James E Pepper Barrel Proof Historic Decanter Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (2025) 75cl
A not so well known brand outside of Kentucky that has never made it out much.
This vintage decanter style bottle is certainly eye-catching, and its sip has just as much to say.
Who doesn’t love a bourbon that comes in a great looking bottle? It’s one of the major selling points producers use to direct a customer’s eye towards their product. Rightfully so, some are suspicious of such practices as they tend to think a producer is over-compensating for a lack of quality of their whiskey, hoping to make it up with style over substance. James E. Pepper Barrel Proof Decanter Bourbon is definitely one of the better looking bottles released in 2023 onwards and backs up its looks with substance. The company also doesn’t try to hide the fact that they want you to reuse the bottle as a decanter as it's right there in the bourbon’s name.
TASTING NOTES
Nose: Toasted oak, walnuts
Palate: Oak, dried dark fruits, marzipan
Finish: Medium-long with notes of creamy vanilla, citrus peel and nutmeg
About James E Pepper
The brand is named after a historic American whiskey maker with that name who built and operated a distillery in Lexington, Kentucky, and marketed his whiskey under his family's brand name "Old Pepper" and under his own name. The brand's distillery, known as the Henry Clay distillery and later as the Old Pepper distillery and James E. Pepper distillery, was shut down in 1967 and was left abandoned for more than 50 years until Amir Peay (an entrepreneur with no relationship to the prior brand owners) purchased the historic distillery site and relaunched the brand name in 2008. Distilling resumed at the site in 2017.
Colonel James E. Pepper (1850-1906), was a larger-than-life bourbon industrialist and flamboyant promoter of his family brand. He was the third generation to produce 'Old Pepper' whiskey, “The Oldest and Best Brand of Whisky made in Kentucky,” founded during the American Revolution. Colonel Pepper proudly proclaimed his continued use of his grandfather’s original Revolutionary War-era recipes, nicknaming his whiskey 'Old 1776'. His namesake distillery in Lexington, Kentucky, built in 1880, was said to be the largest and most technologically advanced whiskey distillery in the United States at that time.
An innovative producer of high-grade whiskies, Colonel Pepper pushed boundaries to grow and strengthen the industry at a critical time. In 1890, he convinced the state of Kentucky to change its laws, allowing distilleries to bottle their own whiskey—a right previously held only by rectifiers. To assure consumers of his whiskey's integrity, he invented the now-ubiquitous “strip stamp seal.” By printing his signature on a strip label applied across the cork, he was able to prosecute counterfeit producers and “bottle re-fillers” under existing forgery laws. His advocacy was instrumental in the passage of the “Bottled in Bond Act of 1897”—the first consumer protection law, ensuring the purity and identity of the whiskey in the bottle.
A noted horseman, Colonel Pepper operated the finest horse farm in Kentucky. His thoroughbreds competed in races across America and Europe, once even beating King Edward VII for the Doncaster Cup in England. Isaac Burns Murphy, one of the greatest riders in horse racing history and a personal friend of Pepper, raced for him in both the Kentucky Derby and the Oaks.
Colonel Pepper traveled in an ornate private rail car named "The Old Pepper," colorfully painted with images of his famed whiskey label. He spent considerable time at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, where he socialized with other American captains of industry, including John D. Rockefeller, Theodore Roosevelt, C.V. Vanderbilt, Charles A. Pillsbury, Fred Pabst, Charles L. Tiffany, and William Steinway. It was at the Waldorf that Colonel Pepper popularized the “Old Fashioned” cocktail, which was said to have been invented in his honor by a bartender at the famed Pendennis Club in Louisville.
*Please allow 7-14 days for delivery
54.9% ABV
75cl
