Malty undertone | Bread dough | Grain-forward | Ethanol

Grain-forward | Malty | Clove | Pretzel dough | Light floral note | Ample heat

Pie crust | Persistent malt grain undertone | Milk chocolate | Lingering allspice

Old Terrell Distillery is located in Paducah, Kentucky, which is a little over three hours southwest of Louisville. The modern version of the company was founded by Thomas Logan Davis in 2024. It pays homage to the historical Old Terrell, which began with Caleb Terrell, who started making whiskey in Kentucky around 1835. The Old Terrell Distillery secured DSP-KY-34 around 1900 (sources vary between 1901 and 1903). Later, in 1916, a fire destroyed approximately 1,300 barrels and caused major damage, and the operation ultimately shut down around the World War I and Prohibition period.

Davis plans to build a distillery, slated for late 2026, and says the chosen location is part of the historic Old Terrell facility. The company is sourcing whiskeys now, but Davis intends to grow grain on his family’s western Kentucky farm and transition to a grain-to-glass operation.

The bottle does not specify a batch number, but does say the number of bottles in the batch. The first batch was released in October 2025 with 1,092 bottles.

Old Terrell Small Batch Bourbon’s flavor profile is grain-forward, with a surprisingly doughy, malty undertone despite most likely having low malted barley in the mashbill. Old Terrell is known to source from Kentucky Artisan Distillery (among others), and based on the flavor profile, that’s the likely source for this batch. Despite its grain-forward nature, it has pleasant notes of pie crust, milk chocolate, pretzel dough, and clove. However, the combination of heavy ethanol and grain-forwardness makes it come across as quite rough around the edges, especially for an 8 year old bourbon. Old Terrell is likely just getting their feet under them, and considering this is a small batch, this will be worth revisiting in the future.

‍The bourbon in review is bottle 410 of 416.