As you drive on to the grounds of Leiper's Fork Distillery on Southall Road, you'll see beehives–five wooden structures with copper peaked roofs–to your left, built for the distillery by artist and bee whisperer Steven Abernathy of Greenwood Honey Co. For the last two years, Steven and his fiancé Claire Papevies have tended to the hives and harvested honey for Leiper's Fork Distillery to sell in its gift shop. 

 

"The bees in their care are collecting pollen and nectar from our surrounding meadows and producing a honey that is as 'terroir' to our area as you can get," says Leiper's Fork Distillery President and Chief Distiller Lee Kennedy. Terroir is a French term that describes the unique geographical conditions and cultural practices that affect the taste of food and beverages. It's a way to describe the taste of a place and the unique flavors that can't be replicated elsewhere.

 

Leiper's Fork Distillery is known for its low-volume, low-impact concept of whiskey production. "We put an emphasis on creating grain to glass whiskeys, utilizing local grains and resources. We are trying to create a 'terroir' whiskey as much as we can. We want our whiskeys to be an expression of Williamson County and a nod to our agrarian roots," shared Lee on a crisp fall morning out at the distillery. I was one of a lucky few to taste the soon-to-be-released 2024 Honey Bourbon, created in collaboration with Greenwood Honey Co. "If we were going to do a honey bourbon project, it made sense to use a company that shared the same philosophy that we do. Steven and Claire share the same vision for their honey that we have for our whiskey. The care they use in their craft aligns perfectly with ours," says Lee.    

 

"Claire and I are storytellers," says Steven, "we tell the story of this landscape through our honey and now through this honey bourbon collaboration with Leiper's Fork Distillery." For this special collab, Steven created a honey recipe out of hive products like honeycomb, propolis and bee bread from the hives "Locke" and "Gayle" on the property. That recipe was then taken to the barrel process and married with Leiper's Fork's grain to glass Bourbon, which has been aging in two separate barrels (one for each hive) for the last six months. That aging time allows the flavors in the barrel to meld and complement one another. 

 

During my visit, Lee "thieved" from one of the barrels and shared the amber goodness with me in its raw state. I enjoyed a cornucopia of rich, nuanced flavors that were not sweet or cloying in any way. "The honey really hits on the back end," noted Lee. Steven agreed, adding he detected a "slightly herbal finish." Before bottling, the two barrels will be married together, and the honey products filtered out, creating something entirely unique from what we tasted. Thieving from the barrel offers the craftsmen a window into the magic that is at work inside.

"This honey bourbon is a true expression of our surroundings. Marrying the honey Steven and Claire are cultivating onsite with our grain to glass whiskey makes an authentic and unique whiskey expression that we can proudly stand behind," says Lee.

 

There will only be 450 bottles made of this special honey bourbon and it is expected to sell out quickly. Make sure to follow Leiper’s Fork Distillery and Greenwood Honey Co. on social media to be the first to hear when the 2024 Honey Bourbon drops. The price is expected to be around $175 per bottle.