James E. Pepper

All about James E. Pepper

The Pepper Family is part of American Whiskey history. They founded the Old Oscar Pepper Distillery that became Woodford Reserve Distillery.

After the Old Oscar Pepper Distillery was sold to the company that would become Woodford, the James E. Pepper Distilling Company built a second, larger distillery nearby which ran off and on until 1958.

In 2008, modern distilling entrepreneur Amir Peay bought the naming rights, and set out to build a new line of classic Whiskeys based upon the methods and traditions of the original. They make a range of Bourbons and Ryes, and an interesting dark ale.

And the entire product line has won gold medals and such here and there. So it’s definitely a solid effort on their part. The products are produced under contract with MGP Distillery in Indiana. But construction has started on a new distillery and visitor center in the old Pepper Distillery building in Kentucky.

It is slated to be completed sometime in 2017, with a portion of the production to be started there as soon as possible after that. Both the Bourbon and the Rye have strong notes of crystal brown sugar and roasted pecan.

They are very similar in composition, but the Rye has more spicy cinnamon notes than the Bourbon.