Augusta Distillery

In June 2023, a bourbon from a Kentucky river town of roughly 1,200 people was named the best in the world. Buckner's 13 Year single barrel, bottled by Augusta Distillery in Augusta, Kentucky, took double gold and the top bourbon honor at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, in a field Garden & Gun put at 503 entrants. For a young company that had committed itself to a narrow and demanding standard, single barrel Kentucky bourbon aged at least eight years and bottled unfiltered at cask strength, it was fast vindication.

History & Heritage

Augusta Distillery was founded in 2018 in Augusta, Kentucky, a town on the southern bank of the Ohio River about 50 miles upriver from Cincinnati. Garden & Gun reports five founding partners, most of them husband-and-wife couples, with Lance Bates as cofounder and board chairman and Ryan Edwards as president. The idea dates to 2017, when Bates and college friends Robert Burns and Jeff Johnson began planning a venture built around well-aged single barrels.

The flagship Buckner's line honors Captain Philip Buckner, a Revolutionary War officer who was granted thousands of acres along the Ohio River, land that gave rise to the town of Augusta. The company broke ground on its $23 million distillery in June 2022, restoring a late-1800s factory that once made stagecoach parts, and opened its visitor center in a circa-1883 building. Alex Castle, formerly of Old Dominick Distillery in Memphis and Wild Turkey, joined as the company's first Master Distiller and Director of Distillery Operations in May 2024. She leads production on two 35-foot Vendome copper column stills with capacity for roughly 14,000 barrels a year. A seven-story wood-frame rickhouse with traditional wooden ricks holds the company's aging barrels.

The Whiskey

Augusta Distillery began as a sourcing operation and is transparent about it: the aged Kentucky bourbon in its current releases was distilled elsewhere, selected barrel by barrel, and bottled without chill filtration at cask strength. Its own distillate, run through the Vendome stills that came online with the new facility in 2024, is now laying down in the rickhouse. Castle has put the typical Buckner's mash bill at 74 percent corn, 18 percent rye, and 8 percent malted barley, with the house's primary mash bill going forward at 75 percent corn, 20 percent rye, and 5 percent malted barley. Buckner's appears at 10, 13, 15, and 17 years of age, and Augusta Old Route 8 Limited 8-Year Single Barrel opens the single barrel portfolio at the founding eight-year minimum. In 2026 the company widened the range beyond that original standard: by the distillery's account, Augusta Small Batch Cask Strength Bourbon Whiskey draws on no more than eight barrels aged an average of seven years, and Augusta Distillery Wheated Bourbon Whiskey Cask Strength Single Barrel, the house's first wheated release, swaps rye for wheat and averages about seven years in oak.

Why It Matters

Plenty of producers source whiskey. Few hold their founding line to a floor of eight years, single barrel presentation, and full cask strength, and fewer still have the barrel selection to win the top bourbon award at San Francisco while doing it. Buckner's 15 Year also took the American Distilling Institute's Best Craft Bourbon and Best Craft Whiskey honors in 2023. For those who appreciate good whiskey, Augusta offers something increasingly rare: honest, well-aged Kentucky bourbon presented exactly as it left the barrel. The Sentinel Room carries seven of its expressions in the Reserve Whiskey Library, from Augusta Old Route 8 Limited 8-Year Single Barrel through Augusta Buckner's Limited Edition 17 Year Single Barrel Unfiltered Cask Strength Bourbon.

Visiting the Distillery

Augusta Distillery offers tours and tastings at 207 Seminary Avenue in Augusta, Kentucky, open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed Monday and Tuesday. Bookings are available through the distillery's website.