In the heart of Kentucky’s bourbon country, Blackwood Distilling Co. is making waves with its bold, meticulously crafted whiskeys. At the helm of this operation is Guinness McFadden, a horse trainer-turned-distiller with a passion for creating unique bourbon and rye. Partnering with industry expert Zach Johnston, Blackwood is carving out a space in the increasingly competitive world of American whiskey. In this profile, we sit down with McFadden and Johnston to discuss their journey into whiskey-making, the challenges of creating a distinctive toasted barrel finish, and how they are positioning Blackwood to stand out in a crowded market.
This interview is edited from our full-length episode, "Blackwood Distilling Co.: Behind the Scenes." Click the link to listen to the interview in audio format.
Film & Whiskey: Guinness, our audience knows Zach well, but they’re not yet familiar with you, so who are you and what are you doing here?
Guinness McFadden: Who am I? I’m Guinness McFadden. I was born in Northern California on my family’s farm. I moved to Kentucky in 2004 to get into the horse business. I worked for Three Chimneys Farm for 11 years before I started my own training center called Blackwood Stables. That's where the name starts.
As for starting the bourbon, it was during COVID in 2020. My buddy Justin Thompson of Justins’ House of Bourbon, we have lunch fairly frequently, and from under the table, he pulled out this bottle and said, "Look at this." It was their own house bourbon. I asked, "You did that? How did you do that?" And that was the start of it. Just two guys having a beer and me being super curious.
I’d been a bourbon drinker for quite some time. It's hard not to be living in Kentucky. So it just seemed like a natural transition from that conversation. So we raised a few bucks and bought some barrels, and here we are.
F&W: So that's the beginning of the company, 2020. Zach, you just came on in your capacity in the last couple of months at Blackwood. What was your first exposure to Blackwood, and how did they entice you into this job that you have now?
Zach Johnston: I was also friends with Justin Thompson. One day, Justin called me up and said, "I hear you’re going to be in Kentucky. We’re working on this new project. Would you like to drop in?" So I met up with Justin and Sloan, and they took me over to meet Guinness at the Versailles Warehouse.
We tried batch one of the bourbon and the rye, and I was blown away. I put both the bourbon and rye in my “best of the year” that year. Then the relationship carried on for the next couple of years. I moved to Kentucky in the summer of 2022, which made it easier to drop in. I wanted to eventually get into the industry side, rather than the media side. After eight years working in online media, I survived waves of buyouts, layoffs, and economic recoveries. This spring, through a friend, we started talking about what we could do with Blackwood and how we could help the brand grow, expanding towards a distillery project. It worked out in a way that felt right because going back to September 2021, when I first met Guinness and tried Blackwood, I was sold from the first sip.
F&W: I appreciate the no-frills nature of your operation and the transparency. The average consumer of bourbon and rye has become significantly more familiar with what to look for on a bottle. They want transparency. You guys are starting a brand, and Guinness, this is four years in for you. What gives you confidence in the specific angle you're taking with your products?
Guinness McFadden: It’s interesting to watch how different places have built brands and what their end goals were. What we’ve tried to do is make it all about the whiskey. We’re not rushing to put ten SKUs on the shelf to make ourselves more appealing for purchase from private equity or Big Bourbon. I think that makes our product better.
We’re focused on putting out the best product possible and then figuring out how to make it profitable, versus making money first and worrying about the quality later. There is definitely saturation in the over-$100 market. You can’t just slap a big price point on a bottle and expect it to sell. Pappy didn’t become what it is overnight. It’s been around for a very long time.
When setting our price point, we looked at the marketplace and asked, "Who are we competing against?" We’re a barrel-strength, eight-year bourbon, ultra-small batch, secondary finished. The most expensive part of the process, outside of the distillery, is the barrel. And we’re putting it in a second barrel, which almost doubles the cost. We’re in the north of $100 price point, south of $200, depending on where you are. It’s $150 to $165 for the rye and bourbon, and single barrels are a bit more. But we wanted to offer value.
Zach Johnston: As soon as you taste Blackwood, you understand where the money's going. The tariffs being dropped in 2021 played a big role in the spirit industry's boom. Between 2019 and 2021, many people came into American whiskey. Those who were 25 back then are now in their early 30s, making more money. They've had five or six years of whiskey education.
Some might have started with Evan Williams Bottled in Bond at $17, but over the years, they've advanced. Now, even if only half of them have become advanced whiskey drinkers, that's still a large portion of the American whiskey market. People are looking for and can appreciate a luxury product like Blackwood. The consumer base is maturing, and luxury whiskey sales are rising because the market is maturing.
F&W: Let’s talk a bit about the product lineup. Guinness, you mentioned you aren’t doing ten SKUs right now. You’ve got a batched toasted bourbon, a batched toasted rye, and a single barrel of each. Why toasted barrels? Was that your personal flavor preference or was there a gap in the market that you wanted to fill?
Guinness McFadden: With the limited resources we had, toasting gave us control over the flavor profile we were looking for. We didn’t have access to 20,000 barrels like the larger distilleries, so toasting allowed us to fine-tune the product. As for barrel strength, that’s what I like to drink, and we joke that we made this for ourselves and hoped the market would appreciate it.
F&W: How frustrating is the R&D process on toasted barrels? The barrel is already the most expensive part, and now you're playing with toast levels and char levels. You must have gone through tons of whiskey before hitting the right balance.
Guinness McFadden: The playbook was somewhat written for toasted bourbon, so we had a general idea of the parameters. We took an educated guess and nailed it on the first batch of bourbon. The second time, we pulled samples weekly. By the third time, we knew what to expect.
The rye was a different story. There weren’t many people doing toasted rye, so we didn’t have a reference. We definitely ruined some barrels trying to get the right result. We ended up triple-barreling—putting it in medium toast and then in char four again when the result wasn’t right. It wasn’t efficient, and we had a lot of loss, but we got the profile we were looking for. Some barrels didn’t need triple-barreling, but each barrel is unique.
The bourbon and rye change so quickly in those barrels that you can't leave them in too long. So, we have to tank them right when they're ready—like, two days would be longer than I'd like to wait. We pull them, we taste them, we like them, and we put them in a stainless tank immediately. Then, we get to blending. We'll keep all these barrels as single barrels throughout the toasting process, and then we'll tank them in stainless drums. Afterward, we can pull samples and see which ones will be best for the blend, do the sample blend, and decide which will be best for single barrels.
F&W: What else do you have coming down the line, and where can people currently find your products?
Guinness McFadden: We have a few locations listed on our website, primarily in Kentucky. We’ve recently moved into Florida, Texas, Wyoming and will be in Seattle soon.
As for new products, we’re working on a toasted 105 proof bourbon and rye. It’ll be a larger batch than our barrel strength offerings, but we want to maintain some continuity. We prefer drinking higher proof, so we settled on 105. We’re excited about it, and we hope to have it ready before Thanksgiving. There will likely be some single barrels pulled from this batch too.
You can find us at bourbonoutfitter.com if you're not in Kentucky, Florida, or Texas. Take a look at our website for the product locator, and feel free to message us on Instagram or Facebook if you have questions about availability. Also, pester your local liquor store to carry us!
