Founded in 2018 by two childhood friends, Penelope Bourbon quickly became one of American whiskey’s fastest-growing companies—and by extension, the envy of many other non-distilling producers (NDPs) on the scene. The brand sourced whiskey almost exclusively from Indiana’s MGP (now Ross & Squibb Distillery), creating blends and cask-finished products via grassroots expansion and distribution campaigns. By 2023, the company had become one of the spirits world’s juiciest acquisition targets. In May of that year, they were acquired by MGP in a deal reportedly worth up to $215.8 million, including incentives.
I wrote about the company’s post-acquisition growth, an effort made easier in part by investors reports. (MGP is a publicly traded company.) While some of MGP’s core business has experienced the same industry-wide contraction as many other producers, Penelope still stands out as a growth leader. And while the brand grew on the backs of highly affordable blends, the company has recently widened its focus to more premium bottlings. Their latest series doubles down on this, with five different premium expressions, all aged at least 10 years.
Announced in August 2025, Penelope’s latest Estate Collection features five different whiskeys, priced around $80 and up. The collection also signifies Penelope’s willingness to expand beyond Indiana-distilled whiskey and includes a number of Kentucky bourbons. (Penelope is technically a part of MGP subsidiary Luxco, which operates Kentucky-based Lux Row Distillers and owns a large amount of bourbon stock sourced from other producers.)
While we haven’t gotten a chance to sample these bottles just yet, Penelope has been very forthcoming with much of the info a bourbon nerd would love: age, mash bill, ABV, and bottle count, for starters.
Penelope Founders Reserve 13 Year Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey: Priced at $199.99 and bottled at a cask strength of 121.4 proof, this comes from a mash bill of 78% corn, 10% rye, and 12% malted barley. Since Lux Row only started operations in 2018, this is Kentucky bourbon sourced from another undisclosed distillery. (The mash bill is traditionally associated with Heaven Hill, though in theory it could have come from a number of different producers.) This release is composed of around 11,000 bottles.
Penelope Omega 11 Year Straight Bourbon Whiskey: Priced at $129.99 and bottled at 109.8 proof, this straight bourbon was aged for 11 years before one year of finishing in rare Radoux Omega barrels. It’s another bourbon from a 78% corn, 10% rye, and 12% malted barley mash bill, with a total bottle count of 10,800.
Single Barrel 10 Year Bourbon: This $89.99 bottling actually has two different expressions of Indiana-distilled whiskey. One is a 99 proof bourbon from a 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley mash bill, limited to 3,900 bottles. The other is a 60% corn, 36% rye, and 4% malted barley bourbon, bottled at 103 proof and limited to 7,200 bottles.
Penelope Private Select 10 Year Bourbon: The most affordable of Penelope’s new lineup at $79.99, this blended bourbon comes from a derived mash bill of 74% corn, 20% rye, 1% wheat, and 5% malted barley, presumably all from Ross & Squibb’s Indiana stock. It’s bottled at 106.8 proof and numbers over 40,000 bottles, making it by far the largest release in the series.