LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Kentucky Alcoholic Beverage Control officials charged Justins' House of Bourbon with a number of violations of state alcohol laws, which could lead to the suspension or revocation of the specialty whiskey retailer's ABC licenses.
The alleged violations mostly relate to a recent state law allowing the sale of bourbon and other "vintage distilled spirits" by regular people to retailers such as Justins' House of Bourbon. They also concern unauthorized transportation of bottles between Justins' two stores in Louisville and Lexington and a third location in Washington.
Kentucky ABC officials raided the Louisville and Lexington stores in January, seizing several boxes of rare and high-priced bourbon bottles as evidence. But authorities took no immediate action after the raids and the Louisville and Lexington stores remain open and licensed.
In an administrative complaint dated Aug. 7, Kentucky officials laid out the alleged violations and offered the business a settlement in which Justins' would pay $60,000 in fines and admit the allegations to avoid a suspension or revocation of its alcohol licenses, according to documents obtained WDRB News.
However, there has been no settlement to date and the case before the state's alcohol control board is pending, according to Kristin Voskuhl, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Public Protection Cabinet, which includes the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
An attorney representing Justins' House of Bourbon in the case did not respond to requests for comment. The business is owned by Justin Sloan, Justin Thompson and Phillip Lee Greer, according to licenses for the Lexington and Louisville stores.
In 2017, Kentucky lawmakers created an avenue for private persons to sell a limited number of old distilled spirits, such as bourbon, to retailers such as Justins' House of Bourbon. Normally, only licensed distributors are allowed to sell inventory to retailers.
State officials say Justins' failed to report its purchases of vintage spirits to the state as required by the law; purchased an excessive amount of bottles from single sellers; failed to label the vintage spirits with the required stickers; and bought inventory that does not qualify as "vintage" — such as Sazerac's W.L. Weller, Blanton's and Eagle Rare — because those bourbon brands are still produced and distributed.
The business is also alleged to have illegally transported bourbons to its location in Washington, D.C. to then ship directly to customers to circumvent a Kentucky prohibition on shipping.
A case report included with ABC’s allegations says Kentucky investigators posed as regular customers at the Lexington location in October 2022. When they asked if they could ship a $189 bottle of “Weller 107” to a friend in West Virginia, the Justins’ employee told the investigators that it wasn’t legal to ship the bottle from Kentucky but that “they ship out of Washington and (the employee) has even driven it up there to ship it out before.”
In December 2022, Kentucky State Police tracked a van registered to Justins’ House of Bourbon moving from Kentucky into West Virginia along I-64. A District of Columbia alcohol investigator, who was working with Kentucky officials, “observed this van with large amounts of alcohol being unloaded at the storage facility Justin's House of Bourbon in Washington D.C.,” according to the case report.
During the Jan. 17, 2023 inspection that resulted in the state seizing boxes of bourbon, one of the business owners, Justin Thompson, told a Kentucky ABC official that the business did transport non-alcohol items such as hats and t-shirts between its Lexington and D.C. locations. When asked if they moved alcohol between the two locations, Thompson replied, “just merchandise, to my knowledge,” according to the case report.
That inspection also confirmed investigators’ suspicions that Justins’ had purchased a number of “vintage” bourbons from non-licensed sellers despite having reported no such purchases to the state since at least June of 2021, according to the case report.
At the Lexington store, investigators found “a disorganized array of records of private purchases of various bottles of bourbon. The inspection of the stock revealed no stickers were placed upon the bottles which were to be considered vintage spirits, as is required.”
The case reports also reveal that some of the “vintage” bourbon seized from the Louisville store in January may have been damaged by a water leak while stored in the state’s custody.
In April, an investigator noticed “a rainwater incursion” from the roof of the state’s “evidence facility” which soaked a palletized load of boxes of inventory seized from the Louisville store. The report doesn’t reveal the location of the evidence facility, but says the landlord of the building fixed a clog that had caused the leak.
A state investigator unpacked the boxes and was “unable to identify any obvious water damage to any of the contents of the boxes. It is difficult to say, however, in many cases whether degradation of labels, etc. was due to age (some are quite old) or due to the water.”
The investigator later “re-boxed all evidence which was contained in compromised cardboard boxes. All evidence was re-sealed, re-stacked and palletized.”
The alleged violations were first reported Monday by the Lexington Herald-Leader.
