Old Fitzgerald and Jonathan Adler Team Up on a $425 Limited-Edition Backgammon Set
When a bourbon brand rooted in nineteenth-century Kentucky hospitality sits down with one of America's most recognizable modern designers, the result does not have to be another whiskey. This time, it is a backgammon board — and the pairing makes more historical sense than it might first appear.
Old Fitzgerald Bourbon and designer Jonathan Adler have teamed up on a limited-edition backgammon set priced at $425, bringing the Kentucky whiskey brand's signature green and brass details to the classic board game. The collaboration was announced in Bardstown, Kentucky on October 14, 2026. It is the kind of move that speaks to a broader cultural moment in American whiskey — one where the story around the bottle has become as carefully curated as what is inside it.
What the Set Actually Is
The Jonathan Adler x Old Fitzgerald Backgammon Set is a limited-edition game set built to sit on a coffee table or bar cart rather than in a cupboard. That distinction matters. This is not a novelty item tucked away in a holiday gift bag and forgotten by January. The execution is deliberate and upscale.
Jonathan Adler's distinctive bold patterns and playful motifs seamlessly meld with unmistakable, classic Old Fitzgerald touches, from the brand's signature shades of green to its brushed brass key motif. The latter nods to Old Fitzgerald's longtime "Your Key to Hospitality" tagline, rooted in its origins and synonymous with the brand since the 1950s debut of its now-iconic decanter bottle, a fixture on well-set tables and bar backs for decades.
Crafted in couture lacquer, the high-gloss box brings flair, conversation and connection to your table. The presentation box itself — a rectangular dark green design featuring a light teal Celtic knot pattern and the number "55" printed on the lid — signals that this is as much a collector's object as a functional game. The number 55 is a nod to the brand's Bottled-in-Bond standard of 100 proof, or 50% ABV, expressed across the design language of the set.
The Price Point Question
At $425, some potential buyers will raise an eyebrow. But context matters here. The collab set costs the same as Adler's regular lacquer boards, meaning buyers are not paying a bourbon markup for the green. Adler's lacquer backgammon boards are a mainstay of his home goods line, and the $425 price reflects the quality of the construction — lacquered wood composite, acrylic playing pieces, magnetic closure — rather than any whiskey branding premium layered on top.
For collectors already deep in the Old Fitzgerald world, who think nothing of hunting down a seasonal Bottled-in-Bond decanter release, the backgammon set occupies a different but adjacent space. It is a lifestyle object, not a consumable, and its value proposition is permanence: it will still be on the table long after the bottle beside it is empty.
Jonathan Adler: The Designer Behind the Board
Adler has built his namesake company on playful, swanky home goods since Barneys bought his first collection of pots in 1993, and lacquer backgammon boards have been a staple of his line for years. His aesthetic has always orbited a certain kind of confident American glamour — bold color, geometric pattern, irreverence without cheapness. A backgammon board is exactly the kind of object his brand was built to own.
Adler, a potter and designer whose namesake home furnishings brand sells products ranging from ceramics to furniture, said the partnership gave him an opportunity to add a more glamorous look to a familiar game. He did not hold back in describing the result. "The backgammon set I created with Old Fitzgerald takes my favorite game and makes it even more glamorous," Adler said in a news release. "Old Fitzgerald and I nailed it, if I do say so myself."
That kind of unguarded self-confidence is very much on brand for Adler. He has never been a designer who hedges, and his body of work — from ceramics that populate design-forward homes to full furniture collections — reflects a consistent point of view. What is notable here is how naturally the Old Fitzgerald visual identity maps onto that aesthetic. The brand's deep greens, its brass hardware references, and its heritage iconography all translate well into the graphic, high-contrast language Adler favors. This was not a partnership where one side had to stretch uncomfortably to meet the other.
A Brand Built on the Idea of the Well-Set Table
Understanding why Old Fitzgerald chose a backgammon board — rather than, say, a glassware set or a leather coaster collection — requires understanding the brand's long relationship with the idea of hospitality as a visual and social practice.
Old Fitzgerald was first produced in 1870 for rail and steamship lines and private clubs by Solomon Charles Herbst, a Milwaukee-based liquor retailer and rectifier. Inspired by the notorious John E. Fitzgerald — a man renowned for his refined palate and adventurous spirit — the rich, full-bodied whiskey was exclusively available to luxury steamships, rail lines, and private clubs, much to the delight of their clientele. From its very first iteration, this was a bourbon designed to appear in certain kinds of rooms, around certain kinds of tables, in front of certain kinds of people. The backgammon set is, in that light, less a departure than a continuation.
The brand's iconic decanter debuted in the 1950s and became a fixture on well-set tables and home bars, backed by the tagline "Your Key to Hospitality." That tagline has survived more than seven decades of ownership changes and industry upheaval, which says something about how precisely it captures what Old Fitzgerald has always been selling: not just bourbon, but the occasion around it.
The Long Road to Heaven Hill
Old Fitzgerald's ownership history is one of the more complicated threads in American whiskey lore, tracing a path through some of the most storied names in the business.
The history of Old Fitzgerald dates back to the late 1800s, when John Fitzgerald opened a distillery in Kentucky. The brand eventually moved to the historic Stitzel-Weller distillery, where Pappy Van Winkle turned it into a wheated bourbon, and continued to be released in various iterations including decanter bottles in the 1950s and Old Fitzgerald Prime in the '60s.
The wheated mashbill — replacing rye with wheat as the secondary grain — is what ties Old Fitzgerald to some of the most coveted names in American whiskey. The same formula that underpins W.L. Weller and, by extension, Pappy Van Winkle runs through Old Fitzgerald's DNA. As Prohibition ended, Herbst sold the brand to Julian P. "Pappy" Van Winkle, who made it the flagship whiskey of his Stitzel-Weller Distillery in Shively, Kentucky.
While other distilleries were forced to close, Old Fitzgerald survived 1920s Prohibition by being one of the few brands licensed to be sold as "medicinal" whiskey. That designation was not handed out freely — it required documented quality and institutional trust, both of which Old Fitzgerald had built over the preceding decades.
In 1984, it was acquired by Distillers Limited Co. of Scotland, which soon became United Distillers after merging with Guinness, and then Diageo in 1997. In 1999, Heaven Hill purchased Old Fitzgerald from Diageo as part of the Bernheim Distillery, and in 2018 the first edition of the Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond series was released.
Heaven Hill Executive Chairman Max Shapira has noted that "throughout decades of changes, Old Fitzgerald has stood the test of time and maintained its unwavering commitment to quality." That continuity is not an accident — it reflects deliberate stewardship of a brand with real historical weight.
The Bottled-in-Bond 7-Year-Old: The Recommended Pour
The backgammon set does not come with bourbon. But the brand has made clear which expression it envisions on the same table. The limited-edition set brings a little extra flair and friendly connection to game nights, cocktail hours and holiday gatherings alike, and pairs perfectly with Old Fitzgerald's signature Bottled-in-Bond 7-Year-Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon.
Heaven Hill announced the release of the Old Fitzgerald 7-Year-Old Bottled-in-Bond Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, marking the legendary brand's new flagship expression. Old Fitzgerald Bourbon has a long history of excellence, dating back to 1870. Today, this 7-Year-Old expression is made under the exacting standards of the Bottled-in-Bond Act, with a whisper of wheat. Rich and viscous, with notes of brown sugar, baking spices, and oak, this bourbon is worth sharing.
Released as the brand's newest year-round expression, the Bottled-in-Bond 7-Year-Old is made to be savored however you prefer your bourbon — neat, on the rocks or in a favorite cocktail. Positioning a year-round, accessible expression alongside a prestige lifestyle collectible is a smart play. It invites a wider audience into the brand — people who might enter through the backgammon set and stay for the whiskey, or vice versa.
The Bottled-in-Bond designation itself carries real meaning in the American whiskey landscape. Heaven Hill owns more Bottled-in-Bond brands than any other distiller — a commitment to quality and craftsmanship that is second to none. Under the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897, a whiskey must be the product of one distillation season, one distiller, and one distillery; aged a minimum of four years in a federally bonded warehouse; and bottled at exactly 100 proof. It is one of the oldest and most demanding quality standards in American spirits.
The Bigger Trend: Bourbon Brands as Lifestyle Curators
The Old Fitzgerald and Jonathan Adler collaboration does not exist in a vacuum. It is part of a broader and accelerating trend in the American whiskey industry, where established brands are extending their identities into adjacent lifestyle categories — not as marketing gimmicks, but as genuine product launches with real design investment behind them.
The logic is straightforward. Bourbon drinkers, particularly in the premium and ultra-premium segments, tend to be people who care about their homes, their entertaining spaces, and the objects they display. A well-designed backgammon board on a coffee table communicates something about its owner's taste. If that board also carries the visual identity of a beloved bourbon brand, it functions as a persistent, physical brand ambassador in a domestic setting where advertising cannot reach.
What distinguishes this collaboration from more cynical brand merchandise is the quality of both partners involved. Adler, a potter and designer whose namesake home furnishings brand sells products ranging from ceramics to furniture, said the partnership gave him an opportunity to add a more glamorous look to a familiar game. His involvement is not a celebrity endorsement layered over a generic product. He makes backgammon boards. He has been making them for years. The fact that one now carries Old Fitzgerald's iconography is an extension of his existing line, not a departure from it.
For Old Fitzgerald specifically, the move also reinforces the brand's longstanding positioning as something more than a whiskey — as a symbol of a particular approach to entertaining. Some bourbon brands sell you a bottle. Old Fitzgerald has always tried to sell you the evening around it. The backgammon set makes that philosophy literal.
Historical Parallels in Whiskey Branding
This is not, historically speaking, entirely new territory. Whiskey brands have long understood that their product is part of a larger social ritual. In the 1950s and 1960s, Old Fitzgerald's own diamond decanter was as much a piece of home décor as a whiskey vessel — today, Old Fitzgerald is renowned for its signature wheated mashbill and diamond decanters — and those decanters were designed to live on the bar cart, not to be hidden in a cabinet. The current collaboration is an evolution of that same instinct, updated for an era in which interior design and whiskey culture have become increasingly intertwined in the American male domestic imagination.
The difference now is scale and intention. The Adler collaboration is explicitly a lifestyle product from the outset — it has a designer's name on it, it lives at the same price point as that designer's standard product line, and it is being sold through both a distillery shop and a home goods website simultaneously. The channel strategy alone tells the story of who the target audience is.
Where to Find It and What the Timeline Looks Like
The Jonathan Adler x Old Fitzgerald Backgammon Set is available now through the Heaven Hill Distillery Shop, with select quantities also offered through Adler's website. The dual-channel distribution is meaningful: the Heaven Hill shop captures existing bourbon enthusiasts already engaged with the brand's universe, while Adler's site pulls in design and home goods consumers who may have little existing relationship with Old Fitzgerald. Each channel works as a funnel for the other's audience.
Backgammon sets ordered by December 14 will ship in time for arrival ahead of the holidays. That deadline positions the set squarely in the holiday gift market, which makes strategic sense. Orders placed by December 14 are expected to arrive before the holidays, making the set a potential gift for bourbon drinkers, backgammon players and design collectors. That intersection of three distinct consumer categories — and the possibility that a single recipient might occupy all three — is precisely what makes the collaboration commercially interesting.
Given the limited-edition nature of the product, availability is not guaranteed to last. The set is a limited edition, created in collaboration with Old Fitzgerald Bourbon. Adler's limited runs have a track record of selling through quickly, particularly when they carry the kind of crossover cultural appeal this one does. For anyone considering it as a gift — or as a permanent addition to their own table — waiting until late November risks finding it sold out.
Why It Works: Design, Heritage, and the American Ritual of the Game Night
Backgammon occupies a specific cultural niche in American social life. It is old enough to carry genuine historical gravitas — the game has been played for more than 5,000 years — but has experienced periodic revivals that associate it with sophistication and leisure rather than dusty nostalgia. In recent years, board games in general have made a dramatic comeback in American homes, partly as a reaction to screen fatigue and partly driven by a renewed interest in social rituals that require physical presence and real attention.
Against that backdrop, a beautifully designed backgammon set is not a relic. It is a centerpiece. And when it carries the visual language of a bourbon brand with more than 150 years of American history behind it, it becomes a conversation starter in a way that no bottle of whiskey sitting on a shelf quite manages.
Designed to play as beautifully as it presents, the limited-edition set brings flair and friendly connection to game nights, cocktail hours and holiday gatherings alike. That combination of function and aesthetic is exactly what distinguishes a well-executed lifestyle collaboration from a piece of branded merchandise. The board can be played. It is built to be played. And when the game is over, it folds into an object worth looking at.
For Old Fitzgerald, a brand acquired by Heaven Hill Distillery — a steward of American whiskey since 1935 — along with the historic Bernheim Distillery in 1999, this collaboration represents yet another chapter in a very long story about a bourbon that has always understood its audience. From the steamship lounges of the 1870s to the private clubs of the early twentieth century, through Prohibition, through Pappy Van Winkle's golden era at Stitzel-Weller, through Diageo and ultimately to Heaven Hill — Old Fitzgerald has persistently positioned itself as the bottle that belongs in rooms where people gather to enjoy themselves. A lacquer backgammon board by Jonathan Adler is, in that light, less a product launch than a statement of ongoing purpose.
