Kentucky’s Most Experimental Whiskey House Made the Perfect Bottle for Scotch Drinkers

Earlier this month, Bardstown Bourbon Company filled its one millionth barrel. That’s a lot of barrels for a distillery that didn’t start distilling until September 2016, and scale like that is a balancing act. Play it too safe and people get bored; get too weird and nobody shows up. Kentucky’s own Bardstown has walked that line better than just about anyone, and its newest release, the Lochs of Jura Barrel Finish, is pretty much exhibit A.

The juice is a blend of three straight whiskeys:

• 49% 11-year-old Indiana bourbon
• 30% 10-year-old Indiana rye
• 21% 12-year-old Kentucky bourbon

That blend then spent 32 months in casks that previously aged single malt on Scotland’s Isle of Jura, the remote Hebridean island where George Orwell went to finish 1984 (which tells you something about the level of peace and quiet). 

Most of those casks were ex-bourbon; about one in six was ex-sherry. It’s bottled at 104 proof, goes for a suggested $139.99, and took 99 points and Best American Whiskey at this year’s pretty-darn-prestigious International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC). Most finishes are measured in weeks or months. Thirty-two is a long time to let a cask do its thing.

You might not be able to tell that from the nose, though. Like a lot of Bardstown’s releases, it’s a little deceptive: warm, pleasant, nothing that announces itself. Then you sip it. The bourbon’s sweetness comes first, the quieter side of Scotch shows up right behind it, and it all rides on a soft mouthfeel into a long, delicate finish. Bardstown has gotten really good at making something taste familiar and a little strange at the same time, and this might be the best example yet.

But here’s the thing. You would never, ever mistake this for Scotch. It’s American whiskey through and through, and it’s unmistakably Bardstown. Scotch is just a welcomed guest. That’s what separates it from American single malt, a category that builds toward Scotch from the grain up. Lochs of Jura keeps its American backbone and lets Scotch crash on the couch for a while.

That’s likely because, by the time a cask has spent years aging single malt, it has given up most of its raw oak punch and soaked its staves with malty, fruity character. Put mature American whiskey in that wood for nearly three years and you get a true finish instead of a takeover. The sherry casks add a little depth and dried fruit on top.

The million barrels also explain how Bardstown can afford to take cool swings like this. A lot of what happens on its campus isn’t Bardstown-branded whiskey at all; the company built itself making whiskey for other labels (including Penelope, a success story in itself). Master blender Dan Callaway prefers “custom” to “contract,” since partner brands pick their own yeast, fermentation, and barrels. Parent company Lofted Spirits now bills itself as the largest contract distiller in Kentucky.

Then there’s Green River. Bardstown bought the Owensboro distillery in 2022, and it covers the other side of that consistency-versus-experimentation balance. The brand dates to 1885, when it sold itself as “The Whiskey Without Regrets” (a big claim, honestly), and these days it leans all the way into classic, approachable Kentucky bourbon. If Bardstown is the summit, Green River is base camp: an under-$40 bottle for mixing on a Tuesday night.

All of that adds up to a pretty good safety net. While a lot of the whiskey industry has spent the past year cutting production and shutting down distilleries, Lofted announced plans to more than triple its bottling capacity. And in the background, this small, weird, bold corner of the business keeps putting up wins: a pineapple rum cask finish this summer, a collaboration with Japan’s Mars distillery, and now a phenomenal Scotch-cask blend.

The practical stuff: 104 proof is high enough that a few drops of water will open things up, but low enough that you don’t need them. Pour it neat in a Glencairn or over one big cube. If there’s a Scotch drinker in your life who has never quite trusted bourbon, this is a pretty good peace offering.

The verdict: Lochs of Jura is a must-try. It’s the clearest look yet at what Bardstown is all about, and I’d bet the awards keep coming. Skip it only if the price is a dealbreaker, or if what you really want is a rye spice bomb or ultra-hazmat offering.

Lochs of Jura launched nationwide on August 21 in limited quantities. You can still find it, but expect to pay $150 to $170 at most shops, and I wouldn’t count on it lasting through the winter.