Here’s a marriage that will warm a Southern duck hunter’s heart. Ducks Unlimited and World Whiskey Society have teamed up on two limited-edition releases—a ten-year-old Kentucky bourbon and an American single malt—with a portion of the proceeds going to support DU’s work to conserve waterfowl and wetlands. And the packaging packs a bang, too.
The cask-strength bourbon (priced at $300) arrives in a polished burl-wood box shaped to resemble a shotgun stock, with an intricate filigree-engraved metallic inlay and trigger guard designed by the English gun engraver William V. Wild. A pull of the trigger opens the box to reveal a golden-accented bottle with a hunting-dog-and-waterfowl insignia, and a topper shaped like a mallard taking flight.
“It leans into the tradition of side-by-side and over-and-under shotguns, and is something our members, outdoorsmen, and conservation-minded consumers can easily identify with,” says Jim Alexander, DU’s managing director. “It makes a wonderful addition to any home bar, duck camp, fishing camp, or lake house.”
It’s not hard to see what inspired the single-malt bottle ($120). Distilled in Oklahoma, the whiskey comes in a red fluted-glass container with an engraved copper-colored cap, resembling a giant, translucent shotgun shell. American single malts recently received an official designation from the U.S. Tax and Trade Bureau, and Alexander says it’s an exciting opportunity for Ducks Unlimited to enter the rapidly growing category.
Limited to around 4,000 bottles for the bourbon and 6,000 for the single malt, both releases are available to order through World Whiskey Society ’s website, as well as at select retailers nationwide.
Founded in 2020 by Alex Kogan, also the CEO of the wine and spirits importer Aiko Importers, World Whiskey Society offers a range of spirits sourced from around the globe—Scotch, Japanese whiskey, bourbon, and more—bottling them as small-batch blends or finishing them in secondary barrels to create distinctive products. “We’re all about the art of bringing unique whiskeys to people,” Kogan says. The partnership with Ducks Unlimited began a few years ago with a bourbon bottled in a hand-painted ceramic, mallard-shaped decanter, and Kogan says it felt as natural as, well, a duck taking to water. “We share the same values,” he says.
For DU, the whiskeys are also a nod to its history. Throughout the 1970s and into the early ’90s, the Tennessee-headquartered nonprofit partnered with the likes of Jim Beam, George Dickel, and Jack Daniel’s, among others, to offer limited-edition releases. But the recent collaborations with World Whiskey Society, Alexander says, presented an opportunity to more fully incorporate DU’s mission into the bottles. “Good bourbon is of course meant to be shared with friends,” he says. “But it’s also a beautiful piece that will have a permanent place on anyone’s bar.”
