Size: 73

One of the hidden gems of the Willett Distillery, Johnny Drum Private Stock Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey deserves a dram of your time.

The Willett Family has a long Whiskey-making history stretching batch into the 1700s. The family has been in and out of the distillery business for well over two-hundred years. In 1936 John David Willett formed an independent bottling business called the Willett Distilling Company. Now known as Kentucky Bourbon Distillers, they produce a tidy range of premium American Whiskeys. And all the core Spirits flows from their newly renovated distillery — opened in 2012. They deliver no fewer than sixteen brands and an untold number of bottlings and releases.

Johnny Drum Bourbons can be hard to come by because — even though it comes from Willett — it is a small-batch label and there are just not that many bottles around to be had. Johnny Drum Private Stock Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey is the top of the range, being the oldest and highest proof of the line. It’s now a non-age-statement dram, but previous versions were fifteen or so years old. And it’s bottled at 50.5% ABV, so there is plenty of power to go around — most of us will take it on the rocks or with a splash which really opens up the flavors and aromas. It took the Gold Medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Smartass corner:
Legend has it that “Johnny Drum” was a drummer-boy for the Confederacy during the US Civil War. Afterward, he returned to farming in his native Kentucky and took to distilling as a way to maximize his corn harvest.

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