Kentucky’s newest distillery is owned by descendants of one of the oldest distilling families. J.W. “Wally” Dant III, along with his cousins Lynne Dant and Charles Dant, have now opened Log Still Distillery in Gethsemane, Kentucky. While the grounds are still under construction, the visitor center and stillhouse are up and running, with tastings available of its Monk’s Road lineup of Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, a dry gin, and a barrel-finished gin. The campus will include a network of wooded walking trails, a fully functional private train depot connected to the Kentucky Railway Museum, a 12-acre lake for fishing, three unique lodging options, an outdoor amphitheater, a farm-to-table restaurant, and a wedding and events venue.
I attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony, where Wally explained how the name Log Still Distillery is meant to evoke the tradition of his great-great-great-grandfather, Joseph Washington Dant, and Dant’s practice of using a hollowed-out poplar log to distill his first batch of whiskey in 1836.
Set in picturesque southern Nelson County, Log Still Distillery will employ 126 people once it is fully operational. In the meantime, the first release of Monk’s Road—honoring the historic Cold Spring Distillery—is a 100 proof, six-year age-stated Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, with a mash bill of 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley. This is obviously a sourced bourbon. Log Still confirmed for me that while the source is confidential, it’s “from an established distillery in Bardstown.” I know one that it’s not, and there’s a highly likely candidate for who it is, but for now all we can do is speculate. And while I speculate about the source, I’ll enjoy following the progress at Log Still Distillery.
