Castle & Key Restoration Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey

It looks like the search for quirks and curiosities leads to some super-delicious discoveries.

Who doesn’t like to drool over the sight of an iconic medieval castle? And let’s just casually mention the fact that this castle also offers a perfect playground for some quality Whiskey distillation. It sure sounds like a dream. A dream that took shape in the head of one Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr. — inspired by the classiness of European architecture, he built a castle with surrounding sunken gardens and a keyhole-shaped springhouse that provided the distillery with a freshwater source. His dream withered away when the Prohibition closed it all down, but was rekindled in 2012 when Will Arvin saw some photographs of the abandoned ruins. So, he did the only reasonable thing — partnered up with Wes Murry and purchased the Old Taylor Distillery. They managed to restore the entire thing, named it Castle & Key, and started producing some kickass Spirits, with their savvy process guided by the power of innovation and modernization.

Each year, their Restoration project yields one tasty tipple with an extra-extra pinch of creativity and a whole lot of quality-focused effort. To ensure each sip is as good as the last, Castle & Key hand-selects the best barrels each season and groups them into sensory pods. These pods are then blended to highlight the quirks and curiosities of each batch. The mash bill for batch 1 consists of of 17% yellow corn, 63% rye, and 20% malted barley is aged for 3.5 years, resulting in a palate-pleasing explosion of flavors like honey, lemon, allspice, and stone fruit. Suffice it to say… we're hooked!