Northern Kentucky's Boone County Distilling Co. Earns National Recognition as One of America's Top Small Businesses Worth a Road Trip
Somewhere between the sprawling mega-distilleries that dominate bourbon country's skyline and the weekend hobbyist operations that pop up and vanish, there exists a category of craft producer that earns its reputation the hard way — through honest whiskey, deep history, and a guest experience that people talk about long after the last dram has been poured. Boone County Distilling Co. in Independence, Kentucky, fits that description precisely, and the rest of the country is starting to take notice.
National travel outlet The Points Guy, in partnership with Capital One Business, named Boone County Distilling Co. one of the top 10 small businesses in the United States "worth building your next trip around." The designation carries real weight during the peak of summer road-trip season, when millions of Americans are actively scouting destinations that offer more than a chain restaurant and a hotel checkout. The recognition positions the Northern Kentucky craft distillery as a premier destination for local whiskey enthusiasts, weekend road-trippers, and bourbon aficionados from across the country.
For an operation that measures its footprint in thousands of square feet rather than hundreds of acres, this kind of national spotlight matters enormously — not just as a marketing win, but as a validation of the craft-distilling philosophy that the operation has been quietly executing since its modern founding a decade ago.
Almost Two Centuries of History Behind the Bottle
To understand why this recognition resonates beyond a simple press release, you need to understand what the distillery is actually rooted in. Boone County Distilling Company has deep roots that date back to 1833, when Petersburg, Kentucky — just outside of Cincinnati — was home to the largest distilled spirits producer in America. That's not a marketing claim dressed up as heritage. The original distillery was a steam mill bought by Virginia brothers John and William Snyder, and shortly after purchase it became the Petersburg Distillery, established when William and his brother John converted the Petersburg steam mill — plotted on a 1,000-acre tract of land — into the company's founding operation.
By 1860, the distillery had produced one million gallons of whisky. The operation changed hands multiple times as the economics of the Civil War era, including a punishing per-gallon liquor tax, reshaped the business landscape. By 1880, the Petersburg Distillery had become the largest distillery in the state of Kentucky, and by 1910 it had been shut down due to lack of visitors to the town of Petersburg, with the final reserves sold off by 1918. Prohibition sealed the coffin on what had been a genuinely dominant bourbon enterprise.
Nearly a century of silence followed. Then, the distillery — originally formed in Petersburg, Kentucky, and operated from 1833 until shutting down in 1918 — was re-established in Independence, Kentucky, in 2015, by owners Jack Wells and Josh Quinn. The modern operation doesn't pretend that the gap in time didn't happen. Instead, it leans into it with a knowing nod, marketing its bourbon under the tagline "Made by Ghosts" — a direct acknowledgment of all the distillers who came before and whose legacy now shapes every barrel that goes into the rickhouse.
What "Made by Ghosts" Actually Means in the Glass
The Points Guy specifically highlighted Boone County Distilling for its commitment to handcrafting bourbon "Made by Ghosts," which is a nod to the distillery's 1833 Petersburg, Kentucky, roots. It's a clever piece of brand identity, but more importantly, it's backed by production decisions that the whiskey speaks to directly.
As an official stop on the prestigious Kentucky Bourbon Trail® and Northern Kentucky's The B-Line®, the distillery honors that history by handcrafting its bourbon, aging it for more than five years, and sourcing ingredients from Kentucky and Indiana. In an era when age statements have become a rarity in craft bourbon — with many producers rushing young whiskey to market to recoup investment — a five-plus-year commitment to patience is a meaningful signal about quality priorities.
Reminiscent of the days when bourbon was celebrated as the life-blood of the region, Boone County Distilling is housed in 5,000 square feet set on 2.5 acres, and includes a 500-gallon copper pot still affectionately named "The Bear," four fermenters, and a small bottling line with a capacity of hundreds of barrels of small batch bourbon a year. That 500-gallon pot still is a production choice that separates Boone County from both the industrial giants and the hobby-sized operations that produce a few dozen barrels annually. It's a scale that allows genuine craft but also the ability to maintain consistent output — the sweet spot for a serious destination distillery.
The Product Lineup
Products include small-batch bourbons, single-barrel selections, bourbon cream, and rye whiskey. The broader product range covers Essentials, Founders Reserve, Cask Finished, Single Barrel, and various limited releases and specialties. Each tier serves a distinct drinker — the Essentials line handles the everyday sipping crowd, while the Single Barrel selections give enthusiasts the kind of variation-hunting that has become a sport in its own right among bourbon collectors.
The rye whiskey deserves its own callout. The rye whiskey recipe comes from Larry Ebersold, a member of the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame. Attaching a Hall of Fame-caliber pedigree to a rye recipe isn't just branding — it signals that the distillery understands the value of institutional knowledge and has gone out of its way to acquire it. Ebersold's influence gives the rye a direct lineage to Kentucky's broader whiskey tradition, which is exactly the kind of provenance serious collectors appreciate.
The flagship Eighteen 33 expression is crafted to offer something to every bourbon lover, aged 10 years and barreled at 90.8 proof. A decade of aging in small-batch production is a serious commitment, and 90.8 proof hits the balance point between full flavor presence and approachability — neither watered down to chase mainstream palatability nor barrel-proof intimidating for the uninitiated.
The America 250 Limited Release: Timing Matters
The timing of The Points Guy recognition aligns with something else happening at the distillery that deserves attention from any collector with a sense of American whiskey history. Visitors to the distillery can purchase limited-edition America 250 releases of Founder's Reserve and Single Barrel Founder's Reserve, and according to the announcement, the bottles commemorate the history and spirit of American independence and are available for a limited time.
This limited-edition bottle commemorates the history and spirit of American independence, giving summer visitors a unique, collectible piece of Kentucky history to take home. For a distillery with roots in 1833 — a time when the young American republic was just establishing its identity and bourbon was already becoming its signature spirit — there's a genuine narrative thread connecting the nation's 250th anniversary to what Boone County Distilling represents. This isn't a distillery that grafted an American heritage story onto its marketing materials. It's one that has the historical receipts to back the claim up.
Limited releases tied to major national milestones tend to appreciate both in sentimental and monetary value over time, particularly when tied to a distillery with an authentic founding story. The America 250 bottles give summer visitors a reason to purchase beyond a standard gift shop pickup — they're buying a time-stamped piece of a real story.
The Physical Experience: Getting There and What to Expect
Location and Access
Geography has always played a role in which distilleries become genuine destinations and which ones remain local secrets. Boone County Distilling benefits from an enviable position. Located just off I-75 near Independence, Boone County Distilling offers an easy, scenic summer drive for regional travelers and is only 15 miles south of Cincinnati for locals. That proximity to Cincinnati — one of the Midwest's most visited cities — essentially makes the distillery a logical extension of any Cincinnati weekend trip, not an elaborate detour requiring its own logistical planning.
The I-75 corridor is already well-trafficked by bourbon pilgrims heading deeper into Kentucky, and Boone County Distilling sits at the northern gateway of that experience. For anyone flying into the region, the access story gets even better. The distillery's proximity to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport — one of the region's major hubs — means it's often among the first Kentucky bourbon stops a traveler can make after landing.
The Tour Experience
The distillery's tour program is structured to work for both first-timers and seasoned bourbon veterans. The one-hour tour, priced at $8 per person, takes visitors through the distillery's rich history, provides a behind-the-scenes look at spirits production from grain to glass, and includes a walk through the aroma of the 1,000-barrel rickhouse, concluding in the tasting room with an educational tasting of available products. Eight dollars for a grain-to-glass tour that includes a rickhouse walk and a formal tasting is, by any standard measure, a genuine value — particularly when comparable experiences at larger Kentucky operations can run several times that amount.
The 1,000-barrel rickhouse is worth lingering on as a detail. At that scale, the rickhouse is large enough to carry the distinctive thick, sweet aroma that enthusiasts associate with serious aging operations — the kind of sensory experience that photographs can't replicate and that keeps people talking long after the visit. It's also large enough to give the distillery real production depth while remaining intimate enough that visitors don't feel like they've wandered into an industrial plant.
The distillery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with tours at 10:30 a.m., noon, 1:30 p.m., 3:00 p.m., and 4:15 p.m., and Sundays from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with tours at noon, 1:30 p.m., 3:00 p.m., and 4:15 p.m. The Sunday hours are a smart accommodation for the weekend road-trip crowd — a demographic that often rolls in mid-morning after a Saturday night in Cincinnati and wants to fit a distillery stop into a Sunday drive back home.
The full visitor offering extends to guided tours, tasting experiences, and a gift shop featuring a range of spirits. The distillery also offers an event center for hosting gatherings, which opens the operation up well beyond the day-trip model and into the private event space that has become a significant revenue stream for craft distilleries nationwide.
The Bourbon Trail and B-Line Context: Why Certification Matters
Not every Kentucky distillery earns placement on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail® or The B-Line®, and the distinction matters. Boone County Distilling is an official stop on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and Northern Kentucky's The B-Line. The Kentucky Bourbon Trail® is administered by the Kentucky Distillers' Association and carries genuine consumer awareness — it's the framework that has turned bourbon tourism into a multi-billion-dollar economic driver for the Commonwealth. Being part of that trail puts Boone County Distilling in the same institutional conversation as producers who have been at it for generations.
The B-Line® adds a regional dimension to that credential, positioning the distillery as part of a Northern Kentucky-specific bourbon experience that gives travelers a geographic anchor. Rather than facing the slightly overwhelming task of planning a full Kentucky Bourbon Trail excursion — which can span days and hundreds of miles — visitors can use The B-Line as a tighter, more manageable itinerary that still hits the hallmarks of authentic Kentucky bourbon culture. Boone County Distilling anchors the northern end of that experience in a way that carries real destination weight.
What Jack Wells and Josh Quinn Built
Co-owner Jack Wells has been direct about what this recognition means in the context of what he and Quinn set out to create when they relaunched the operation in 2015. "Boone County Distilling has long been committed to producing exceptional bourbon, and being recognized nationally alongside some of the country's finest small businesses is a true honor," Wells said. "With a distilling tradition dating back to the 1830s, we're proud to share an authentic Kentucky bourbon experience with visitors from near and far."
The statement is measured, but it carries a subtext worth unpacking. Wells and Quinn didn't launch a craft distillery and invent a history for it. They stepped into a genuine historical lineage — one that once produced more bourbon than any other operation in Kentucky — and accepted the responsibility that comes with that inheritance. Born in 1833 and reborn in 2015, the operation honors the world-renowned Kentucky distilling history by creating authentic hand-crafted Kentucky bourbons in the Northern hills of Kentucky, one barrel at a time. That phrase — one barrel at a time — isn't throwaway language. It describes a production philosophy that runs counter to the industrial efficiency that defines the mega-distillery model. And it's precisely that philosophy that caught the attention of The Points Guy's national panel.
What This Recognition Means for Craft Bourbon Tourism
The broader context here goes beyond one distillery's good news cycle. The inclusion of a craft bourbon producer in a national "top small businesses worth traveling to" list, published by a major travel authority and backed by a Fortune 500 financial brand, signals something real about where bourbon tourism is heading. The Kentucky Bourbon Trail® already generates enormous visitor numbers — the kind that rival state park tourism figures — but the growth edge of that industry is in smaller, story-rich operations that offer experiences the big distilleries simply cannot replicate.
Boone County Distilling represents a template for what sustainable craft bourbon tourism looks like: an authentic founding story, a physical space that feels lived-in and purposeful rather than manufactured, a product lineup that rewards both casual drinkers and serious collectors, and an accessible price point for the tour experience that makes the visit feel like a discovery rather than a transaction. When national travel media packages that combination as a "top 10" destination, it sends a signal to the rest of the craft distilling industry that quality and authenticity still punch above their weight class in the consumer attention economy.
For bourbon drinkers specifically, the recognition should prompt a practical response: if you haven't made the trip to Northern Kentucky's Independence, this summer — while the America 250 limited releases are still on the shelf and the seasonal road-trip energy is at its peak — is the right time. Today, Boone County is home to a new craft spirits distillery that continues to break new ground by bringing distilling back for the first time in a century. A century of silence, a decade of resurrection, and now a national spotlight. Some distilleries spend a fortune trying to manufacture that kind of story. Boone County Distilling simply lived it.
