Left Bank Distilled Spirits

When you sip Left Bank, an essence of vanilla, caramel, honey, and spice give you a “Kentucky hug” with each swallow. Each flavor profile seeps into the spirit during the bourbon-making process as the charred barrels of whisky are finished with French oak staves and “tortured” by heat, movement, and age. Such radical exposure to the elements during a downriver journey pays homage to the Kentuckians who fought during the War of 1812.

These legendary riflemen, often referred to as the “Alligator Horses” gained the nickname after Davy Crockett described notorious keelboatsman Mike Fink as “half horse and half alligator” when Fink proclaimed he could outshoot, outfight, and outdrink all challengers.

Along with livestock and raw materials like lumber and iron, the flatboats were sent down the Mississippi stocked with barrels of river-aged bourbon. The ferrymen enjoyed the drink during the transport, amusing themselves by shooting cups of whisky from each other’s heads. Songs and poems were written about these semi-mythical characters, and from there the legend of the Alligator Horses was born into American Frontier folklore.