The Willett Distillery

Willett is the Bardstown distillery you visit when you've already done the big tours and want to see what a hands-on family operation actually looks like at scale. The pot stills are visible from the visitor center. The Kulsveen family — three generations of them — works the property. The Willett Pot Still Reserve bottle, with its distinctive decorative decanter shaped like a copper pot still, is the most-photographed Kentucky bourbon bottle on Instagram for a reason. The Willett story has two acts. Act one: construction of the Willett Distilling Company began in spring 1936, headed by A. Lambert Willett and his sons — most prominently A.L. "Thompson" Willett. The first batch was distilled March 17, 1937: 300 bushels, about 30 barrels. The original company ran successfully through the post-war bourbon boom, then collapsed during the bourbon bust of the 1970s and shuttered distillation entirely. Act two: the Kulsveen family acquired the company on July 1, 1984, renamed it Kentucky Bourbon Distillers (KBD), and spent the next 28 years operating as an independent bottler — sourcing aged whiskey from other producers and bottling under the Willett, Noah's Mill, Rowan's Creek, and Pure Kentucky brands. In 2012, distillation resumed on-site for the first time in nearly three decades, and the operating name reverted to Willett. E.A. "Drew" Kulsveen serves as Master Distiller. His sister Kristin Martha-Britt "Britt" Kulsveen became President and Chief Whiskey Officer in 2018. Their …