Kentucky Owl Bourbon Is Aiming For A Larger Audience With Its Takumi Edition

The latest limited release from Kentucky Owl, the super-luxury bourbon that quickly achieved cult status in today’s hyper-popular whiskey market, is yet another step in a well-thought-out plan to create a global brand. It’s the second bottle to emerge from the brand’s international collaboration line that brings in experts from different parts of the whiskey landscape to create a one-of-a-kind bourbon with the team at Kentucky Owl. The Stoli Group, the owner of Kentucky Owl, hopes that by introducing outside elements into the normally closed world of bourbon, they will be able to entice new drinkers into the category and expose them to something entirely new.

“We thought, how can we introduce high-quality bourbon to people worldwide that equate American whiskey to Jack Daniels and other brands that have been out there for years? How can we globalize this brand? says Damian McKinney, the Stoli Group global CEO. So, we thought, why not find the best distillers and blenders from around the world and have them work with us to incorporate their expertise and ideas and create a wholly different product using only bourbon.”

Following last year’s The St. Patrick’s Edition, a collaboration with Irish Whiskey Bonder Louise McGuane, which saw 12,000 bottles sell out in eight months, the latest release takes drinkers to an entirely different part of the world, Japan. The Takumi Edition is a blend of 4-, 5-, 6-, and 13-year-old Kentucky straight bourbons selected by Master Blender John Rhea of Kentucky Owl and blended by Yusuke Yahisa of the Nagahama Distillery, himself a Master Blender too. By allowing Yahisa to work on his formulations representing the thriving Japanese Whiskey landscape, the team at Kentucky Owl hopes to marry two styles into a wholly singular product that will appeal to a broad swath of drinkers.

As the bourbon and whisky markets continue their rapid expansion, numerous boutique and premium brands have appeared over the last decade. Many have rapidly gained loyal followings due to their willingness to embrace new ideas and roll out exciting blends. Blue Run Bourbon and Jefferson’s Bourbon are two prime examples of this. Both have challenged the status quo, Blue Run with its sneakerization of the bourbon industry and Jefferson’s with its Ocean-Aged bourbons.

Kentucky Owl, launched in 2014, is a prime example of the success that new-old Kentucky bourbons can have that are built on the backs of older defunct brands that are resurrected. It was first founded in 1879 by C. M. Deadman; like many distillers, it did not survive Prohibition, closing in 1916. When Dixon Deadman, the founder’s great, great, grandson, relaunched his family’s brand, it immediately soared to the top of drinkers’ awareness. Part of it was that it had a real history, part of it was the liquids Deadman obtained to make his blends, and part was the hyper-limited bottlings that quickly were gobbled up.

Dixon remained with the brand for a while after its purchase by Stoli Group in 2017; he has since moved on. His successor as head blender, John Rhea, brought in in 2021, brings some serious credentials. A Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame member, he spent his career at Four Roses Distillery, a global brand that has won many awards and accolades. Under his tutelage, the Kentucky Owl brand has begun to expand its offerings rolling out several new products while a new distillery complex is being built to support future growth. The international collaboration edition bottles are one of the showcase additions to the lineup that the Stoli Group is using to introduce the brand to a broader audience.

‘We’re an ultra-premium company, so you never want to lose the equity of what is an amazing bourbon. On the other hand, we live in a global world, and we need to be disruptive and challenging around how we do this in a way where we can genuinely share what we have. So effectively exporting something that is truly great requires some outside-the-box thinking. We need to grab people’s attention and get them to taste our bourbon. Once they do that, we are sure they will love it. We want to be disruptive but not gimmicky; these bottles do that by highlighting the amazing skills, so many different whisky makers worldwide have. We plan on making these an annual release that will touch all the corners of the planet.”

By picking Yahisa as their second partner in this endeavor, Kentucky Owl went off the recommendations of several experts in the Japanese whiskey market. According to McKinney, his name repeatedly appeared in conversations as a rising star in one of the most whiskey-obsessed countries. His Nagahama Distillery is the smallest one in Japan. Still, its upcoming single-malt releases are already generating considerable buzz. They could quickly become another cult brand in a space that loves them.

The 25,000 bottles of the Takumi Edition, which means “master” in Japanese, are being released now and retail for $150. The liquid inside is a blend of Kentucky bourbon with a mixed mash bill of corn, rye or wheat, and malted barley. It has tasting notes of rye bread and caramel on the nose, followed by a hint of fruitiness-cherry, apple, and pear with a smooth finish.