Bardstown’s newest attraction? A bourbon academy that meets in a luxury penthouse.

Another jewel has been added to Bardstown’s crown as “Bourbon Capital of the World.”

On June 17, after a year devoted to getting ready for the big event, the Brindiamo Penthouse officially opened on the third floor of Bardstown’s Spalding Hall.

The luxurious penthouse space will serve multiple functions: As headquarters for the Kentucky Bourbon Festival; a venue for tastings and other events for members of the Bourbon Capital Guild; and beginning in August, as a purpose-built classroom for the Bourbon Capital Academy.

The latter will offer an immersive, multi-sensory bourbon education experience. Sam Lacy , executive director of the Bourbon Capital Alliance, says the Academy “was conceived as a customized ongoing Bardstown-centric bourbon immersion.”

The concept seemed a natural fit for the community, but first a fitting location had to be found – one that had the necessary brio for a bourbon experience.

It came in the form of 184-year-old Spalding Hall. Built in 1839 to replace an earlier structure that burned down, it served as the main building of St. Joseph’s College, the first Catholic college in Kentucky. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the building is home to both the Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History and the Rickhouse Restaurant.

‘Rolls Royce of bourbon facilities’

It proved a natural fit and in June 2022, the Brindiamo Group, a Nashville-based alcohol industry consulting firm and one of the largest suppliers of whiskey products in the world, donated $150,000 to create the penthouse space which the company’s founder Jeff Hopmayer describes as “the Rolls Royce of bourbon facilities.”

As academy classrooms go, Hopmayer has a point. The space features black leather couches, wrought iron chandeliers and a circular bar for serving the penthouse’s signature cocktail, the Assaggio Di Brindiamo (translation – A Taste of Brindiamo.) For those who don’t speak Italian, brindiamo means “let’s toast.”

Signature cocktail available

And what a taste. Crafted especially for the penthouse by Leslie Bryan, a member of the bar team at Toogie’s Table in the Bardstown Motor Lodge, the cocktail features Kentucky bourbon, lemon juice, Cappelletti aperitif and Velvet Falernum, a sweet liqueur from Barbados.

At the bar end of the room 45 lockers are available for members of the bourbon guild to store their favorite bottles. Membership in the Society is limited to 150 members and there is currently a waiting list.

How to visit the bourbon penthouse

Don’t be discouraged if you have to wait for a spot to open up. You can still visit the penthouse by signing up for one of the two-hour Academy “experiences.”

The space at the opposite end of the room from the bar is given over to tables for bourbon lovers who want to start (or continue) their education in America’s only native spirit.

If you fall into the newbie category, Lacy suggests the Academy’s Fundamentals Course – a sensory experience where participants first nose the grains, and then taste the product of those grains from the nine distilleries which are sustaining partners in the project: Old Still House; Lux Row Distillers; Preservation Distillery; Heaven Hill Distillery; Bardstown Bourbon Company; Maker’s Mark Distillery; James B. Beam Distilling Co.; Log Still Distillery, and Barton’s 1792 Distillery.

The distilleries will offer their bourbons on a rotating basis, with five at a time in the bi-weekly classes which can accommodate 24 people.

Classes at Kentucky distilleries too

After Academy students have mastered the fundamentals of Bourbon 101, they are ready to continue their education.

“The coolest part of the Academy is working with our partner distilleries to provide continuing bourbon education opportunities onsite at the distilleries,” says Lacy .

There are different courses, he explains, “each focusing on a unique aspect of the distilling process.”

Four are already set up at Maker’s Mark, Lux Row, Heaven Hill and Bardstown Bourbon Company, and they are currently building courses with the other five partners which they hope to have finalized by late summer.

Lacy says that the bourbon academy is not meant to compete with any of the distilleries, but rather to be an enhancement to what they already offer.

“We see the bourbon academy as a reason for those visiting our distilleries to come to Bardstown early or to stay late,” he says.