"Pinhooking" is an old Kentucky horse-racing term for buying a promising young thoroughbred, raising it to maturity, and selling it when it's ready to run — and Pinhook applies exactly that logic to bourbon barrels. Founded in 2010 by Sean Josephs, Jay Peterson, and Charles Fulford, the brand's core idea is vintage whiskey: rather than blending to hit an identical target every year, each release is built to be the best possible expression of that year's barrels, and it changes accordingly — proof, profile, and all. Josephs is the palate behind it: a certified sommelier who cut his teeth at Per Se and Chanterelle in New York, then opened three acclaimed whiskey bars including Char No. 4 and Maysville, and has sat on the New York Times spirits tasting panel. The horse connection runs through affiliates McMahon & Hill Bloodstock and Bourbon Lane Stables — every vintage is named for a real young thoroughbred, with the horse's racing record tracked on the brand's website. Early releases sourced barrels from MGP; since 2020 Pinhook has distilled its own custom mash bills at Castle & Key, the restored Old Taylor distillery in Frankfort, where the 2020 Bohemian Bourbon became the first whiskey distilled and bottled there in nearly fifty years. Alongside the annual bourbon and rye flagships, the Vertical Series follows a single group of barrels year after year — bottled at 4, 5, 6, and onward toward 16 — an unprecedented look at how whiskey actually ages.

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