James E. Pepper is a new name to a lot of people, but they’ve been making a splash in the whiskey world for quite some time. Placing #27 on Fred Minnick’s Top 100 American Whiskeys of 2023, their Barrel Proof Decanter has been getting lots of recent attention.  Several years ago, their Old Pepper line featured some well-aged sourced bourbons that were highly sought after along brands such as O.K.I., Belle Meade, Blaum Brothers, Boone County, and Smooth Ambler. In our opinion, James E. Pepper has been one of the most enjoyable brands both on the sourced side, and now with their own distillate. What we’ve been most surprised by is the flavor for the cost in their small batch and single barrel bourbons & ryes alike. Compared to a lot of other products on the market, these are an incredible value. We are excited to have not one, but two single barrels to help welcome James E. Pepper to Seelbach’s.

Old Pepper Single Barrel Bourbon #19-351

The nose has big wafts of butterscotch candies, brûléed sugar top and fresh raspberries.

The palate is chewy and creamy with lots of caramel, but isn’t shy about the baking spice either.

The finish is long and sticky, giving nods to chocolate croissant, heavy dark cherry syrup, and walnut. The longer linger has beautiful oak notes if you are patient enough between sips.

Old Pepper Single Barrel Rye #19-357

The Pepper family brand of whiskey is an iconic Kentucky whiskey brand initially produced during the American Revolution and continued through 1967. The family built and operated two main distilleries: first founding the site that today hosts the Woodford Reserve Distillery, and later the James E. Pepper Distillery in Lexington. In the late 1960s the bourbon industry hit hard times, and both the brand and distillery in Lexington were abandoned for over half a century.

In 2008 the brand was relaunched by whiskey entrepreneur Amir Peay. A decade-long campaign of thorough historical research and collection of historic materials was used to retell the lost story of this iconic American whiskey brand and to distill new stocks of “Pepper” whiskey (visit the History Page to learn more). To initiate the relaunch of the brand, partnerships with the Lawrenceburg Distillery in Indiana and the Bardstown Bourbon Co. in Kentucky were formed.  Today some of our whiskies contain whiskies distilled at those distilleries.

After a multi-year construction effort, the historic James E. Pepper Distillery—which after fifty years of neglect had fallen into a terrible state of disrepair—was completely rebuilt and restored. In December 2017, the distillery once again began distilling whiskey using the same historic recipe as when it shut down in 1967.