Spring in Kentucky means one thing above everything else: horse racing. The dirt flies at Churchill Downs, the mint juleps flow, and the whole state leans into the pageantry that comes with being the thoroughbred capital of the world. It's against that backdrop that Louisville-based Rabbit Hole Distillery has dropped one of its most anticipated releases of the year — Raceking, a six-year-old limited-edition Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey built to honor the sport and the season.
This isn't Rabbit Hole's first run with the Raceking name. The original made its debut back in 2020, but this version is a step forward in a meaningful way. Six years of aging changes a whiskey, and founder Kaveh Zamanian has leaned into that extra time to let his unconventional recipe fully express itself.
A Mash Bill That Breaks the Mold
Most bourbon drinkers know the basics — corn-heavy mash, maybe some rye or wheat for character, malted barley to get the fermentation going. Rabbit Hole doesn't play by those rules. Raceking is built on a five-grain mash bill, and two of those grains aren't ingredients you'll find in most distillery recipes: chocolate-malted wheat and chocolate-malted barley.
The use of chocolate malt — grains that have been roasted to a dark, rich degree — brings a different kind of depth to the finished whiskey. It's the same technique craft brewers use to build complexity into dark ales and stouts, borrowed here and applied to bourbon. The result is something that sits outside the standard Kentucky flavor profile without abandoning what makes bourbon bourbon.
At 95 proof (47.5% ABV), Raceking carries enough muscle to stand on its own without tipping into the territory where heat starts to crowd out flavor. That's a deliberate choice from a distiller who thinks carefully about every variable in the process.
Six Years in Handmade Barrels
The aging story here is just as important as the recipe. Rabbit Hole sources its casks from Kelvin Cooperage, and these aren't off-the-shelf barrels. They're handmade, and each one is both toasted and charred — a double treatment that builds layers of wood influence into the spirit over time.
Toasting heats the wood slowly, caramelizing the natural sugars inside the stave and drawing out flavors like vanilla, brown sugar, and baking spice. Charring takes it further, burning the interior surface to create a layer of carbon that filters the spirit and adds smoke and char to the mix. Running both processes on the same barrel gives the distiller more surface complexity to work with, and six years is long enough for the whiskey to pull all of it together into something cohesive.
This approach reflects a distillery that treats barrel selection not as an afterthought but as part of the recipe itself.
The Man Behind the Whiskey
Kaveh Zamanian's path to running one of Louisville's best-known craft distilleries is not a straight line. He spent more than two decades as a clinical psychologist before stepping away from that career to pursue what had been a longtime passion for fine spirits. That background — understanding how people think, what drives them, what moves them — may explain why his whiskies tend to tell a clear story rather than simply fill a bottle.
"Raceking reflects how I like to approach bourbon, with respect for tradition but a willingness to explore its edges," Zamanian said. "With this release, we wanted to honor Kentucky's legendary horse racing tradition. The name Raceking reflects that heritage and embodies the careful, deliberate process required to craft a bourbon worthy of a thoroughbred pedigree."
He continued: "Every element, from our five-grain mash bill to the toasted and charred barrels, was designed to create a bold, distinct flavor that celebrates both Kentucky's history and Rabbit Hole's approach to thoughtful whiskey making."
In 2022, Zamanian was inducted into the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame as part of its 20th anniversary class — recognition from an industry that doesn't hand out that kind of honor lightly. Despite that standing, Rabbit Hole operates with the mindset of a craft producer even as it scales. The distillery currently produces 27,000 barrels annually, a number that puts it in a different league than most craft operations but still far from the industrial scale of the major Kentucky players.
Why the Racing Connection Matters
Kentucky bourbon and Kentucky horse racing have always shared the same cultural zip code. Both industries are built on patience, pedigree, and the pursuit of something exceptional. You don't breed a Derby contender in a season, and you don't build a great bourbon overnight. The parallels are genuine, not just marketing language.
Naming a whiskey Raceking — and releasing it as the racing season opens — is a nod to that shared identity. It positions the bottle not as a novelty cash-in on a famous event, but as a product that genuinely reflects the values behind the sport: careful preparation, attention to detail, and the willingness to wait for results.
Getting Your Hands on a Bottle
Raceking is available now in 750 mL bottles at select retailers and directly through the Rabbit Hole Distillery website, with an MSRP of $95. The limited-edition designation isn't window dressing — production on a release like this is finite, and with the distillery's profile as high as it currently sits, bottles are unlikely to stay on shelves for long.
For anyone looking to mark the racing season with something in the glass that matches the occasion, this is the kind of release worth tracking down before it's gone.
