BIB & Tucker

Bib & Tucker takes its name from a nineteenth-century Southern colloquialism for being dressed in one's finest, and the bourbon lives up to the phrase: a sourced, small-batch whiskey built around patience rather than flash. The brand does not distill its own spirit. Instead it is a non-distiller producer, meaning Bib & Tucker sources fully matured whiskey, blends it, and bottles it under its own name, a common and legitimate model in American whiskey that lets a brand focus entirely on selection and finishing rather than distillation.

History & Heritage

Bib & Tucker launched in 2014 under 35 Maple Street Spirits, a company headed by August Sebastiani, a member of the well-known Sebastiani wine family. The brand built its early reputation on a straightforward promise: a genuinely aged, non-chill-filtered small batch bourbon at a time when many competitors were leaning on younger juice. In August 2017, Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits acquired Bib & Tucker, along with sibling brand Masterson's Rye Whiskey, from 3 Badge Beverage Corporation, the Sebastiani-family beverage company. As of July 2026, Bib & Tucker is owned by Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits, a major American wine and spirits company that has continued to expand the line with older and more limited expressions since taking over the brand.

The Whiskey

Bib & Tucker's whiskey is distilled in Tennessee using a mash bill of 70% corn, 26% rye, and 4% malted barley, a rye-forward recipe that gives the whiskey more spice than a typical wheated bourbon. Production runs through a double distillation: first through a column still, then a second pass through an antique or traditional copper pot still, a method that concentrates flavor and separates Bib & Tucker's process from single-pass column distillation used by many other sourced brands. The spirit rests in No. 1 charred American white oak barrels, and the flagship Small Batch expression carries a minimum age statement of six years, well above entry-level bourbon norms. Every release is bottled without chill filtration, preserving the natural oils and character the barrels impart. The whiskey is bottled by 35 Maple Street in Crestwood, Kentucky. Beyond the standard Small Batch, the range has grown to include a 10 Years Old Bourbon, a 12-Year-Old, a Bottled in Bond Small Batch aged 8 years, a Double Char Bourbon finished in a second heavily charred and smoked barrel, and The Golden Spike, a 15-year-old expression that stands as the brand's oldest release to date.

Why It Matters

Bib & Tucker has built a genuine competitive record rather than relying on marketing alone. The Small Batch Bourbon Whiskey scored 96 points from The Tasting Panel, 96 points at the 2020 Ultimate Spirits Challenge, and 93 points from Whisky Advocate, which also ranked the 6-year-old expression #14 on its Top 20 of 2021. The line has also earned a Gold Medal from the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and 90 points from Wine Enthusiast. More recently, the 10 Years Old expression won Best in Show at the 2024 TAG Global Spirits Awards and took Silver at the 2025 World Whiskies Awards. That consistency across both critic scores and competition medals, spanning entry-level and extra-aged releases alike, is unusual for a sourced brand and reflects careful barrel selection rather than a single lucky batch. For those who appreciate good whiskey and want an aged, well-reviewed sourced bourbon with real spice from its rye-heavy mash bill, Bib & Tucker offers a dependable, well-documented option in The Sentinel Room's Reserve Whiskey Library.