Kentucky Owl Batch No. 10 Notes on Tasting

Sweet caramel, toffee, and vanilla are among the flavors of this whiskey. Subtle floral and fruity notes follow, and the tongue is finished with a burst of spice.

Concerning Kentucky Owl

Charles Mortimer Dedman, a local pharmacist, established Kentucky Owl in 1879. Dedman’s adopted father, a local town judge, gave him a sizable piece of land on the banks of the Kentucky River as a wedding present after he married his wife. One of Kentucky’s first distilleries and a part of a thriving business, C.M. Dedman Distillery was founded here on the banks of the Kentucky River and produces “The Wise Man’s Bourbon” under Distilled Spirits Plant Designation “No. 16.”

Kentucky Owl was quite successful, and manufacture went on until distillation was stopped by Prohibition. The “forces of teetotalism, temperance, and eventually, the Feds” were too strong for the family-run establishment. Several nearby distilleries had plenty of bourbon reserves in 1916 as a result of Prohibition. About 250,000 gallons of Kentucky Owl bourbon were left over in different maturing stages. The inventory value of these reserves would be around $40 million today. The bourbon was confiscated and transported by boat up the river to the state capital, Frankfort, for “safekeeping” in a warehouse following the arrival of federal officials at the Dedman’s distillery.

A beautiful, state-of-the-art distillery park with rickhouses for maturing, a bottling center, and a vintage dinner train to stop on the grounds is currently being designed by Kentucky Owl. It will be constructed in Bardstown at Cedar Creek Quarry. Beautiful lakes with clean, limestone-filtered water will be found on the 420-acre property, and this water will be utilized to make whiskey.

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