Every whiskey region is decorated with distinct, signature characteristics. Even outside a whiskey’s terroir — the complex interaction of climate, soil, geology and their impact on the spirit’s flavor profile — there’s often a cultural element unique to the area influencing a whiskey’s identity. Kentuckians, especially locals of the state’s inner Bluegrass region, acknowledge two integral facets of their state’s heritage: bourbon and thoroughbred horses. Kentucky’s alluring, rich history in horse racing and distilling captivated and compelled Guinness McFadden, president and co-founder of Blackwood Distilling Co, to embark on an unexpected and rewarding journey into both fields.
McFadden grew up on a small family farm in Potter Valley, California, in the 1980s, where his father grew grapes and herbs, and raised cattle. McFadden spent much of his youth working on the farm in his spare time. After high school, McFadden landed in the Reno/Lake Tahoe area, attended college at the University of Nevada, Reno, and worked at Northstar California Resort in different capacities before taking on a role
in construction.
In the early 2000s, the housing market collapsed, and McFadden mentioned opportunities vanished overnight. So, with an openness to trying something new, he immediately acted on an invitation to work at Three Chimneys Farms in Kentucky. “I thought, ‘what the heck? I can always move home if this doesn’t work out,’ and that was 20 years ago,” says McFadden. “I really liked the aspect of horse racing and being able to work with professional athletes. I knew I wouldn’t be the general manager of the San Francisco Giants, but in horse racing, we can be with the game’s future stars and really be involved. There’s no better work environment than being on a thoroughbred farm in Kentucky. I fell for it.”
McFadden worked his way up the horse racing world’s echelon from grooming to auction sales to becoming the owner of the 2019 Kentucky Derby-winning Thoroughbred horse, Country House. Shortly after this win, McFadden became interested in another massive Kentucky industry: bourbon. In 2020, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, McFadden and his wife Lisa started Blackwood Distilling Co. Blackwood is built around Kentucky’s equestrian and whiskey roots with a direct connection to the community. Their next mission? To deliver a “Napa-style experience” in the heart of horse country.
McFadden named Blackwood after his and Lisa’s horse stable and training center. After working with horses for 20 years, McFadden mentioned that transitioning into the whiskey industry was difficult yet necessary. “I found myself thinking less about horses and more about bourbon. It wasn’t a conscious decision that I made to say, ‘hey, I’m going to stop doing this, and I’m going to do something else.’
At some stage, I was at the horse farm every day only thinking about bourbon,” says McFadden. “I loved what I did very much. I had a beautiful farm. I had great employees. We had a good thing going, but I just got sucked into bourbon.”
Although McFadden has found the transition from working with horses to entering the whiskey trade challenging over the last five years, he’s also found beneficial parallels. “One of my favorite things about horses was always the people — the characters you meet — and bourbon is the exact same way. I’ve loved the people I’ve met. Everybody has been so helpful and very generous with their time. They very much want you to succeed,” says McFadden. For instance, before hitting select retailers in fall 2021, Blackwood was bottled at a facility in Lexington, Kentucky, since they didn’t have a place of their own just yet. The benevolence of Ray Franklin, premium spirits company Staghorn founder and president with over 20 years of experience in the whiskey industry, proved to be helpful to McFadden throughout their initial distilling and bottling process.
Franklin, who’s also CEO and founder of Staghorn’s first distillery, Garrard County Distilling, in Lancaster, Kentucky, allowed the Blackwood team to store their barrels in their facility before they opened their warehouse in Versailles, Kentucky. “It’s a ‘high tide raises all ships’ kind of business. There’s a lot of gray area for people to be unique and do their own thing,” says McFadden. “I thought this would be a fun side project, and it has snowballed into something else. I joke that I came for the horses and stayed for the bourbon. It’s been a good ride. I feel like I’m not even through the front nine yet!”
McFadden enlisted the aid of two friends and whiskey industry pros, Justin Sloan and Justin Thompson, as consultants to handle the sourcing and blending.
After finding what they were looking for in a group of six-year-old barrels, they finished the single barrel picks in three types of secondary barrels: medium toast, char #2, and char #4. When those single barrels were considered ready, they began blending. Blackwood has a single barrel program offering two picks finished with their proprietary toasting process, along with two small batch expressions, Blackwood Toasted Bourbon and Blackwood Toasted Rye Whiskey.
Outside of boosting production and introducing even more ingenuity into their distilling techniques, the Blackwood crew also plans to elevate the traditional distillery visitor experience. Thus, with the forthcoming arrival of a new 600-acre property in Madison County, Kentucky, 20 minutes south of Lexington, Blackwood is taking a fun approach to innovation by extending this definition beyond technical skills and into guest hospitality.
“All the distilleries in the area are great. Whether you’re talking about Willett, Bardstown, Castle & Key, Woodford Reserve, Jim Beam, or whatever it is, they’re all great, and I love all the experiences I’ve seen. Still, I think we have an interesting opportunity,” says McFadden. “We’re going to try and build the customer experience into it from the first step — taking things that we see from other places that we like and implementing that into what we’re going to do, and truly having a Napa-style experience in the beautiful hills of Madison County.”
This whiskey Disneyland has the perfect geographical placement. It would be the first stop on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail coming north and the last stop going south on I-75, and it’s only 40 minutes from the Lexington Airport. McFadden also envisions a restaurant component with whiskey and food pairings and a posh gift shop. Though the concept is mainly at the beginning of the planning stage, McFadden is overjoyed by the prospect.
“Some distilleries are all about tourism, and some are less into it, but we will push the tourism aspect. We want to give people an experience they will tell their friends about,” says McFadden. “We have an amazing opportunity to create something special that will reverberate through the community. We want you to be able to come and spend half a day with us and leave wanting more.”
Opening image: © Joseph & Joseph
