Whiskey Thief Distilling opens tasting room in Louisville
Whiskey Thief Distilling is expanding, bringing a tasting room and thief experience to Louisville’s NuLu neighborhood at 610 Nanny Goat Strut.
- Whiskey Thief Distilling Co. is a craft bourbon distillery in Franklin County.
- The company is expanding, bringing a tasting room and thieves experience to Louisville’s NuLu neighborhood.
- The future tasting room will be located at 610 Nanny Goat Strut in the recently closed Flying Axes.
About a mile off Interstate 64 in Franklin County lies a 127-acre family farm.
The farm grows corn and part of the property has a neighbor’s cows. Most days you can catch a glimpse of a small black cat named Pluto, who roams the barns and fields, keeping mice away.
Of particular note, the farm is home to Whiskey Thief Distilling Co., an artisanal bourbon distillery that produces approximately 1,000 barrels of bourbon annually.
As big as Kentucky’s bourbon industry is, this craft distillery offers tourists an intimate experience, allowing them to visit the farm, walk through the distillery, and see the bourbon-making process up close. Plus, people can steal their own bottle by extracting the spirit directly from a barrel.
Now the company — which takes its name “Whiskey Thief” from the tool used to scoop bourbon out of a barrel and bottle it — is expanding, bringing a tasting room and thief experience to Louisville’s NuLu neighborhood.
The future tasting room will be located at 610 Nanny Goat Strut in the recently closed Flying Axes and is scheduled to open this fall.
“We’re capturing a little bit of the experience here, putting it in a bottle and bringing it there,” Walter Zausch, CEO and owner of Whiskey Thief Distilling Co., told the Courier Journal.
What to expect from the Whiskey Thief Bourbon experience at NuLu
While nearly 500 people stream through the Frankfort craft distillery on an average Saturday, long lines, mandatory reservations and rushed tours are not part of Whiskey Thief’s identity. The brand, which sells only from its distillery—and soon from its NuLu location—prides itself on its casual, relaxed and approachable atmosphere.
“You can’t buy our products at Total Wine or anywhere else, we’re not in the distribution business,” Zausch said. “I always say, ‘We have exclusive distribution rights between here and the front door.'”
Zausch, a former customer who is now CEO of the company, said it’s this casual experience, with visitors tasting a barrel and then hanging around, and the opportunity to touch and learn about the bourbon, that continues to attract repeat customers, many of whom come from out of state.
“We make everything by hand. The spirit is made undiluted and unfiltered,” said Zausch. “We let people enjoy it straight from the barrel, and we’ve been doing that for 12 years.”
Exuding a mid-century vibe, the NuLu venue will also embrace the brand’s core identity – a calm, unadulterated experience that gives visitors the opportunity to participate in the creation of the final bottled product.
Each time a guest comes to the NuLu tasting room, they can steal whiskey from five barrels – four bourbon and one rye – to sample the product, similar to the full distillery experience.
Zausch, who returned to his native Kentucky from California, where he worked on customer experience at technology companies such as Apple and Microsoft, knows the importance of giving Whiskey Thief the opportunity to evoke specific “bourbon memories.”
“We firmly believe that you are the master of your own glass,” said Zausch. “So if you like it, that’s all that really matters.”
This attitude is why the steal opportunity, where visitors can pull out bourbon and a little keg coal with every grab, is fundamental to all aspects of the brand experience, be it at NuLu or at the distillery.
“You can hire a whiskey thief to fill your own bottle. So you fill your own bottle, label it, take it away and it’s yours. There will probably never be another bourbon like this because in a few days the taste might change a little bit,” Zausch said.
Why is Whiskey Thief opening a tasting room in Louisville?
A few years ago, the idea that a small, young bourbon brand would be able to open a tasting room in a branch of its distillery was far-fetched. For the most part, only major heritage brands like Evan Williams and Jim Beam had attractions outside of their main distillery, but these places functioned as micro-distilleries, producing significantly less bourbon than their main distillery—a practice that proved challenging for newer, craft bourbon brands.
Thanks to a bill passed by the Kentucky General Assembly in 2022, distilleries have been given the opportunity to create destinations with tasting rooms where they can sell drinks and cocktails outside of the distillery.
Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky Distiller’s Association, said this change in the law has been “on our wish list for years” and will give Kentucky’s homegrown spirits a chance to compete with wineries and breweries, as well as other states across the country that already allow satellite locations.
That’s when, Zausch says, the “idea” of a tasting room for Whiskey Thief came about. When he heard about the recently vacated space in NuLu, he knew it was time to expand.
Gregory is confident that the introduction of Whiskey Thief in Louisville will be well received as it offers bourbon fans a different experience.
“(Zausch) has made it a great brand and experience and it’s really authentic,” Gregory said. “It shows the whole grain to glass experience.”
As the Whiskey Thief team looks to the future, they remain proud of what they have built in Franklin County and are excited to share it with even more people in Louisville.
“I think Louisville is the capital and, in my opinion, the center of the bourbon universe,” Zausch said. “That gives us the opportunity to expand our reach a little bit.”
Contact business reporter Olivia Evans at [email protected] or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @oliviamevans_.
