Bourbon de Luxe’s tiny relaunch is a hit, but market headwinds concern its owners

Boy, howdy. People sure seem to like brand resurrections. Bourbon De Luxe’s October relaunch, tiny as it was at 510 bottles, sold out in just a few days through online reseller Seelbach’s.

The brand, once held by the Wathen family when it owned Old Taylor Distillery, which became American Medicinal Spirits Co., which became National Distillers before it was swallowed up into the Jim Beam portfolio in 1987. Since 2023, reviving it has become a passion project for descendant Turner Wathen and his business partner, Jordan Morris, who own the Rolling Fork Spirits Rum brand. The two sourced and blended an 8-year-old bourbon to bring back BdL for an arguably modest $69.99.

During a recent meeting at Seven Cocktails, a fantastic bar in Louisville’s NuLu neighborhood, Wathen explained, “Bourbon de Luxe was always sold at a reasonable price point, and I’d love to sell it at $119 a bottle. But Jordan and I always thought it imperative to deliver something at a price point that allows people to try it. While it's not the best margin for us, we make a lot better margins on some of our other products.”

Following are his remarks on bringing BdL back, pricing it affordably, and the risks of launching the brand in late 2024.

For sure, the bourbon’s good, and we’re happy it’s sold so well. But the fun is already over. Today (two weeks post-launch) is a new day, and we have to get back to looking at the books and wondering about this challenging market. We still have a loan to pay off for this … and we’re asking ourselves whether consumer interest will sustain all this. … I don’t think the current downturn is going to help us.

But we also look at it this way: With how well it sold, we don't know if we didn’t put enough stuff out in the market to make a lasting impact. But if we didn't put something out this year, the trademark wasn’t going to last. We got the trademark in 2023, and we had one calendar year to use it. It was imperative for us to just get something in use.

At that moment, John “J.B.” Brittle, a co-founder of The Whiskey House in Nashville, sees the BdL bottle on the bar.

“Wow! Look at that package!” Brittle exclaims. “That is a gorgeous thing. I love old stuff like that.” Brittle’s praise earns him a handshake and a pour from Wathen’s bottle.

Wathen then holds out his phone to show me a picture of BdL’s original and beautifully ornate label. He says the TTB wanted some of the original label claims transferred to the back label, but the new label retained most of its original look, including its eye-catching gold foil borders.

Yeah, they’re expensive labels! And again, not great for making money. (He adds an eye roll.) When we produce Rolling Fork Rum labels, they average between 78 cents to $2 per label, depending on stock and volume. This one is over four bucks per label. Expensive, but Jordan and I wanted it to be as close to the original as possible.

For this initial release, we didn't want to do a cask finish. But we wanted it to be a cask strength and, you know, just good bourbon. We’re pleased with this 8-year that we’ve sourced.

How we chose the bourbon … . I'm not going to be that guy that says I tried 500 barrels and picked the best three. We did not. Barrels don't sell like that; they sell in lots. You’re allowed to try a couple from each lot, and you pick the lot you want. Anyone that tells you that, “I tried 1,000 barrels,” can go kick rocks. That's not how it works. We found a particular lot that we liked; a 21-percent rye mash bill lot, and we rolled with that. 

Going through Seelbach’s (for the launch) gave it a wider reach than it would have by going through standard distributor channels—that whole state by state by state by state by state process of giving everyone one case or two cases and then having everyone get pissed about such a small amount. And Blake Riber (Seelbach’s owner) has always been a very strong supporter of Rolling Fork. We always wanted to give him all of the first allotment as a thank you for everything he's done for us.

We will always have a standard (BdL) iteration. The mash bills might vary a little bit, but it’ll always be a similar age statement. As we continue to grow and age our stocks, we'll have some smaller special releases. Bourbon de Luxe was never some special whiskey back in its day. It was always really affordable and 4 years old. We want to make sure that the credence to providing whiskey at an affordable price stays with this plan. We will always do our best to keep it at a standard price point We want that $64.99 to stick.

I don't know if that's the best business decision, but it's important to Jordan and me to do that. I mean, look at the cult classic Willett releases. Those were 50 or 60 bucks not all that long ago. What did they used to sell Pappy Van Winkle for when no one bought it? Probably wasn’t a lot; nothing like it costs now.

So, let's remind ourselves of where we were less than 20 years ago, a time when those bottles weren’t really popular. Let’s try to put something out there that pays a little bit of homage to that aspect of what makes bourbon extraordinarily important to our community of Kentucky spirits enthusiasts.

Oh, yeah, those future iterations will include finishing it in Rolling Fork Rum Casks. Already we've got some of this bourbon sitting in some freshly dumped 14-year-old Fiji rum barrels, and some sitting in freshly dumped 15-year-old Jamaican rum barrels.

Wathen turns when Sean Dolle, a cofounder of Blackout Bourbon, says hello. The whiskey-centric group is well known for leveraging its large spirits collections to raise funds for charitable causes. It also owns an eponymous bourbon brand.

“Pour me some of that Bourbon de Luxe, baby!” Dolle says, and then jokes, “This is good whiskey. But you’re shelling me with that low price. I want to sell mine for more!”

Wathen says Blackout’s support of Rolling Fork all but saved it as an entity. Dolle deflects his praise.

“We didn’t save y’all,” he says. “That was only a couple of barrels.”

“But those were $20,000 barrels, and that covers a lot of bills and enables us to buy more barrels,” Wathen says.

“That bottle looks great. Congratulations, man,” Dolle adds before walking away.

You ask if I want to have a distillery. I say that sounds awesome. But from a cash flow perspective, we will have to source and maybe contract distill before we distill ourselves. But for now, our long-term vision is to have this become a staple bourbon across the United States.

The Wathen family is not known for being creative, we are known for keeping things like Bourbon de Luxe alive. Though Bourbon de Luxe was not a brand my family created, it was one of American Medicinal Spirits made when my family owned it. So, that’s why it was one of the brands we wanted to bring back to life.