Stetson Tips Its Hat To Bourbon With First Ever Whiskey Release

Stetson Kentucky Straight Bourbon

Tatsuro Nishimura

Stetson has spent the past 160 years establishing itself arsenic a bequest manner brand. A specified mention of the sanction conjures images of its iconic cowboy chapeau and, pinch it, the pioneering tone of the American West. Today it becomes intertwined pinch different benignant of American tone altogether: Kentucky Straight Bourbon. We’ve sewage your first sensation of the liquid correct here.

The $70 vessel arrives connected shelves this week, a 100-proof high-rye offering originated from Bardstown, Kentucky. It’s a blend of whiskies matured for a minimum of 7 years, combining successful the solid to impact caramelized pome aromatics and a creme brûlée-inspired amalgam of texture and confection connected the palate. A awesome benignant of dessert dram that was birthed by Dan Callaway of Bardstown Bourbon Company.

But it hardly came together overnight. Stetson collaborated pinch the award-winning blender aft a 3 twelvemonth travel to find the optimal producer, aliases producers – arsenic it turned out. What ended up successful the vessel marks the first-ever collaboration betwixt Green River Distilling Company and Bardstown Bourbon Company. Though some labels person shared communal ownership since 2022, it took this task to merge them successful a solitary batch. And it’s a convergence that astir earnestly represents the Stetson name, arsenic well, arsenic there’s a pronounced ruggedness to the finish, 1 that possibly moreover hints astatine worn leather.

“For much than 160 years, Stetson has stood alongside the group who built the American West,” says Stetson CEO Robert Dundon successful a property release. “Bourbon has ever been portion of that aforesaid tradition, woven into the aforesaid ranches, saloons, and gatherings our hats person been portion of.”

Indeed, it’s difficult to ideate a Stetson chapeau successful any situation that doesn’t besides see brownish hooch connected shelf. Ergo, it’s an wholly integrated hold of the marque and – acknowledgment to its vintage-like packaging, evoking the American West – it’ll look for illustration it’s ever been there. Specifically, each vessel is branded pinch a depiction of The Last Drop from His Stetson, a historic, widely-recognized coating by Lon Megargee.

Although the whiskey’s position harkens backmost to a bygone section from the American frontier, its distribution is markedly modern. It’s disposable coming direct-to-consumers online, wherever allowable by law. Only folks successful Texas will spot it the aged fashioned way: sitting connected beingness shelves. There are plans to grow off-premise distribution successful the adjacent future. And pinch 160 years of waiting, what’s a fewer much months?

“We wanted to bring a unsocial premium look to marketplace that our discerning customers will bask wherever they observe the rituals of their lives,” adds Dundon. "It’s astir time.”