James E. Pepper
In Lexington, Kentucky, USA, the revived James E. Pepper Distillery carries a story that starts in 1879 as DSP‑KY‑5, falls silent after 1958, and returns to distillation in 2017. The Pepper name reaches back to the American Revolution and once helped found the site that later became Woodford Reserve, long before Lexington became its stage.
The comeback leans on old recipes, local grain contracts, and limestone‑filtered well water drawn deep from an aquifer—a Kentucky staple for fermentation and proofing. On the stilling side, modern equipment joins the narrative, including a towering column still, before the spirit heads into new, charred American oak as Kentucky Straight demands. In the heat of rickhouses, the Angel’s Share breathes hard and fast. A sip feels like reclaimed brick and copper: bold, confident, and warmly alive.James E. Pepper
In Lexington, Kentucky, USA, the revived James E. Pepper Distillery carries a story that starts in 1879 as DSP‑KY‑5, falls silent after 1958, and returns to distillation in 2017. The Pepper name reaches back to the American Revolution and once helped found the site that later became Woodford Reserve, long before Lexington became its stage.
The comeback leans on old recipes, local grain contracts, and limestone‑filtered well water drawn deep from an aquifer—a Kentucky staple for fermentation and proofing. On the stilling side, modern equipment joins the narrative, including a towering column still, before the spirit heads into new, charred American oak as Kentucky Straight demands. In the heat of rickhouses, the Angel’s Share breathes hard and fast. A sip feels like reclaimed brick and copper: bold, confident, and warmly alive.
