A Northern Kentucky Upstart Just Earned Its Spot Among America's Best Rye Whiskeys
There are moments in the American whiskey world that cut through the noise — when a distillery that most enthusiasts haven't spent serious time with steps up and delivers something that makes the industry take notice. Boone County Distilling's Founder's Reserve Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey is one of those moments. The eight-year-old expression from Independence, Kentucky earned a Gold Medal, an "Exceptional" designation, and a score of 95 points from the Beverage Testing Institute, placing it squarely in the top tier of rye whiskeys evaluated in North America this year — and earned the distillery a feature in Forbes Magazine's widely-read roundup, "America's Best Rye Whiskey, According to BevTest." That combination of critical recognition, national press, and the imprimatur of one of the industry's most rigorous scoring bodies is the kind of trifecta that makes retailers pay attention and collectors take notes.
The Weight of That 95-Point Score
A score of 95 out of 100 from the Beverage Testing Institute isn't a participation trophy. Founded in 1981, BTI is a Chicago-based marketing and evaluation service that reviews spirits, wines, and beers on a rolling basis throughout the calendar year. The organization claims what sets it apart is its science-backed blind-tasting methodology, co-developed in partnership with Cornell University. In an era when competition submissions are often suspected of gaming results, BTI's process is designed to be genuinely adversarial to mediocrity.
All spirits are evaluated in BTI's dedicated sensory lab in Chicago under controlled conditions — neutral lighting, ideal temperature, and appropriate glassware — and samples are assessed blind by expert panels comprising seasoned industry professionals, including sommeliers, retailers, distillers, and educators. Each session is limited in size to prevent palate fatigue and ensure every product receives proper attention. The blind format is non-negotiable. BTI does not accept advertising from any company that submits their products for review, which separates it from some of the more commercially compromised award bodies in the space.
What makes the Boone County score especially meaningful is where 95 points sits within BTI's tiered system. Under BTI's framework, a score between 90 and 95 earns a Gold Medal and the designation "Exceptional," while only products scoring between 96 and 100 reach the "Superlative" and Platinum tier. Ninety-five is the ceiling of Gold — essentially the very best a whiskey can be without crossing into rare Platinum territory. Products breaking the critical gold medal barrier are tasted twice without exception, virtually guaranteeing that they deserve their accolades. BTI's own director has noted that a score of 94 is "extremely good, and unusually high" — which puts 95 in genuinely rarified air.
The Whiskey Itself: What's in the Bottle
A True 100% Rye Mash Bill
The mash bill behind this particular expression is one of the most aggressive you'll find on shelves. The eight-year Founder's Reserve Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey is a straight rye mash bill of 95% rye and 5% malted rye, making it a 100% rye whiskey. That's a meaningful distinction. Most whiskeys marketed and perceived as "rye" — including many high-profile releases — contain substantial percentages of corn or malted barley that soften the grain's naturally assertive character. A 100% rye grain bill, with no corn in the recipe, is a deliberate commitment to the full expression of rye's challenging, spicy, and layered personality. It's also a technically demanding proposition. Rye is notoriously sticky and difficult to work with, and an all-rye mash bill amplifies every one of those difficulties.
This rye was skillfully crafted in a 500-gallon copper pot still, giving it a full body and complex flavors not found in other ryes. Pot still production, rather than the column still distillation that dominates industrial-scale operations, retains more of the grain's congeners and aromatic compounds. At the small volumes a 500-gallon still produces, the distiller has far greater control over cuts and character — and that shows in the final product. Eight years of Kentucky barrel aging on top of that foundation produces a whiskey that carries both density and nuance.
Tasting the Bottle: What the Nose and Palate Deliver
Handcrafted inside Boone County Distilling's Northern Kentucky facility, the rye features aromas of caramelized sugar, stone fruit, toasted rye, and cinnamon, along with hints of brown sugar, vanilla, and toasted grain on the palate. More specifically, the palate delivers bold oak and robust rye with hints of vanilla, brown sugar, and graham cracker sweetness, followed by a long, smooth, and rich finish of sweet cinnamon and toasted rye bread. Those tasting notes tell the story of a whiskey that found equilibrium between the angular, spicy nature of rye and the mellowing influence of years in American white oak. The stone fruit and caramelized sugar on the nose signal that the barrel did its work without overwhelming the grain — a balance that takes time and discipline to achieve.
Forbes put its own point on the whiskey's versatility and structure. The publication described it as "structured enough for a Manhattan or Sazerac, but polished enough to reward a neat pour." That kind of dual-purpose characterization is the benchmark for serious rye — a whiskey that brings enough backbone and spice to stand up inside a cocktail without losing its identity, but enough complexity and finish to justify drinking it straight. At 47.4% ABV (94.8 proof), the Boone County 8 Year Old Founder's Reserve Straight Rye Whiskey carries a suggested retail price of $64.00, which makes it competitive for the quality level it's delivering.
The Man Behind the Mash: Larry Ebersold, Godfather of Rye
Every great whiskey has a mentor in its lineage somewhere, and the Founder's Reserve Rye has one of the most consequential figures in American rye history behind it. Larry Ebersold, nicknamed the "Godfather of Rye" and a member of the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame, has guided the Boone County Distilling team as they developed and refined their rye whiskey-making skills. Ebersold's influence on modern American rye cannot be overstated.
Ebersold is widely recognized as the "Godfather of Rye Whiskey," and working quietly behind the scenes at the Seagrams facility now known as MGP, he is responsible for crafting the whiskeys that launched the American craft whiskey boom. He worked at the Lawrenceburg, Indiana distillery from 1972 until his retirement in 2010. That is nearly four decades spent mastering one of the most technically demanding grain spirits in production. Back in the 1970s when he started, rye was far from an easy assignment — it has long been considered one of the most difficult grains to distill, notorious for its sticky, foamy mash and unpredictable fermentation. Where others avoided it, Ebersold leaned into the challenge, proving it could be made consistently at a large scale.
The 95/5 rye mash bill — 95% rye grain to 5% malted rye or malted barley — became Ebersold's calling card. Ebersold is quick to clarify that he didn't invent the 95/5 recipe — Seagram's research department did — but his plant produced more of it than anyone else, and he and his team in Lawrenceburg were the ones who figured out how to use it to make large volumes, turning a notoriously difficult grain into a consistent spirit. At one point, Lawrenceburg was distilling a million proof gallons a year of rye spirit. That infrastructure and expertise eventually fueled the craft whiskey movement, because when the American whiskey boom took off in the early 2000s, much of what was on the market for sale under new product labels was actually made under his supervision in Indiana.
Boone County's master distiller Michael Wells spoke directly to what it meant to work alongside such a figure. "When you walk through our rickhouse, every single barrel tells its own story," said Wells. "Working alongside Larry Ebersold to hone our rye whiskey skills was a masterclass in patience and precision, giving us the confidence and ability to bring this excellent rye release to life right here in Northern Kentucky." That mentorship loop — from one of the discipline's greatest technical minds to a young craft distillery committed to doing things the hard way — is exactly the kind of knowledge transfer the American whiskey industry needs more of.
Boone County Distilling: A Legacy Reborn in Northern Kentucky
The Original Petersburg Distillery
The story of Boone County Distilling doesn't begin in 2015. It reaches back nearly two centuries to one of the most consequential whiskey operations in American history. Boone County Distilling Company has deep roots that date back to 1833, when Petersburg, Kentucky — just outside of Cincinnati — was home to the largest distilled-spirits producer in America. That's not regional hyperbole. In 1833 in Kentucky's Boone County, a region of proud limestone hills that gradually fell to the banks of the Ohio River, a man named William Snyder made a decision that would impact the region well over a century later: he decided to buy a flour mill. Within three years, he had begun operating a distillery in conjunction with the mill.
The distillery changed ownership several times and was eventually sold in 1874 to Julius Freiberg and Levi J. Workum, two Jewish brothers-in-law from Cincinnati. By 1880, Freiberg and Workum were making more whiskey than anyone in Kentucky — almost one million gallons per year — which was as much as the nine distilleries combined in famed Bourbon County, Kentucky. The distillery went on to become the third largest in the United States, a major production site bustling with river trade just downriver from Cincinnati. The scale of that operation relative to the era is difficult to fully appreciate today. For a single facility in a rural Kentucky county to surpass all of Bourbon County's combined output is the kind of dominance that rewrites regional identity.
By 1880, the distillery had become the largest in Kentucky. Other forebears of Boone County Distilling Company include Snyder's son-in-law Colonel William Appleton, J.C. Jenkins, James Gaff, Freiberg and Workum — all recognized as pioneers whose influence has been unmistakable in crafting the brand's identity. The distillery was eventually purchased and shut down in the early 1900s, before Prohibition. A century of silence followed.
The Modern Revival
Boone County Distilling Company opened its doors in October 2015, becoming the first legal distillery in over a century to operate in Boone County. That same year, the business joined the Kentucky Distillers' Association. The modern operation is situated at 10601 Toebben Drive in Boone County, spanning 5,000 square feet set on 2.5 acres, incorporating a distillery and tasting room. It includes a 500-gallon pot still, four fermenters, and a small bottling line with a capacity of 250 barrels a year.
The revival carried the weight of that history deliberately. The distillery's tagline, "Made by Ghosts," harkens to the early pioneers who crafted spirits in Boone County more than 100 years ago. Every product they make is, in a sense, an act of historical reclamation. The distillery also places itself firmly on the map for heritage whiskey tourism: reminiscent of the days when bourbon was celebrated as the life-blood of the region, Boone County Distilling is housed in 5,000 square feet set on 2.5 acres. The reborn distillery uses an old-school method via a pot still, which was the most popular style of whiskey production in the 19th century. That's a deliberate philosophical choice, not just a marketing one. Pot still production produces a richer, more texturally complex spirit, and Boone County has leaned into that reality rather than defaulting to the efficiency of column distillation.
Building the Portfolio
Boone County Distilling is known for serving up award-winning spirits including small batch bourbons and single barrel selections, and is now adding to this impressive lineup with the Founder's Reserve Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey. The distillery's broader range demonstrates that the 95-point rye isn't a one-off outlier. Their Founder's Reserve Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, also eight years old, earned a score of 93 points from the Beverage Testing Institute — itself a Gold Medal, Exceptional designation. Their classic Eighteen 33, a standard bourbon, and the Tanner's Curse whisky — available in both a bourbon mash and a rye mash — round out the core lineup. The Eighteen 33 mash bill is 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley. Notably, the Tanner's Curse rye mash carries the same 95% rye, 5% malted rye bill that characterizes the Founder's Reserve Rye — a mash bill DNA that runs deep through the Boone County program and clearly represents the distillery's signature approach to rye grain.
The Rye Renaissance: Why This Matters for the Industry
To understand why a 95-point score for an all-rye whiskey from a small Northern Kentucky craft operation generates genuine industry interest, it helps to understand where rye sits in the current American whiskey landscape. Rye spent decades as the forgotten grain. Bourbon's corn-forward sweetness dominated consumer preference throughout the late 20th century, while rye was viewed as too austere, too spicy, too unfriendly for a broad palate. The category nearly died entirely.
The modern rye revival is in large part a story of bartender culture. The resurgence of classic cocktails — the Manhattan, the Sazerac, the Old Fashioned with a rye base — put rye back in front of consumers who discovered that its assertive spice and structural firmness made for better cocktail architecture than bourbon's softer sweetness. From there, the straight rye sipping market developed as consumers who fell in love with the spirit in their glass wanted to explore it on its own terms.
Today, the category is crowded but uneven. Many releases marketed as rye whiskeys contain relatively modest amounts of actual rye grain. Bulleit Rye, for instance, carries a mash bill of 95% rye and 5% malted barley, and it became a benchmark for the high-rye style. But the Boone County expression takes that DNA even further — substituting malted rye for malted barley to achieve a genuinely all-rye grain bill — and then ages it for eight years in Kentucky, adding the kind of barrel depth that Indiana-sourced rye spirits sometimes lack due to the flatter temperature swings in that climate.
The Forbes feature is significant in that context. When a major mainstream publication runs a ranked list of America's best rye whiskeys based on BTI's blind evaluations, the brands that appear on that list gain immediate visibility with a consumer audience far broader than the dedicated whiskey enthusiast community. For a craft distillery the size of Boone County, that kind of national exposure can fundamentally reshape retail velocity and brand recognition in markets where they've previously had little presence.
What Eight Years in a Kentucky Rickhouse Actually Means
Age statements in American whiskey have become simultaneously more valued and more misunderstood in recent years. Eight years on a rye whiskey, particularly one distilled in a 500-gallon copper pot still and warehoused in Kentucky's notoriously aggressive climate, represents a substantial commitment on the part of the distillery. Kentucky's wide seasonal temperature swings force whiskey in and out of the barrel's charred wood layers repeatedly, accelerating extraction and adding layers of vanilla, caramel, and oak that cooler-climate aging cannot produce at the same pace.
For a 100% rye mash bill, that eight-year Kentucky aging equation is particularly meaningful. Rye whiskey tends to hit a complexity peak later than corn-heavy bourbon; younger rye can be harsh and one-dimensional, dominated by raw grain character and ethanol. At eight years, a well-managed rye typically reveals the integration of spice, dried fruit, oak, and sweetness that the grain is capable of producing when given the time. The tasting notes on this particular expression — a rich amber color with golden highlights on appearance, caramelized sugar, stone fruit, toasted rye bread, and a hint of cinnamon candy on the nose, followed by bold oak and robust rye with vanilla, brown sugar, and graham cracker sweetness, and a long, smooth finish of sweet cinnamon and toasted rye bread — read like the profile of a whiskey that found its maturity window rather than getting pulled before its time.
The distillery's rickhouse philosophy was articulated clearly by master distiller Michael Wells, who described each barrel as a unique entity with its own developmental arc. That barrel-level attentiveness, combined with the mentorship of a figure like Ebersold, suggests the Founder's Reserve Rye isn't the product of a shortcut or a formula, but of years of systematic learning applied to one of the most demanding grain spirits in American whiskey.
Northern Kentucky's Place on the American Whiskey Map
Boone County's home territory — Northern Kentucky, the stretch of hills and river bluffs that runs along the Ohio River opposite Cincinnati — has historically been overshadowed by the more storied bourbon corridors of central and south-central Kentucky. Bardstown, Louisville, and the Bluegrass region command most of the industry narrative and the tourism infrastructure. But the historical record makes clear that Northern Kentucky's claim to American whiskey heritage is as strong as anywhere in the state.
The late 19th century witnessed a rapid expansion of the Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati whiskey industry. At the time, Freiberg and Workum were said to be the biggest fish in a very large pond. That legacy was interrupted by the distillery's closure before Prohibition and then buried under a century of dormancy. The modern Boone County Distilling Company is, in the most literal sense, restoring Northern Kentucky's whiskey identity one barrel at a time.
The distillery is also part of the formal Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Boone County Distillery appears as Stop 24 on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, placing it alongside some of the most celebrated names in American spirits production. For enthusiasts who make the pilgrimage through Kentucky, the distillery in Independence offers a combination of serious craft whiskey and authentic historical narrative that distinguishes it from some of the more commercial trail destinations.
The Significance for Craft Distillers Everywhere
The Founder's Reserve Rye achievement carries implications that extend well beyond Boone County's own operation. A small, regional craft distillery with a 500-gallon pot still and a 250-barrel annual capacity competing at the top of BTI's scoring bracket — and earning a Forbes national feature alongside it — is a signal to craft operations across the country that patient, principled production can still break through in a whiskey market increasingly dominated by large, well-capitalized brands.
The key elements of that success story are worth isolating: a demanding, high-integrity mash bill that does not compromise on grain character; production on equipment that prioritizes quality over volume; an eight-year aging commitment that sacrifices immediate cash flow for a superior product; mentorship from one of the genuine legends of American rye whiskey history; and a geographic and historical narrative that gives the whiskey a sense of place that no marketing budget alone can manufacture.
Ebersold himself has said that looking back, he's proudest of two things: the 95/5 rye that helped bring the category back from obscurity, and the mentoring he's done for younger distillers. Many cite him as their teacher and the person who showed them how to balance science with their own intuition. Boone County Distilling, with this release, appears to be exactly the kind of success story Ebersold had in mind.
For American whiskey drinkers who take rye seriously — who appreciate the grain's complexity, its cocktail utility, its historical connection to America's earliest distilling traditions — the Founder's Reserve Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey is a bottle worth seeking out. At $64.00 for an eight-year, 100% rye whiskey that has been vetted by both BTI and Forbes, it sits at a price point that punches well above its weight. The Northern Kentucky hills that shaped this whiskey have been waiting nearly a century to make their case. They just made it in convincing fashion.
