Meet the Makers

Spirits

Orphan Barrel

Diageo's series of rare, long-aged American whiskeys pulled from forgotten barrels.

Founded
2013

Making it since

2013

Their story

Orphan Barrel is a whiskey project from Diageo, the world's largest spirits company. It launched in 2013 to bottle a stock of very old American whiskey that had been sitting in warehouses without a home.

Much of the early whiskey came from several thousand barrels that had been aging at the historic Stitzel-Weller distillery in Shively, Kentucky. Each release gets its own name and label, and the series has become a collector favorite for limited bottlings of unusually old bourbon and rye.

How it's made

Orphan Barrel does not distill new spirit for these releases. Instead it selects long-matured barrels already in inventory, often aged well beyond typical bourbon ages, and bottles them in limited runs under a different name each time.

an endeavor to rescue long forgotten barrels of rare and delicious whiskey and share them with others
Diageo, in its announcement of Orphan Barrel (2013)

Why we carry them

We like Orphan Barrel for the rare chance to taste very old American whiskey. Each release is a small piece of bourbon history.

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