Preservation Distillery Family

Preservation Distillery & Farm is an umbrella of bourbon brands and labels produced on a historic 40-acre tobacco farm in Bardstown, Kentucky — the only 100% pot-distilled craft producer in Kentucky, using limestone spring water and sourcing ultra-aged barrels. The family of brands includes Very Olde St. Nick, Rare Perfection, Cock of the Walk, Wattie Boone & Sons, Old Man Winter, and Jesse James Outlaw.

The philosophy across the family is consistent: patience over volume. Very Olde St. Nick releases carry age statements of 15–20+ years; Rare Perfection expressions range from 14 to 17+ years. These are not young craft bourbons with creative finishes — they are deeply aged, small-batch expressions selected from barrels that have had the time to develop genuine complexity.

Browse all bourbon and rare and allocated bottles at Wooden Cork.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 100% pot-distilled mean for bourbon flavor?

Most American bourbon is produced in continuous column stills — an efficient industrial process that runs grain mash continuously through a tall distillation column, producing a high-proof, relatively neutral spirit that picks up its flavor primarily from oak aging. Pot still distillation is a batch process: each run is individual, the distiller makes deliberate cuts between heads, hearts, and tails fractions, and the resulting spirit enters the barrel at lower proof with more congeners — the flavor compounds (esters, acids, aldehydes) that contribute complexity. Pot-distilled bourbon tends to be richer, more textured, and more flavor-complex at the point of distillation than column-still bourbon, which means the oak aging amplifies an already complex base rather than building character on a neutral canvas. It is the same principle that makes pot-still Irish whiskey and Cognac more complex than their column-still equivalents in those categories.

What is the difference between Very Olde St. Nick and Rare Perfection?

Both come from the Preservation Distillery family and share the ultra-aged, pot-distilled philosophy, but they represent different source barrels and flavor profiles. Very Olde St. Nick is the flagship label — releases include the Ancient Cask series (15–20+ years), Summer Rye, Winter Maple Estate Reserve, and True Religion expressions, each a distinct barrel selection. Rare Perfection is the more consistently structured series — 14 Year and 15 Year expressions that deliver the deep caramel, dried fruit, and leather complexity of extended aging with slightly more predictable flavor benchmarks than the single-barrel Ancient Cask releases. Both are produced in genuinely small quantities and sell through quickly when allocation arrives.