Lux Row Distillers

Lux Row Distillers is a Kentucky bourbon distillery in Bardstown, built by the spirits company Luxco as a home for its whiskey brands after decades of sourcing and blending. The site opened in spring 2018 and operates its own production, distilling and aging the bourbon that fills brands including Rebel, the wheated line that supplies The Sentinel Room's Rebel 100 Straight Bourbon and Rebel Cask Strength.

History & Heritage

Luxco built its whiskey brands for much of its history without a distillery of its own, sourcing and blending its whiskey elsewhere. The Rebel brand, for example, carried the name Rebel Yell until a 2020 rebrand dropped the second word, and it was sourced from other producers for years before Luxco had its own site. That changed when Luxco constructed a dedicated Kentucky facility, and Lux Row Distillers opened in Bardstown in spring 2018, with bourbon production beginning early that year and the site opening to visitors in April 2018.

In January 2021, MGP Ingredients announced an agreement to acquire Luxco, and the acquisition was completed on April 1, 2021. As of July 2026, Lux Row Distillers and the wider Luxco portfolio operate as part of MGP Ingredients. John Rempe serves as master distiller, overseeing the recipes across the distillery's brands.

The Whiskey

Lux Row distills and ages its own bourbon on site using two custom 43-foot copper stills, with a campus of barrel warehouses for maturation. The distillery produces the whiskey behind several Luxco brands: Rebel, Ezra Brooks, David Nicholson, Daviess County, and the annual limited-release Blood Oath series.

Rebel is the distillery's wheated bourbon line, using wheat rather than rye as the secondary grain in the mash bill, which tends to produce a softer, sweeter profile. The Sentinel Room's Reserve Whiskey Library carries two Rebel expressions from this producer. Rebel 100 Straight Bourbon is the everyday wheated expression, bottled at 100 proof (50% ABV). Rebel Cask Strength is a single-barrel bourbon bottled at full barrel proof without dilution, so its strength varies from barrel to barrel.

Why It Matters

Lux Row represents the point where a long-established branding and blending company became a distiller in its own right, taking direct control of production for brands that had been part of the American whiskey landscape for years. The wheated Rebel line gives the distillery a recognizable house style, and its place on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail has made the Bardstown site a working example of a modern, purpose-built bourbon operation. For a guest at The Sentinel Room, the two Rebel expressions on the shelf, one at a steady 100 proof and one at variable barrel strength, offer a straightforward way to taste how the same wheated recipe changes with proof.

Visiting the Distillery

Lux Row Distillers is a stop on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and is open to visitors at its Bardstown campus, offering guided tours of the production facility and warehouses along with tastings of its bourbons in the on-site tasting room. A visitor center with retail is available for guests, and tour options range from a standard walking tour and tasting to more in-depth experiences.