Nice whiskey takes time — time to develop the oak bushes for the barrel, time for the corn and different grains to develop and be harvested, time to distill and years within the barrel to vary from clear distillate to the candy, brown elixir we name Tennessee whiskey in these components.
For distiller Allisa Henley, the journey to her newest chapter of whiskey making has certainly been lengthy and crammed with a number of bumps and unhappy occasions alongside the way in which. I first met Allisa greater than a decade in the past when she ran the customer expertise at George Dickel Distillery in Tullahoma, and on some dangerous days, I nonetheless go to Cascade Hole in my thoughts and film that stunning babbling brook that feeds the nonetheless at Dickel.
When Dickel’s grasp distiller John Lunn left in 2014, Allisa succeeded him on the helm of the operation. She later adopted Lunn to Avery’s Path in Newport, Tenn. Not lengthy after that, spirits large Sazerac bought the Avery’s Path facility and purchased two fairly proficient distillers as a part of the sale. The thought was at all times that Lunn and Henley can be instrumental in serving to Sazerac add a real Tennessee whiskey product to their portfolio, which already included Buffalo Hint merchandise and different distilleries across the globe.
One other a part of the thought was that the duo would work out of a brand-new manufacturing facility on 55 acres that Sazerac bought in Murfreesboro, however that plan has been NIMBY’d right into a everlasting maintain standing with hopes to develop the positioning sooner or later. Somewhat than anticipate points between the corporate and its neighbors to be ironed out, Sazerac moved a bit bit nearer to Nashville on Interstate 24 and constructed out a brand new facility in La Vergne at 4000 Centrepoint Drive.
Sadly, Lunn handed away in 2023 earlier than the early whiskeys that he and Henley had collaborated on at Avery’s Path had been prepared for launch. To honor his legacy and mark the connection that Allisa and John had whereas working collectively, the brand new distillery will probably be named AJ Bond Distillery. Not solely does that identify converse to the bond between the distillers, it’s additionally simply an objectively badass identify for a whiskey!
The primary Tennessee whiskey from AJ Bond will hit the markets someday this summer season after years of growth, together with a dozen years when Lunn and Henley labored collectively at Dickel earlier than their last enterprise collectively beneath Sazerac. I actually sit up for sampling the fruits of all that arduous work someday quickly!
