The Zebra Barrel Rye | Bardstown’s Origin Rye With Jake Sulek

We’re back at the Bardstown Bourbon Company with Jake Sulek, the experience and education manager, recording in the Heritage Library surrounded by dusty bottles and stories from Kentucky’s whiskey past.

We’re tasting the Origin Series Rye, a minimum six year rye that’s produced, aged and bottled at Bardstown Bourbon Company and available in Australia. While the mash bill looks familiar at 95 percent rye and 5 percent malted barley, the flavour comes from a finishing barrel designed for innovation.

The conversation turns to whiskey history. Jake shares stories about defunct distilleries around Bardstown, preserved warehouses still used today, what Prohibition did to the industry, how brands consolidated afterward, and how the bourbon glut pushed Kentucky down to just nine active distilleries by the year 2000.

If you want a rye that feels different, or you love the history behind American whiskey, this episode is for you.

Podcast chapters

00:00 Back at Bardstown with Jake Sulek
00:27 Origin Series overview
00:59 Mash bill and why this rye is finished
01:20 The cherrywood barrel challenge
01:55 Zebra barrel and infrared toasting
02:52 What flavours cherrywood and toasting bring
03:12 Tasting notes and the rye that doesn’t burn
04:26 Label transparency and what you’re drinking
05:01 Single barrel and cast strength talk
05:36 Heritage Library and defunct distilleries
07:14 Prohibition impact
08:28 Rebooting distilleries after Prohibition
09:17 The bourbon glut and the year 2000 low point
11:08 Growth across Kentucky and the US
11:22 Cheers and wrap