Jim Rutledge plans sustainable Bourbon distillery

Former Four Roses master distiller Jim Rutledge has revealed plans to open a distillery in Kentucky, which will produce Bourbon and rye whiskey “the old fashioned way”.

Jim Rutledge, the former master distiller of Four Roses

In 2016, Rutledge announced plans to open his own distillery after eight months of retirement from the Four Roses Distillery. Rutledge will work with Stephen Camisa and Jon Mowry, both co-managing partners of Bedford & Grove LLC, on the project.

The new distillery, called JW Rutledge Distillery, has a projected budget of US$20-US$25 million.

The 69,000-square-foot facility is located in Middletown, Kentucky, and has been designed to be “modern and environmentally sustainable”.

The concept will “engage the landscape and gently steps downward toward Floyd’s Fork, allowing the process of Bourbon making to flow naturally via gravity, from grain delivery all the way to barrelling”.

The distillery will convert the naturally occurring stillage (the by-product of Bourbon production) into energy through a biomass digester and capture heating and cooling through a geothermal pond loop.

On the JW Rutledge Distillery website, Jim Rutledge, said: “We will produce Kentucky straight Bourbon whiskey and straight rye whiskey the ‘old-fashioned way’ relative to the requisites, guidelines and standards for straight whiskey production that have been in place for close to two centuries.”

Luckett & Farley and Pod architecture and design are providing engineering and architectural services for the distillery.

Both firms also worked together on the Rabbit Hole Distillery in Louisville.