Looking for a great Kentucky bourbon bargain? You can buy this reborn whiskey now.
A bourbon revival from Western Kentucky is already drawing great reviews for its flavor and its price.
Green River Distillery in Owensboro was founded in 1885 and relaunched in 2020. Now, after rebuilding the 28-acre derelict distillery, Green River is releasing its first bourbon in more than a century and hopes to reclaim some of the brand’s historic luster.
The new Green River Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey hits store shelves beginning Feb. 11 at a suggested price of $34.99, according to a news release. The limited release will be available to buy at the distillery, online and in Kentucky. It also will be rolling out to select retailers in Tennessee, Missouri, Indiana, and Northwest Florida.
The bourbon is aged more than five years and is 90 proof. According to the tasting notes, the bourbon has a nose of warming spice, cinnamon, dried cherry and light leather, with flavors of cinnamon, vanilla, caramel and chocolate mint on the palate. It has a mashbill of 70 percent corn, 21 percent winter rye, 9 percent malted 2- and 6-row barley. The corn is mostly sourced from Daviess County, according to the distillery.
In an early review, whiskey critic Fred Minnick called a fantastic whiskey for the price.
“Wow, my hat’s off — my hat’s absolutely off — to Green River, to Jacob Call the master distiller there, for putting out an excellent bourbon,” Minnick said in his online review.
Call is an eighth-generation distiller and Kentuckian. His ancestor Samuel Call distilled whiskey on his Kentucky farm in the late 1700s, according to the release.
“For the first time in more than 100 years, Green River bourbon is flowing inside the walls of its original home,” said Call. “As someone with a family connection to the first days of Kentucky bourbon, being a part of the revival of such a legendary whiskey has been the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Green River bourbon history
The historic distillery was purchased in 2014 by Terressentia, which uses a rapid-aging process. In 2016, they began traditional distilling under the name O.Z. Tyler but in 2020 returned to the Green River name. It now produces 90,000 barrels of bourbon and rye a year for bulk and private label partners including Duke Spirits.
Before Prohibition, the Green River name was associated with quality. Green River Distilling Co. was founded in 1885 by John W. McCulloch. The whiskey was international awards, including a gold medal and “best of show” at the Paris Exposition in 1900, and a grand prize at the 1905 Liege Exposition in Belgium, according to the release.
Great-gandson Rob McCulloch worked with the new distillery owners to bring it back. “I’ve always wanted to see Green River whiskey made at its original location in Owensboro. It completes the story my great-grandfather started in 1885,” McCulloch said in a statement.
The whiskey also revives Owensboro’s role as an epicenter of bourbon production. The city once had more than 20 distilleries.
“Visiting the Green River distillery in Owensboro is like stepping back in time to earlier days of bourbon production in the United States,” said Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, said in the release. “Many bourbon lovers don’t realize that Owensboro and Western Kentucky were among the most important regions for bourbon production in the 1800s. When you’re standing on the Green River campus, you’re standing on hallowed ground.”
The new bourbon’s bottle, which has a horse-shoe shaped footprint, carries the phrase, “The Pride of Owensboro.”
“I’m proud of our team’s great work bringing Green River back to life in Owensboro after years of dormancy – not only because of what it means to our company, but what it means for this wonderful city,” said Simon Burch, CEO of Green River Distilling Co., in the release. “In its heyday, Green River’s success was intrinsically linked to Owensboro’s proud whiskey making heritage. The revival of the brand will make this true once again, and we plan to sell it far and wide, just like the original Green River.”
You can book tours and tastings of the distillery, which is the Western-most stop on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, online at Greenriverdistilling.com.
