“What can I get here that I won’t find anywhere else?” Around Louisville’s distilleries, it’s a question employees hear daily. It makes sense. The Kentucky Bourbon Trail drew a record 2.7 million visitors in 2025, many of them concentrated in and around Bourbon City. During Derby week alone, Louisville swells by nearly half a million revelers. For visitors, the ideal souvenir isn’t just a bottle of good bourbon, it’s one that can only be found at the source.
For some distillers, those bottles also serve as a proving ground. Distillery-exclusive releases offer an opportunity to experiment with mash bills, finishes, and aging techniques on a smaller scale. “The distillery is a wonderful place to test different innovation products and see what the reception is,” says Rabbit Hole founder Kaveh Zamanian, who notes that roughly 50,000 guests come through the NuLu distillery each year. “I got into this business because I love to tinker with different recipes. For us, the distillery serves as a place to showcase what we do.”
Whether you’re in town for Derby, Bourbon & Beyond in September (also National Bourbon Heritage Month), or any time of year, here are seven distilleries to hunt for distinctive bottles you won’t find back home.
Angel’s Envy Distillery Series
A creative playground for master distiller Owen Martin, the Distillery Series from Angel’s Envy brings to fruition ideas pulled from his ever-growing list of experiments. The series launched in 2024 with a bottled-in-bond bourbon—also the brand’s first non-finished release. Last year saw a dual release: a two-grain bourbon made with 90 percent corn along with malted barley, and a peated rye finished in Islay Scotch casks and proofed with barrel-aged water. All three were available in the gift shop as of mid-April, with another release expected this fall.
Rabbit Hole Distillery Series
Zamanian describes Rabbit Hole as a “culinary kitchen,” a versatile set-up built to distill various mash bills and produce small-batch expressions. Some, like Starlino, a bourbon finished in vermouth barrels and the first in the Distillery Series, have proven popular enough to consider a wider release. The latest, Amrûlé, is a rye whiskey finished for nine months in Maple Brûlé barrels from Quebec’s Tonnellerie Moreau cooperage, lending rich stone-fruit and toffee undertones. Also look for Raceking, a five-grain bourbon made with chocolate-malted wheat and barley, released this Derby season as part of the Founders Collection.
Bardstown Bourbon Co. Distillery Reserve Series
This series from Bardstown Bourbon Co. is “the home for our explorations—our rarest, finest liquid,” says Dan Callaway, vice president of development for the distillery. The inaugural release, Cathedral French Oak, featured nineteen-year-old bourbon finished in barrels made from old-growth oak trees also used to repair Notre Dame Cathedral. The latest, Cascadia Garryana Oak, is a blend of bourbons finished for ten months in hand-toasted barrels made from Oregon white oak, a tight-grained wood that limits oxidation and imparts palate-drying spice. In addition to the distillery in nearby Bardstown, find it at BBC’s Louisville tasting room on Main Street.
Old Forester 117 Series
Named for its historic address on Whiskey Row, the 117 Series from Old Forester highlights the brand’s experiments with proof, maturation, and finishes—think rum-finished bourbon, a Prohibition-era recipe meant to replicate medicinal whiskey, and an extra-aged version of its 1910 bourbon from the Whiskey Row collection. This past March’s release, High Angels’ Share Rye, showcases the effects of heat-cycled warehouses and barrels with elevated evaporation, concentrating and intensifying flavors.
Whiskey Thief Distilling Co.
At Whiskey Thief, what you taste is what you get, as its NuLu tasting room (and farm-based distillery near Frankfort) are the only places to find its pot-distilled whiskeys, which are now overseen by esteemed distiller Lisa Wicker. With the Uncut & Unfiltered Experience, guests thief samples from a rotating selection of about five individual barrels of bourbon and rye, with the option to hand-fill, label, and take home a bottle of barrel-strength whiskey of their choosing. While Whiskey Thief doesn’t distribute to stores, it will ship bottles directly, but it’s worth a stop in person to hand-pick a barrel that pleases your palate.
Evan Williams Square 6 Series
Named after a plot of land where its namesake is believed to have founded Kentucky’s first commercial distillery in 1783, the Square 6 series from Evan Williams includes whiskey exclusively distilled on the small still at the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience on Whiskey Row. Choose from a high-rye bourbon, wheated bourbon, and a rye whiskey. With the right timing, you might also find Evan Williams 23-Year-Old, a limited-release bourbon also available only at the Main Street location (although Square 6 does occasionally make it out to area liquor stores).
WhistlePig Take the Whiskey and Run
WhistlePig opened its downtown Louisville tasting room, the Vault, in a former bank building on Market Street late last year. As part of the launch, members of the Louisville-based team traveled to the Vermont distillery to blend a version of its Old World Rye available exclusively at its Bourbon City location. Take the Whiskey and Run is a twelve-year-old rye built around three types of finishing casks. The majority is finished in Madeira casks, with 20 percent each in Sauternes and port casks, contributing floral sweetness and dark berry notes.
Tom Wilmes is a journalist based in central Kentucky who covers bourbon and other spirits, travel, and food. A contributor to Garden & Gun, he has also written for Whisky Advocate, The Local Palate, Southbound, and other publications. A Kentucky Colonel and Certified Executive Bourbon Steward, he has spent years reporting on—and indulging in—the culture he covers, a responsibility he doesn’t take lightly. Follow him on Instagram @americadistilled.
