GETHSEMANE, Ky. (OSV News) — Amid the knobs of Nelson County in central Kentucky, a 125-foot water tower rises above 350 acres of bourbon country, home to Log Still Distillery.
If the land could talk, it would speak of the origins of the Archdiocese of Louisville and the beginnings of bourbon, said J.W. “Wally” Dant, founder and president of Log Still.
The Archdiocese of Louisville and Log Still recently announced a collaboration celebrating the intertwined history of Catholicism and bourbon-making with the release of “Faithfully Crafted: the Trinity Blend Bourbon.”
It’s an ode to the roots of the archdiocese, Dant said in an interview at the distillery with The Record, Louisville’s archdiocesan news outlet.
The archdiocese and the bourbon industry “were born together here,” said Dant, noting that bourbon country is not only sprinkled with distilleries — it’s sprinkled with Catholic churches, too.
“When Catholics came over from Maryland, many of them were distillers, including my family,” he said, explaining that farmers made bourbon from leftover grain. “From the early 1800s until Prohibition, a lot of those families ran distilleries.”
In the late 1700s, pioneering Catholic families traveled from Maryland to settle in the wilderness of central Kentucky. They primarily settled in Nelson, Marion and Washington counties, an area known today as the Kentucky Holy Land.
As the Catholic population in the area grew, so did the number of Catholic parishes and distilleries, said Richard “Tink” Guthrie, vice chancellor for administration of the Archdiocese of Louisville. By 1808, the area became home to the first inland see in America, the Diocese of Bardstown, forerunner to the Archdiocese of Louisville.
“The local heritage has such great roots,” said Guthrie, who is from the area. “Many of our Catholic faithful were employed in these distilleries,” he said.
For Dant, the connection between Catholicism and bourbon isn’t just a story from history — it’s the story of his family and deeply intertwined with his experience of family life. That’s true for several other members of the Dant family, too, who are employed by the distillery.
The family began distilling in Nelson County nearly 200 years ago, Dant said. His great-grandfather purchased a now-defunct distillery at the Log Still site following Prohibition — and even helped build the water tower. His grandfather built a home on the property and worked at the distillery.
His father, the late Father John Wallace “Wally” Dant, was raised on the property. Father Dant had been a deacon of the archdiocese and was ordained a priest in 2006, following the death of his wife.
While Dant wasn’t raised on the property like his father, he visited the area regularly growing up, and it felt like home, he said.
Log Still’s “Monk’s Road” brand was Dant’s first tribute to his Catholic roots.
“I knew we were close to home when we drove on Monk’s Road,” he said. Monk’s Road — which passes by the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani — leads to the distillery and is a reminder of the family’s Catholic heritage, he said. His family donated the land, on which the abbey sits to the Sisters of Loretto, and it was later purchased by the monks, he said.
“Getting people engaged with the church is important to me,” he said.
While he won’t follow his father’s footsteps to the priesthood, he said with a chuckle, he considers the “Faithfully Crafted” project as a continuation of his family’s legacy, tightly integrated with the Catholic faith. “This is a way for Log Still to continue to give back to the church,” he said.
Dant said he hopes the bourbon — a three-barrel blend — will be a point of pride for Kentucky Catholics.
“Buy one to drink and one to save,” Dant suggested, adding that the commemorative bottles can remind the faithful of their Catholic roots. “Be proud in displaying it.”
The bottle bears the archdiocese’s coat of arms and is designed to evoke a sense of stained glass.
“It conveys — in its imagery and narrative — its connection to the church,” said Guthrie. He hopes the collaboration is received with curiosity and interest.
“We see this as a fun collaboration, something as a novelty,” he said.
If the inventory goes down, he said, the partnership could release different blends in the future, Guthrie added.
Bottled on-site at Log Still in early December, 5,000 Trinity Blend bottles are available for purchase. The bottles retail for $55 and a portion of the proceeds will support “community initiatives aligned with the Archdiocese of Louisville’s mission,” according to a press release from Log Still. The bourbon can also be purchased at Monk’s Road Boiler House in downtown Louisville.
The Trinity Blend is a unique bourbon created for the archdiocese, blended with equal parts of three traditional mashbills, said Dant. It “delivers three layers of tasting experiences: the warmth of butterscotch, the depth of cinnamon and clove, and the lingering finish of smoky spiced oak,” according to the press release.
Olivia Castlen is a staff writer for The Record, news outlet of the Archdiocese of Louisville.