Where Kentucky Bourbon Meets a Scottish Castle: The Complete Guide to Castle & Key Distillery
There are distilleries, and then there is Castle & Key. Pull off McCracken Pike outside of Frankfort, Kentucky, and what greets you is nothing short of jarring — a limestone castle rising from the rolling hills of the Kentucky River valley, flanked by a classical springhouse, formal sunken gardens, and one of the longest rickhouses in American bourbon history. This is not a stage set engineered by a marketing department. In 1887, Colonel E.H. Taylor Jr. established the Old Taylor Distillery with a radical idea for its time. Distilleries were functional, industrial places often closed to the public. Taylor believed it could be something more. As the pioneer of bourbon hospitality, he envisioned his distillery as a premier bourbon destination. Inspired by his travels through Europe, he built not just a distillery, but an experience — and a Scottish-style castle rose from the Kentucky River valley. Over a century later, that castle is standing again, producing whiskey and hosting guests in a way that would make the Colonel feel right at home.
Colonel E.H. Taylor Jr. and the Original Vision
Understanding what makes Castle & Key singular requires understanding the man who built it. Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor Jr. was one of the most consequential figures in the history of American whiskey. He was the legislator whose advocacy produced the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897, and he understood, 130 years before bourbon tourism became an industry, that a distillery should be worth visiting. That instinct drove every decision he made at what would become the Old Taylor Distillery.
He built a castle-like limestone structure, a formal sunken garden, a springhouse over the natural limestone spring that feeds the water supply, and a barrel house in the shape of a Roman colonnade. The ambition was total. Old Taylor was the first distillery in the United States to be built from the ground up as a showplace — a one-of-a-kind destination that was equally focused on merchandising, branding, and entertaining guests as it was on creating great spirits. Taylor even extended a railroad line directly onto the property. That railroad extension allowed for increased production speed and worked as a means to bring guests in to experience the grandeur. The distillery attracted tourists and day trippers, who were given a complimentary "tenth pint" bottle of Old Taylor. By every measure, Taylor was doing bourbon tourism before anyone had a name for it.
In its day, the distillery featured enchanting sunken gardens, a massive 534-foot-long aging warehouse that bore Taylor's name on the side, and even its own train station, where visitors could disembark, snatch a souvenir bottle of bourbon, and stroll the grounds. The Colonel's footprint in the industry ran deep, and the property he built was the physical embodiment of his philosophy: that great spirits and great hospitality are inseparable.
Decades of Decay: The Long Fall of a Bourbon Icon
What goes up does not always stay up, and the story of the Old Taylor Distillery is also one of neglect and ruin. The Colonel's once glorious Old Taylor Distillery was founded in 1887 and shuttered in 1972. Since then it had been in a state of decay, overrun by weeds, snakes, and graffiti for more than 40 years. Mother Nature had been reclaiming this 113-acre piece of land and its twenty-plus buildings along Glenn's Creek in Millville, Kentucky.
The property suffered from forty-plus years of neglect; the buildings and grounds had become an overgrown wasteland — a haunt for teenagers and urban explorers, a monument to bourbon's long mid-century hangover. The major decline in bourbon consumption that started in the 1960s and lasted through parts of the 1990s left the Old Taylor Distillery in its wake. The brand itself changed hands, and by the time the twenty-first century arrived, the property had been stripped of its identity. As Old Taylor was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, restoration and renovations would be slow and expensive — every change had to be done in accordance with stringent rules.
The Resurrection: Wes Murry, Will Arvin, and a $20 Million Gamble
In 2012, a Lexington real estate investor named Will Arvin stumbled onto the abandoned grounds. Where others saw decay, he saw possibility. Stepping onto the grounds, Will recognized more than a restoration project. While touring the crumbling buildings and grounds covered in brush, Arvin saw potential — and he set out to restore what once was for a new era of distilled spirits.
To those who told Will Arvin and Wes Murry they were crazy to try and reopen the Old Taylor Distilling Co. as Castle & Key — Arvin, a real estate investor, and Murry, an attorney, have done what many thought impossible in restoring the historic distillery created in 1887 by Col. Edmund Haynes Taylor Jr. The property sat abandoned for decades before Murry and Arvin purchased it in 2014 and spent four years and $20 million restoring it before selling the first bottle. That restraint — taking four full years before cracking the first bottle — says everything about the seriousness of their intent.
Remarkably, most of the fermenters used from 1935 to 1972 were still viable. The bones of the property had survived the elements better than anyone dared hope. The name they chose for the reborn distillery was deliberate. The name "Castle & Key" was chosen to highlight the distillery's storied history while turning the page on a new chapter. The "castle" in the name refers to the iconic castle structure in the heart of the property. The "key" refers to the water source for the distillery — the keyhole-shaped springhouse.
Marianne Eaves and the Master Distiller Decision
Arvin and Murry understood their limits. Building a distillery is one thing; making world-class whiskey is another. They reached out to Marianne Barnes Eaves on LinkedIn about their project, and she was eventually brought on as the company's first master distiller. A chemical engineer and Brown-Forman veteran, Marianne Eaves joined the Castle & Key team in 2015, becoming the first woman to earn the title of Master Distiller in Kentucky since Prohibition. Castle & Key honors Taylor's vision while ushering in a new generation of bourbon making, initially led by Kentucky's first female master distiller since Prohibition, Marianne Eaves.
During the restoration, crews made a remarkable discovery inside one of the old walls. One unique find in the renovation of the facility was an original bottle of Old Taylor inside one of the walls. Produced in 1917, this pre-Prohibition bourbon served as the inspiration for Marianne Eaves's expression for Castle & Key's bourbon. History speaking directly to the present — that is about as Castle & Key a story as it gets.
After two full years of preservation and restoration, Castle & Key Distillery opened its doors to the public on September 19, 2018. Master Distiller Eaves called it "a huge moment for us — opening the distillery doors and letting people walk through the gate to see behind the curtain and what we've been working so hard for."
The Grounds: European Architecture in the Heart of Kentucky
Nothing quite prepares a first-time visitor for the scale and character of the Castle & Key campus. After more than a century, the property has been meticulously restored into a working distillery producing bourbon, rye, vodka, and gin, all set across 113 acres of rolling hills, limestone architecture, and perfectly manicured gardens. The European inspiration is unmistakable and intentional. A 134-year-old bourbon icon that was inspired by classic European architecture, the historic castle and grounds also feature a classical springhouse, a sunken garden, and the longest aging warehouse in the region.
Featuring a limestone castle, elaborate gazebos, and sunken gardens, Castle & Key's on-site limestone-rich water bubbles up from the ground and fills a keyhole-shaped pool under the restored 19th-century springhouse. Sacred Spring Gin is named for that limestone spring on the property that Colonel Taylor built around in 1887 and that Castle & Key is still using today. The water source is not merely a historical curiosity — it is an active ingredient in the spirits leaving this property every single week.
The grounds include a castle-like distillery, sunken gardens, a springhouse, and restored buildings like the Boiler Room bar and Taylorton Station. Even Taylor's train station — Taylorton Station — has been revamped into restrooms and a walk-up bar featuring spirits and premium cocktails. The old coal storage and boiler room has been repurposed into one of the most beautiful gift shops found anywhere on the bourbon trail. Every structure on the property has a second act, and each one is worth slowing down for.
The Tours: Something for Every Bourbon Traveler
Castle & Key is a part of the official Kentucky Bourbon Trail, and it earns that designation not just through its spirits program but through the depth and variety of experiences it offers visitors. The distillery invites guests to slow down and stay awhile, discover the bourbon hospitality that revolutionized an industry, walk the gardens, tour the distillery, and see where it all began. The property offers multiple distinct tour experiences, each calibrated to a different kind of visitor.
The Standard Distillery Tour
The flagship experience is the distillery tour, and it covers serious ground — literally and figuratively. A guided walk leads through the restored production spaces — mash preparation, fermenters, stills — combined with the historical interpretation of the Old Taylor Distillery story, the abandonment period, and the $20 million restoration. It closes with a structured tasting of several Castle & Key spirits, typically including bourbon, rye, and gin or vodka. The guide covers Colonel Taylor's history and the Bottled-in-Bond Act, the Murry and Arvin restoration decision, and the current production philosophy.
The tour operates on open days with more time slots Thursday through Saturday. Sunday has lighter availability. Duration is typically under an hour for the guided walk, but grounds access is open-ended. That open-ended grounds access is part of what separates Castle & Key from a standard trail stop — the expectation is that guests will linger, explore, and make an afternoon of it.
The Grounds and Botanical Trail Experience
For guests who want the full scope of the estate without diving deep into production, the grounds-focused experience delivers something closer to a Kentucky garden tour that happens to end with a whiskey tasting. A guided exploration of the Springhouse, Botanical Trail, Glenns Creek frontage, castle exteriors, and sunken garden moves at a measured pace, with focus on history, architecture, and the landscape rather than production details.
The Botanical Trail alone justifies the trip for anyone with an appreciation for the raw ingredients behind great gin. The trail is open to all guests during operating hours at no charge and showcases a variety of herbs and botanicals used in their gin, along with stunning trees, plants, and flowers. The quarter-mile-long botanical trail is where Eaves grew her own juniper berries for her Restoration Gin. That connection between living plant and finished bottle is a rarity in American distilling, and walking that trail makes it visceral.
Private and Premium Experiences
For guests seeking an intimate, curated journey behind the scenes of the historic distillery, exclusive spaces and rare spirits crafted with precision and passion await. Several outbuildings and garden spaces have been transformed into event spaces for tastings, cocktail parties, weddings, and private events. Corporate groups and private parties can work directly with the distillery for reserved garden access, private cocktail programming, and custom tasting menus. The property's sheer scale makes these experiences feel genuinely exclusive rather than manufactured.
Located at 4445 McCracken Pike, Castle & Key has become a popular travel destination for spirits and history enthusiasts alike, offering experiences of the many historical parts of the property including the Boiler Room, Taylorton Station, Counter 17, the Springhouse, and the Botanical Trail, as well as explorations of its production process and guided tastings.
The Spirits Program: Young but Already Serious
The whiskey coming out of Castle & Key has been getting better with every passing year, and the bourbon program in particular is hitting its stride now that barrels are reaching meaningful age. The spirits program is younger than the big names — the distillery is known primarily for its excellent gin, with a growing bourbon program that's getting better each year. That is a fair characterization, and the gin's reputation deserves its own treatment.
On the Castle & Key tour, guests learn how the distillery produced clear spirits to stay afloat while waiting on their bourbon to age. Those clear spirits were such a hit that they're still in high demand and receive annual releases. The strategy was born of necessity, but the outcome was a gin program that stands among the finest in the American South.
The Restoration Rye and Sacred Spring Gin are what built the reputation while the bourbon matures. Their first aged spirit, "Restoration Rye," was released in December 2020. Castle & Key Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey was released in 2022 and was the first bourbon distillate to be distilled and released at the Historic Old Taylor Distillery in nearly 50 years.
The distillery's Experimental Series is worth seeking out specifically on-site. It is a homage to E.H. Taylor Jr. and the spirit of exploration that inspired the architecture of the property. Just as Taylor drew inspiration from his world travels and brought it back to Kentucky, Castle & Key channels that same curiosity into an exploration of flavor. Each release offers a new lens into their craft, and these bottles are available only on site. Now aged a full six years, the most recent releases mark a new chapter in the distillery's commitment to crafting exceptional bourbon.
Castle & Key crafts their spirits with carefully selected grains and a unique barrel regimen to thoughtfully produce distinct spirits to their exacting standards. Every spirit produced is made on site, slowly and intentionally. Nothing is left to chance. From distilling and aging to blending and packaging, every step of the process is meticulously woven with passion, precision, and imagination.
The On-Site Cocktail Bar
The on-site cocktail bar is one of the best on the entire Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Expertly crafted drinks using Castle & Key's own spirits in a setting that feels more like a destination cocktail lounge than a distillery tasting room. This is not an afterthought — the bar experience at Castle & Key is a destination in itself, and visitors who skip it are leaving the best part on the table. Spending the extra time to sample a cocktail at Taylorton Station and sit by Glenn's Creek while hearing the history of bourbon making and the rebirth of E.H. Taylor's original distillery is how a proper afternoon at this place unfolds.
Planning the Visit: What You Need to Know Before You Go
Castle & Key is not a drop-in destination — at least not for the tours. The distillery is a popular bourbon trail stop and doesn't have a ton of capacity, so it sells out on weekends and often throughout the week during busy season. Advance reservations are strongly recommended, especially on weekends and during peak bourbon tourism seasons.
Castle & Key offers admittance onto the grounds at no cost, hosts various tour experiences, seasonal live music through its Spring House Music Series, and weddings; it also has a bar on the property and owns a beautifully designed rental property in the heart of historic downtown Frankfort. For the tours themselves, expect prices to be in the range of $20–$50 per person, depending on the experience chosen.
Castle & Key is located near Frankfort, Kentucky, making it an ideal stop between Lexington and Louisville and an easy addition to central Kentucky bourbon trail itineraries. It is practically neighbors to Woodford Reserve and craft distillery Glenn's Creek, and within about a 20–25 minute drive from legacy distilleries Buffalo Trace, Wild Turkey, and Four Roses. For serious trail runners, that geography makes it a natural anchor for a full Frankfort-area day.
Even without a tour, guests are welcome to explore the public areas, walk the trails, and enjoy the serene Kentucky landscape. The grounds themselves are a gift, and on a clear day in the fall, with the limestone walls catching the afternoon light and Glenns Creek audible beyond the tree line, the property delivers something no tasting note ever could.
The Bigger Picture: What Castle & Key Means for Bourbon Tourism
The revival of Castle & Key is more than a feel-good restoration story. It is a proof of concept for what bourbon tourism can be when the ambition is genuine. Unlike other distilleries of its day that were designed and built as distillate factories, Old Taylor was different — the first distillery in the United States built from the ground up as a showplace, a one-of-a-kind destination equally focused on merchandising, branding, and entertaining guests as on creating great spirits. Taylor's model, a century and a half old, turned out to be the right one all along.
Castle & Key Distillery prides itself on being the "birthplace of bourbon hospitality," and they've earned that reputation. Visitors feel welcomed from the moment they step onto the property. Whether you are a whiskey connoisseur or a new sipper, the friendly and knowledgeable staff will guide you through a unique experience suited to your tastes and interests.
The groups that get the most out of Castle & Key are the ones who arrive prepared for what the campus actually is: a 19th-century estate restoration that is also a working distillery, not a purpose-built visitor center. The architecture is not a backdrop. It is the whole point. That distinction matters. In an era when bourbon tourism has become a commercial enterprise optimized for throughput and gift shop revenue, Castle & Key insists on something slower and more considered. The Colonel built something that was meant to endure, and against all reasonable odds, it has.
Today, the distillery continues the inspiring spirit that Colonel Taylor established in 1887, with a shared vision of producing terrific bourbon and being the focal point of bourbon hospitality. Their restoration of this legendary castle and bourbon icon enables them to create captivating spirits and endearing memories. For any serious bourbon traveler hitting Kentucky's rolling hills and back roads, Castle & Key is not just a stop on the trail — it is the one stop that reframes everything else.
