About
Louisville distillery founded by Kaveh Zamanian, featuring a striking modern architectural design. Known for unique grain bills including wheat and malted rye combinations. Produces Cavehill (bourbon), Heigold (bourbon), Dareringer (sherry-finished), and Boxergrail (rye). Acquired by Pernod Ricard in 2019.
Production Details
The Rabbit Hole Tale
In the heart of Louisville's NuLu district, where Kentucky's bourbon heritage meets urban renaissance, Kaveh Zamanian saw possibility where others saw empty lots. The year was 2012, and while craft distilleries were sprouting across America like spring wildflowers, few dared to plant themselves in the shadow of bourbon's ancestral giants.
Zamanian's vision materialized in glass and steel—a distillery that looked nothing like the weathered rickhouses dotting Kentucky's countryside. The building rises like a crystalline beacon, its modern lines a deliberate counterpoint to bourbon's traditional architecture. Here, where the Ohio River bends through Jefferson County, limestone-filtered municipal water flows through the same geological foundations that have blessed Kentucky whiskey for centuries.
The stills inside tell the story of calculated rebellion. While Kentucky's old guard perfected their formulas generations ago, Rabbit Hole's copper vessels sing different songs—grain bills that marry wheat with malted rye, combinations that would make traditionalists raise eyebrows and newcomers lean forward with curiosity. Each mash bill carries a name that hints at Louisville's character: Cavehill, Heigold, Dareringer, Boxergrail.
The limestone water that built bourbon's reputation flows here too, carrying the same mineral signature that transformed frontier corn liquor into America's native spirit. But in Zamanian's hands, those ancient minerals serve new ambitions, extracting different flavors from grains arranged in patterns both familiar and foreign to Kentucky palates.
By 2019, Pernod Ricard recognized what Louisville whiskey lovers already knew—that innovation and tradition could share the same ground. The acquisition didn't dim the distillery's modern gleam or quiet its experimental spirit. Instead, it planted Rabbit Hole deeper into Kentucky soil while extending its reach beyond the Bluegrass State.
Standing in the stillhouse today, surrounded by gleaming copper and floor-to-ceiling windows, you feel Kentucky's future taking shape. The limestone water still flows, the grains still dance their ancient fermentation, but the rhythm beats to a different drummer—one who honors the past while writing tomorrow's bourbon stories in glass and grain.