Castle & Key Distillery

On the site of Colonel E.H. Taylor Jr.'s original Old Taylor Distillery, water still rises from a key-shaped limestone spring inside a limestone castle that once stood in ruins for four decades. Castle & Key Distillery in Millville, Kentucky rebuilt that spring, that castle, and the whiskey that runs through both, into one of the most architecturally distinctive stops on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

History & Heritage

Colonel E.H. Taylor Jr., the man who did more than perhaps anyone to define what "bourbon" means as a legal and cultural category, established the original Old Taylor Distillery on this ground in 1887. He built it to look like a castle, with formal gardens, a sunken garden, and a springhouse over the limestone-filtered water source that made the site valuable in the first place. The distillery operated for decades before falling silent, and by 1972 the property was fully abandoned. It sat in ruin for 42 years, reclaimed by vines and vandalism, a landmark known mostly for its decay.

In 2014, Will Arvin and Wes Murry purchased the abandoned site with the intention of restoring it and returning it to production. Rebuilding took years: stabilizing the castle structure, restoring the gardens, and rebuilding a working distillery inside a National Register of Historic Places property. Production of bourbon, rye, gin, and vodka began in 2016, and Castle & Key held its grand opening in 2018. The restoration earned the Ida Lee Willis Memorial Historic Preservation Project Award in 2019, and the distillery became a Heritage Member of the Kentucky Distillers' Association and a stop on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour.

Ownership has since consolidated. Will Arvin and Wes Murry were co-founders at the 2014 purchase, but by 2021 Will Arvin and his family had assumed full ownership of Castle & Key. As of July 2026, Castle & Key Distillery is owned by Will Arvin and his family.

The Whiskey

Castle & Key distills grain to glass on-site, using water drawn from the same limestone spring that supplied the original 1887 operation. Production runs through two Vendome copper column stills, one 24 inches wide and the other 32 inches, paired with a doubler, and the distillery employs sour mash fermentation with two yeast strains rotated seasonally. Some wheated bourbon ferments run six days, twice the typical length, a deliberate slow approach to flavor development.

The Restoration Rye Whiskey is the standout release: a high-rye mash bill of 63% Kentucky rye, 20% malted barley, and 17% yellow corn, barreled at 118 proof into untoasted char #3 new American oak from Speyside Cooperage and aged a minimum of three years. It uses a "pod-blending" system, grouping individual barrels by sensory profile before combining them, so no two batches taste identical. The Small Batch Bourbon uses a more traditional mash bill of 73% white corn, 10% Kentucky rye, and 17% Kentucky malted barley, barreled at 107 proof; the latest release carries a six-year age statement. A wheated variant swaps the rye for 10% white wheat. Spirits age both in the historic on-site warehouses and at additional facilities in Versailles and Nicholasville, Kentucky. The distillery's early spirits program also produced Sacred Spring Vodka and Roots of Ruin Gin, distilled from the house bourbon and rye bases respectively.

Why It Matters

Castle & Key occupies rare ground in American whiskey: a direct physical link to Colonel E.H. Taylor Jr., rebuilt not as a museum piece but as a working distillery producing genuinely acclaimed whiskey. Marianne Eaves served as the distillery's founding master distiller and, in doing so, became the first female master distiller in Kentucky in the modern era, a milestone that shaped the brand's early identity. The Restoration Rye has picked up a Gold medal at the Bartender Spirits Awards, a 92-point score from WhiskyCast, and a Silver medal at the 2025 New York World Spirits Competition, while the Small Batch Bourbon took Silver at the Bartender Spirits Awards in both 2023 and 2024. For those who appreciate good whiskey, Castle & Key represents restoration done seriously: a historic mash bill lineage, a still hall built to 19th-century scale, and a rye and bourbon program that has earned recognition on its own terms rather than riding on the Taylor name alone.

Visiting the Distillery

Castle & Key offers "The Distillery Experience" and "Castle & Cocktails Experience" tours, walking guests through the restored gardens, production facilities, and grounds. The on-site Taylorton Station serves cocktails and neat pours of the house spirits. The property has paved paths, ramps, and golf cart assistance, with wheelchair access available on request. Visitors under 18 must be supervised, and "The Distillery Experience" tour requires guests to be 21 or older.