Louisville, Kentucky – Oct. 30, 2024 – Rolling Fork Spirits announces the return of an iconic bourbon brand with roots going back to 1911 and not seen on retail shelves in years: Bourbon de Luxe.
First created in the early 1900s by a Ft. Worth, Texas-based whiskey merchant named Milton Eppstein, Bourbon de Luxe is now being brought back as a super-premium Kentucky Straight Bourbon by the founders of Rolling Fork Spirits, Turner Wathen and Jordan Morris.
Bourbon Historian Brian Haara helped unearth the history of this iconic brand. “Under Eppstein’s ownership, Bourbon de Luxe grew in popularity before Prohibition and it continued as a medicinal whiskey brand during Prohibition,” reports Haara. “In 1926, Kentucky’s R.E. Wathen Co. acquired the Bourbon de Luxe brand, and it continued to flourish with the American Medicinal Spirits Co.” (It was so popular that after Repeal, United Distillers was importing Canadian Whisky that was falsely labeled as ‘Bourbon de Luxe,’ and AMS fought back and the fraudulent whiskey was banned.)
As the story continues, in 1929, AMS – the largest bottler of medicinal whiskey in the country – was merged into a new entity called National Distillers. Bourbon de Luxe became a staple brand of the powerhouse Kentucky bourbon producer National Distillers (whose portfolio also included Old Grand-Dad, Old Crow and Old Taylor). In 1987, National Distillers sold its brands to Jim Beam Co., which continued to produce and sell Bourbon de Luxe until the early 2000s.
Turner Wathen and Jordan Morris – business partners since 2016 – wanted to create a bourbon when they first met, but they had conditions. They wanted to revive a historic brand – ideally one that had been part of the Wathen family’s American Medicinal Spirits – and they wanted it to be exceptionally good bourbon at a fair price. While waiting for the right brand – and the right bourbon – Wathen and Morris became award-winning blenders and bottlers of rums sourced from around the world with their label Rolling Fork Rum.
When they secured the trademark for Bourbon de Luxe, they knew the time had come to re-launch this historic brand.
“Bourbon de Luxe is one of a few brands that my family produced that Jordan and I had admired for a long time,” said Rolling Fork Spirits Co-Founder Turner Wathen. “We have always wanted to do a bourbon, but knew we would not act on a brand revival unless we were able to source very high-quality Kentucky Straight Bourbon. Once we secured the trademark and the bourbon, we were off to the races.”
Bourbon de Luxe is an 8-year-old Kentucky straight bourbon sourced from a distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky. Bottled at cask-strength (119 proof), it offers sweet notes of caramel, vanilla, cream, and orange peel that is balanced by strong notes of seasoned oak and light pepper. Three barrels were blended for the first batch of 528 bottles, which is available exclusively on Seelbachs.com for $64.99 while supplies last. Future bottlings are in the works for 2025.
About Bourbon de Luxe Bourbon de Luxe traces its roots back to 1911. The brand survived Prohibition after being acquired by the R.E. Wathen Co. in 1926, and it was folded into American Medicinal Spirits Co. portfolio in 1927 (one of six permit holders to sell medicinal whiskey). The return of Bourbon de Luxe in 2024 marks the revival of this historic brand, which follows the motto created by the Wathen family in 1788: No Finer Spirits Can Be Made.
