INTRODUCING: LEIPER'S FORK DISTILLERY
SLOW WHISKY CLUB DROP. JUNE 2026.
Founded by Lee Kennedy in 2016, Leiper's Fork is an independent, family-owned, grain-to-glass distillery at the forefront of an American whiskey revival.
Whiskey No.1: Bottled-In-Bond Bourbon
A multi-gold-medal, award-winning bourbon, matured in new American oak.
Mash bill: 70% corn, 15% wheat, 15% toasted malted barley.
By law, Bourbon must be made from at least 51% corn, distilled to no more than 160 proof, and matured in new, charred oak casks, with nothing more added (especially no spirit caramel like you find in a lot of scotch whisky) but time. This is a wheated bourbon, meaning wheat stands in for the more common rye as the secondary grain, which trades spice for a softer, rounder, bakery-sweet character. Add the distillery's unusually high 15% of toasted malted barley and you get the chocolate and dried-fruit depth that runs through the whole pour.
50% ABV
Whisky No.2: Bottled-in-bond tennessee whiskey
Mash bill: 70% corn, 15% rye, 15% malted barley. Matured in New American Oak casks
Tennessee Whiskey is effectively bourbon, but it must be made in Tennessee and, crucially, filtered through sugar maple charcoal before maturation. This is the Lincoln County Process: the new spirit drips slowly through thick beds of charcoal, which strips harsher congeners and lends the smooth and sweet character the style is known for. Where Leiper’s Fork Bourbon uses wheat in the mashbill alongside corn, this expression uses rye as its secondary grain - so it carries more spice and a little more structure.
50% ABV
Want to learn more about your two drops? Here's Georgie, taking you through them
ABOUT LEIPER'S FORK DISTILLERY
Founded by Lee Kennedy in 2016, Leiper's Fork is an independent, family-owned, grain-to-glass distillery at the forefront of an American whiskey revival.
For most of the last century, Tennessee law permitted distilling in just three counties - a restriction only lifted in 2009. Since then, a different kind of Tennessee whiskey has re-emerged, and Leiper's Fork is firmly part of it: a pre-Prohibition-style producer that champions pot-still distillation, sweet mash fermentation, low barrel-entry proof, and strict adherence to the Bottled in Bond Act of 1897.
Lee spent fifteen years as a dedicated home distiller before opening the distillery. He's a distiller first and foremost, working from a simple conviction: be relentless about making the best whiskey you can, from the best ingredients you can, and success follows.
That relentlessness shows up as deliberate inefficiency. Leiper's Fork grows more than 75% of its corn on the farm itself and sources the rest within a 10-mile radius in the Harpeth River Valley, all of it local, non-GMO heritage varietal grain. They do 100% of their own milling. The mash bill carries an unusually high 15% toasted malted barley — toasted specifically to add chocolate and fruity depth, used as a flavouring grain rather than just for its enzymes. Production runs to roughly 500 barrels a year, hand-bottled and hand-labelled in batches of just 10–20 barrels.
To put 500 barrels a year in perspective: Jack Daniel's produces around four times that every single day. Heaven Hill's Bernheim distillery makes three times Leiper's Fork's annual output before lunch.
How It's Made: Pre-Prohibition Whiskey, Step by Step
Toasted malted barley as a flavour grain
The 15% malted barley in both mash bills is toasted before mashing. Most distilleries use a few percent of barley purely for its enzymes - the biological engine that converts starch to sugar. At 15%, and toasted, Leiper's Fork is using barley as a deliberate flavouring ingredient, and it's where much of the chocolate and dark-fruit character originates.
Sweet mash fermentation
Almost every American distillery uses a sour mash process, recycling acidic "backset" from a previous fermentation for consistency. Leiper's Fork is one of only a handful using sweet mash - a fresh mash every time, with no backset added. It's harder to control, but it gives the whiskey a noticeably softer, more mellow character.
The Pot Still - a Scottish swan-neck, built for bourbon
Most American whiskey is made on a column still, run continuously for efficiency. Leiper's Fork distils on a 500-gallon copper swan-neck pot still, custom-built by Vendome Copper & Brass. A pot still is less rectifying - it strips out fewer flavour compounds - so more of the grain's character survives into the spirit. The result is a whiskey that's fuller-bodied and velvet-textured on the palate.
Low distillation proof - 137, not 160-plus
The higher you distil, the purer and more neutral the spirit. Leiper's Fork comes off the still at just 137 proof. That's inefficient - you're carrying more water and less alcohol - but it leaves a distillate with the depth and richness of whiskey made at the turn of the 20th century.
Low barrel-entry proof - 110, not 125
Before Prohibition, spirit entered the barrel at around 110 proof. The modern norm is 125, because filling barrels with stronger spirit means you need fewer of them. Leiper's Fork barrels at the old 110. Lower entry proof means a different, gentler extraction from the wood and a more rounded, balanced final profile.
