Pursuit Spirits

Pursuit Spirits was founded in 2018 in Louisville, Kentucky by Ryan Cecil and Kenny Coleman, the creators of the Bourbon Pursuit podcast. Rather than distilling from scratch, Pursuit built its reputation on a different model: sourcing whiskey from multiple distilling partners, aging it separately, then blending it into a finished expression under the Pursuit United name. It is a producer built by whiskey obsessives who turned their podcast audience's curiosity about sourcing and blending into an actual brand.

History & Heritage

Cecil and Coleman started Bourbon Pursuit as a podcast built around interviewing distillers and dissecting how bourbon actually gets made. That deep familiarity with the industry's supply chain led them to launch Pursuit Spirits in 2018, with a production and blending facility at 1700 Mellwood Ave. in Louisville and, later, a visitor experience at 722 W Main St., Suite 100 on Louisville's Whiskey Row. The company is owned, as of July 2026, by Pursuit Spirits, LLC, with no acquisition or ownership change on record since founding.

Rather than positioning itself as a single-site distillery, Pursuit built its identity around the blend itself. Its flagship line, Pursuit United, is explicit about its sourced, multi-distillery approach, a transparency that stood out in a bourbon category where sourcing is often left vague or unstated.

The Whiskey

Pursuit is a blender and independent bottler, not a distillery operating its own stills. It partners with four distilling partners across several states, using six distinct mash bills with customized barrel char levels. Each partner's barrels age on-site at that distillery before being hand-selected and shipped to Louisville for blending.

Pursuit United Triple Mash Bourbon, bottled at 88 proof, is a four-grain blend combining components from a Tennessee distilling partner (80% corn, 10% rye, 10% malted barley), Bardstown Bourbon Company (78% corn, 10% rye, 12% malted barley), and Finger Lakes Distilling (70% local corn, 20% red winter wheat, 10% malted barley). Pursuit United Triple Mash Bourbon Barrel Proof takes the same rye-and-wheated-bourbon blend and bottles it uncut and unfiltered at variable proof.

Pursuit United Triple Mash Rye, also 88 proof, unites three rye whiskeys from two states, drawing on Bardstown Bourbon Company (95% rye, 5% malted barley) and two Sagamore Spirit mash bills (95% rye/5% malted barley, and 52% rye/43% corn/5% malted barley).

The Double Oaked line takes the same building blocks through a secondary maturation. Pursuit United Double Oaked Bourbon, bottled at 108 proof, rests in custom French oak staves seasoned for 36 months with a medium toast. Pursuit United Double Oaked Rye, also 108 proof, finishes in French oak that is lightly toasted and heavily charred, sourcing straight rye whiskeys from two states across three mash bills.

Pursuit United Bourbon has won Double Gold at the 2021 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, and Pursuit United Rye won Gold at the 2022 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Why It Matters

Pursuit Spirits represents a different path into the whiskey business: built by people who studied the industry from the outside through interviews and research, then applied that knowledge to blending rather than distilling. Its willingness to publish exact mash bills and name its distilling partners is unusual in an industry where sourcing details are frequently kept vague. For those who appreciate good whiskey, Pursuit United expressions offer a way to taste how the same blending philosophy plays out differently across bourbon and rye, standard proof and barrel proof, and single versus double oak finishing.

Visiting the Distillery

Pursuit offers bookable visitor experiences at its Whiskey Row location, 722 W Main St., Suite 100, Louisville, Kentucky. Official hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and advance booking is recommended. The site includes Trial+Error, a downstairs cocktail lounge pouring more than 100 Pursuit expressions.