Brian Booth tapped the back wall of Justins’ House of Bourbon at just the right point, and the wall swung open to reveal a windowless den behind the shop. It was a veritable speakeasy of some of the rarest vintage whiskeys ever brought together in one vault—old bottles known in the trade as “dusties.”
That’s a big part of what Justins’ House of Bourbon (601 West Main St., Lexington, Ky.; (859) 317-8609; thehouseofbourbon.com) is all about. Note the placement of the possessive apostrophe. This Mecca for bourbon nerds is the brainchild of Justin Sloan and Justin Thompson, both of whom began collecting vintage bottles of bourbon more than a decade ago.
When Kentucky law changed in 2017 to allow the sale—by the glass and by the bottle—of vintage spirits, the two Justins were ready. Their shop, just up Main Street from the Lexington Convention Center, helps cement Lexington’s place in the bourbon constellation. The city already hosted The Bourbon Review magazine and the connoisseur’s bar known as Belle’s Cocktail House —both of which Justin Thompson helped found. Sloan is a co-owner of the magazine and one of the founders of the bourbon collectors’ website The Bourbon Mafia (bourbonmafia.org).
The Justins are true evangelists of the gospel of Kentucky’s golden elixir. While the establishment (which now also has a branch in Louisville) does a brisk business selling vintage bourbon to collectors, the Justins consider themselves mainly in the education business. These guys—and their employees like our bourbon steward Brian Booth (right)—could happily talk all day about bourbon, bourbon history, the fine points of tasting, and enough technical details to overwhelm us mere mortals.
A deep dive into the original American spirit
You can simply stop in and have a drink at the bar (only whiskeys made since 1967) or opt for a private tasting in the Speakeasy Room (shown at top of post), where you can explore the universe of old and rare whiskeys.
This experience generally starts around $100 per person, but the proprietors can tailor an experience for any small group and almost any budget. Reserve far ahead for April and October, though, as the House of Bourbon gets slammed during the Keeneland Racing Season.
We did a lengthy tasting, complete with bourbon history lesson. We learned that barrel aging was an accident—a byproduct of sending raw whiskey down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in oak barrels when the western half of the continent opened up after the Louisiana Purchase. One highlight of our tasting was a Pappy Van Winkle 10 Year Old, the quintessential “wheated” whiskey with light, fruity notes. By contrast, we also sipped an Elmer T. Lee, a single barrel sour mash from 1986 rich with honey, vanilla, and clove. It was Buffalo Trace’s homage to their long-time master distiller who had retired the year before.
Given our limited budget, our rarest was a powerful and spicy Old Carter Rye Batch 4 barrel proof. With only 942 bottles made, the Indiana rye sells around $200 per bottle. Part of that price reflects the Federal alcohol tax on 114.1° proof. With all that spice and bite, it would make a killer chaser for a bowl of Texas red.