Rabbit Hole

Rabbit Hole was founded by Kaveh Zamanian, an Iranian-born Ph.D. psychologist with zero experience in whiskey making or the spirits industry. After growing up in Southern California, Kaveh moved to Chicago, where he met his wife Heather, a Louisville native passionate about bourbon. Heather is credited with converting Kaveh from his love of scotch to bourbon, the native spirit of her hometown. Kaveh saw a need for more transparency and authenticity in the bourbon industry since, historically, a handful of distillers had churned out dozens of brands with no clear differentiation between the brands and labels. He obsessively learned as much as he could about making bourbon and eventually told his wife that he wanted to give up an 18-year career as a psychiatrist, move to Louisville, and launch his bourbon brand. Heather told him he was taking the family down a rabbit hole from which they could never return, which inspired the brand's name, "Rabbit Hole." Kaveh thought he could bring exciting innovation to the category and create a modern interoperation of bourbon. He founded the business and developed the recipes for the whiskies in 2012, sourced contract whiskey based on those recipes in 2014, broke ground on the Rabbit Hole Distillery in 2016, and officially opened the distillery in 2018

Rabbit Hole sources all their barrels exclusively from the family-owned Kelvin Cooperage in Louisville, Kentucky, which was established in 1963. It was essential for Kaveh to partner with a family-owned business. The new American oak barrels are toasted on low heat for about 20 minutes, then charred with wood-fired furnaces to a level #3. The barrel-entry proof is 110 (55 % ABV), the small batch size never exceeds 15 barrels, and the whiskeys are always non-chill filtered to preserve the full flavor. All processes are done in-house, including filling barrels, dumping barrels, and bottling. The distillery can be located in the heart of Louisville because all maturation is done off-site. The aging warehouse, or rackhouse, is about 30 minutes from the distillery in Henry County. Each building is 15,000 square feet, constructed entirely of steel, free of electricity, and contains no lights, plugs, heat, or air conditioning.

First released in 2019, Heigold is a high-rye bourbon named for Christian Heigold, a German immigrant and stone mason who settled in Louisville around 1850. His work can still be seen on Main Street, but his most famous work was the ornate symbols he craved on the façade of his landmark home, which was saved from the city dump after a flood damaged the house and can still be visited today. This product is a tribute to all immigrants because Kaveh, the brand's founder, is an immigrant from Iran. Heigold has a mash bill of 70% corn, 25% malted rye, and 5% malted barley, has a barrel-entry proof of 110 (55 % ABV), is aged in # 3, wood-fired, toasted & charred new American oak barrels for a minimum of 3 years.