Castle & Key is built on one of the most storied pieces of ground in bourbon. In 1887, Colonel E.H. Taylor Jr. — the man who lobbied the Bottled-in-Bond Act into existence — built the Old Taylor Distillery in Millville, Kentucky as a showplace: a limestone castle, a classical springhouse, sunken gardens, and the longest aging warehouse in the world, all designed to welcome visitors at a time when distilleries were grim industrial sheds. It closed in 1972 and rotted for four decades until Will Arvin and Wes Murry bought the 113-acre ruin in 2014 and spent years restoring it. Distilling resumed in 2016, first under Marianne Eaves, Kentucky's first female master distiller since Prohibition, and now under Brett Connors. The house recipes lean on white corn for its softer sweetness and on a distinctive 63% rye, 17% corn, 20% malted barley rye mash, with every whiskey entered into the barrel at an unusually low 107 proof. Restoration Rye, the first release, now carries a 5-year age statement; Small Batch Bourbon reached 6 years and 101 proof in 2025; the Wheated Bourbon runs 7 years at cask strength. The Experimental Series is where the distillery plays — rye finished in Spanish Vino de Naranja casks, then in Extra Old Haitian rhum barrels. Castle & Key also distills for Pinhook and others, and its gin and vodka carry botanicals from the estate gardens. Kentucky heritage, genuinely rebuilt.

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