Penelope Bourbon

Penelope Bourbon began not with a still but with a birth announcement. In 2018, Mike Paladini and his wife Kerry learned they were expecting a daughter, and Paladini decided the occasion deserved a whiskey. He partnered with his childhood friend Danny Polise, and the brand they named for that daughter grew in five years from a New Jersey startup into a label sold in all 50 states, acquired by MGP Ingredients in a deal worth up to $215.8 million. Penelope is a blending house rather than a physical distillery, and it has become one of the better arguments that great blending is its own craft.

History & Heritage

Paladini and Polise founded Penelope Bourbon in 2018 and launched their first release in 2019. Neither man built a distillery. From the start they sourced from MGP's historic distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, a facility with roots reaching back to 1847 that now operates as Ross & Squibb Distillery, and focused their energy on barrel selection and blending. The approach worked quickly. By May 2023, when MGP Ingredients announced it would acquire Penelope through its Luxco subsidiary, the brand was sold in more than 30 states and four countries. The terms said plenty about its trajectory: $105 million in cash at closing, with a contingent earn-out of up to $110.8 million through the end of 2025. Both founders stayed on, and the company still lists Paladini as chief executive and Polise as chief operating officer. Penelope also partners with Bardstown Bourbon Company in Kentucky and sources finishing casks through Speyside Cooperage.

The Whiskey

The house signature is the four grain blend. Penelope Bourbon Four Grain, still the flagship, marries three separate bourbon mash bills so that the finished whiskey contains corn, wheat, rye, and malted barley, averaging roughly 75 percent corn, 15 percent wheat, 7 percent rye, and 3 percent malted barley. Penelope Barrel Strength presents that blend uncut, and Penelope Architect finishes it with French oak staves from Tonnellerie Radoux. The Cooper Series pushes into cask finishing, with expressions matured in French Grenache Rosé wine casks, Spanish Vino de Naranja casks, Hungarian Tokaji casks, and honey and Brazilian Amburana barrels. The Estate Collection reaches into older stock; its 2025 edition included Penelope Founders Reserve, a 13 year Kentucky straight bourbon, and Penelope Omega, an 11 year straight bourbon finished for an additional year in Radoux Omega French oak barrels. Limited releases like Penelope American Light Whiskey, distilled from 99 percent corn and 1 percent malted barley and aged in second-fill oak barrels, show the blending team's willingness to work outside bourbon entirely. The brand's medal record includes a Double Gold at the 2020 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, with further medals there in the years since.

Why It Matters

Penelope answers a question worth asking: what does a sourced whiskey brand look like when it is done honestly and well? The founders never pretended to distill. They picked strong stock, blended with intent, and priced fairly, and the market rewarded them in five years with an acquisition most brands wait generations for. The Sentinel Room's Reserve Whiskey Library holds 15 Penelope expressions, from the everyday Penelope Bourbon Four Grain to Penelope Cigar Sessions Chapter 1 and the Penelope Estate Collection 10 Year Private Select Bourbon, which makes the Library an unusually complete place to trace how one blending house thinks. For those who appreciate good whiskey, that side-by-side view of a single palate at work is the real draw.