Bourbon News: George Washington's First Bourbon and the 250th Rush

America turned 250 this week, and the bourbon industry showed up in full costume. The headline bottles came in tiny numbers at three- and four-figure prices, one of them hand-distilled at George Washington's own reconstructed still. Under the fireworks, Kentucky is sitting on the largest barrel surplus in its history, and one of the state's newest distilleries just sold at auction for less than it cost to build.

The Week in Six Bullets

• George Washington's Mount Vernon released its first-ever bourbon, Spirit of '76, on July 4 — 300 bottles, cask strength, $1,000¹
• Buffalo Trace revived five Prohibition-era brands in its third Prohibition Collection, $999.99 for five 375ml bottles²
• Jefferson's dropped a 20-year Founder's Reserve finished in Bordeaux casks, 250 bottles at $499.99³
• Four Roses broke its 10-recipe tradition with a Mizunara-finished bourbon and a separate 21-year Anthology release, its oldest ever⁴
• Sazerac bought the bankrupt Garrard County Distilling for $20 million, below the site's appraised value⁵
• Kentucky's aging stock hit a record 16.1 million barrels, the backdrop to every patriotic "limited" label⁶

The Story of the Week: Washington Distilled a Bourbon

George Washington ran the largest whiskey distillery in America at the end of his life, producing nearly 11,000 gallons in 1799. He made rye. For America's 250th, the reconstructed distillery at Mount Vernon did something Washington never did: it bottled a bourbon.

Spirit of '76 is a 7-year-old cask-strength bourbon, distilled and bottled by hand using the same 18th-century methods the site uses for its award-winning rye¹. Only about 300 bottles exist. They went on sale July 4 at The Shops at Mount Vernon for $1,000, one per person, in-person only⁷. The label is the detail people will remember. It is double-sided, and Emanuel Leutze's Washington Crossing the Delaware comes into view through the glass as the bottle empties.

This is a museum piece more than a bourbon you will taste. At 300 bottles sold from a single gift shop in Virginia, the odds of drinking it are close to zero unless you are standing in that room. Its value is the story, not the pour, which is the whole point of a Semiquincentennial release.

Buffalo Trace Reopens the Prohibition Vault

Buffalo Trace unveiled the third edition of its Prohibition Collection on June 30, and this one leans into history harder than the first two². The five brands were all sold under Albert B. Blanton's management when the distillery operated as George T. Stagg, one of six distilleries the government licensed to make medicinal whiskey while the rest of the country went dry.

The set runs $999.99 for five 375ml bottles. What is actually inside:

The other three round out the range: Kentucky River, a 100-proof blend of Kentucky straight whiskeys; John G. Carlisle, a 100-proof bourbon named for an architect of the 1897 Bottled-in-Bond Act; and Walter B. Duffy, a 107-proof marriage of 10- and 14-year bourbons². Buffalo Trace does not publish batch sizes, so treat retail availability as a lottery. A thousand dollars for five half-bottles is a collector's proposition, not a value one.

The Rest of the 250th Rush

The anniversary bottles kept coming. Jefferson's released Founder's Reserve 20-Year-Old on June 30: 250 bottles, individually numbered and signed, $499.99, a 20-year Kentucky straight bourbon finished in French Bordeaux casks and bottled around 94 proof after two decades of the barrel doing its slow work³. Twenty-year bourbon is a gamble even for the distiller, since oak pushed that far can tip into bitterness and dry tannin. The Bordeaux finish is there to round the edges, and if the balance holds, this is a genuinely rare age statement you will read about more than you will find.

Lost Lantern went the opposite direction from scarcity and built its 250th release around scale, blending straight bourbon sourced from all 50 states into the United States of Bourbon (100 proof, $79.99; cask strength, $99.99)⁸. The logistics alone, tracking down a qualifying straight bourbon in states with almost no distilling history, are the story.

Then there was the bottle that actually went viral. A Costco exclusive called Patriot Eagle, a 6-year Indiana bourbon at 80 proof in a bald-eagle-shaped decanter, sold for $39.99 and racked up hundreds of thousands of views after a shopper posted it online⁹. It is the spiritual sequel to this spring's Costco hot dog bourbon: cheap juice, unforgettable packaging, instant sellout. Novelty is doing real work in bourbon right now.

Four Roses Breaks Its Own Rules

Four Roses built its identity on ten recipes and no cask finishes. In late June it announced two releases that step outside that box at once⁴.

Experimental Series No. 001 is the brand's first-ever secondary finish: a 6-year OBSK-recipe bourbon moved into Japanese Mizunara oak, bottled at up to 124.9 proof in a 375ml format for $55, on sale July 30¹⁰. Mizunara is notoriously leaky and slow, prized for sandalwood and incense notes, and almost no Kentucky distillery works with it. Separately, the new Anthology Series opened with Chapter One: Origin, a 21-year bourbon that is the oldest age-stated release in Four Roses history, capped at 1,200 bottles. One line chases experimentation at an approachable price, the other chases age at collector scale. Both signal a Four Roses that no longer wants to be defined only by its ten recipes.

The Market Under the Fireworks

While marketing departments wrapped bottles in 1776, the balance sheet told a quieter story. Sazerac, Buffalo Trace's parent, bought the shuttered Garrard County Distilling at a court-ordered auction on June 26 for $20 million, well below the site's appraised value north of $27 million⁵. Garrard County opened in 2024 as one of the largest independent distilleries ever built in Kentucky, filled barrels for months, then slid into receivership by April 2025. A brand-new 200-acre plant selling for two-thirds of its appraisal is the clearest sign yet that the building boom has met the demand wall.

The tariff picture stays unsettled on top of the glut. The EU's threatened retaliatory tariff on American spirits is suspended again, now pushed to August 6, and American whiskey's share of US spirits exports fell to a record-low 45% in 2025⁶. Any trade headline between now and August will move bourbon pricing more than any single release.

Under the Radar: Value That Doesn't Need a Flag

Not everything this week required a mortgage or a signature bottle. Green River's new Distillery Select opened with Toasted Double Oak, an 8-year bourbon (the distillery's oldest yet) finished six months in toasted oak, bottled at 115.1 proof for $49.99¹¹. It took a Double Gold and 96 points at this year's San Francisco World Spirits Competition. The catch, and it is a real one: it sells only at Green River's Owensboro distillery and Louisville tasting room, so you are buying a plane ticket or a road trip with the bottle.

If you want a wheated pour you can actually order, Redwood Empire also debuted Colonel Armstrong, a 30%-wheat bourbon at 90 proof for $39.99, rolling out to retailers nationwide. Between the two, Green River is the trophy and Colonel Armstrong is the Tuesday pour. If you like Maker's Mark, the extra wheat in the Redwood Empire is a low-risk way to hear what more of that grain does.

What to Watch

• 250th-anniversary bottles keep landing through the summer. Most are small allocations. Check Drops for sightings near you before chasing retail.
• Four Roses Experimental No. 001 goes on sale July 30. At $55 for a first-of-its-kind Mizunara finish, it is the anniversary-season release most people can afford to open.
• The barrel surplus at 16.1 million is the number that shapes 2026 pricing. Expect more brands to move premium stock through anniversary and single-barrel programs⁶.
• Garrard County's next chapter under Sazerac. Watch what a distressed-asset buy signals about who else in Kentucky is overextended.

Keep Reading

Footnotes

1. Fred Minnick, "George Washington's Mount Vernon to Release Spirit of '76 Bourbon," July 2, 2026 ↩ ↩²

2. Breaking Bourbon, "Buffalo Trace Distillery Releases Third Edition of Its Prohibition Collection," June 30, 2026 ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. BevNET, "Jefferson's Bourbon Celebrates America's 250th Anniversary With Founder's Reserve 20-Year-Old," June 30, 2026 ↩ ↩²

4. Breaking Bourbon, "Four Roses Debuts Anthology Series With Oldest Release in Brand History," June 2026 ↩ ↩²

5. The Spirits Business, "Sazerac buys Garrard County Distilling for $20m," June 2026 ↩ ↩²

6. The Week, "Whiskey tariffs cause major problems for American distillers," 2026 ↩ ↩² ↩³

7. George Washington's Mount Vernon, "Limited-Edition 'George Washington's Spirit Of '76' Bourbon Released," July 2026 ↩

8. Breaking Bourbon, "Lost Lantern Launches the United States of Bourbon, the First-Ever Blend of Straight Bourbon from All 50 States," June 2026 ↩

9. Dexerto, "Costco is selling a bald eagle bourbon bottle and shoppers can't get enough," June 2026 ↩

10. The Whiskey Wash, "Four Roses Launches Experimental Series With Mizunara Finished Bourbon," June 2026 ↩

11. Breaking Bourbon, "Toasted Double Oak Debuts as Inaugural Distillery Select from Green River Distilling," June 2026 ↩