Angel’s Envy—which opened its new, $27 million dollar distillery and visitor center in Louisville, Kentucky in November 2016—has become the tenth member of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Louisville’s mayor, Greg Fischer, and members of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association made the announcement this morning, presenting a copper plaque to the company to commemorate the occasion and stamping the first Angel’s Envy page in the Kentucky Bourbon Trail Passport.
Angel’s Envy was founded in 2006 by Wes Henderson. His father, Lincoln, had worked as a master distiller for Brown-Forman for nearly 40 years, helping to develop brands like Woodford Reserve, Gentleman Jack, and Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel. When Wes started up Angel’s Envy, Lincoln worked to select and blend whiskeys for the brand. The two men, along with Wes’s son, Kyle, broke ground on the distillery in July 2013, just two months before Wes passed away.
The distillery opened this past fall, but Angel’s Envy underwent a major transition in the meantime. Multinational drinks conglomerate Bacardi Ltd. acquired the brand in 2015. Shortly after that, Cecilia Henderson, Lincoln’s widow and Wes’s mother, filed a lawsuit accusing her son of withholding the share of the sale entitled to her as inheritor of Lincoln’s estate. The suit was settled in February 2016.
Angel’s Envy joins nine other companies with locations on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, including Maker’s Mark, Woodford Reserve, Wild Turkey, Heaven Hill, the Evan Williams Experience, Four Roses, Bulleit, Jim Beam, and Town Branch.
