storing barrels on a contract basis and it is starting to smell amazing! We can't wait to start putting our own barrels in those ricks!