Vintage bourbon company settles case with Kentucky regulators more than a year after stores were raided

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Justins' House of Bourbon settled its case with the Kentucky Alcoholic Beverage Council more than a year after regulators charged the vintage bourbon company with a violation of state laws.

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 remained open and licensed.

In an administrative complaint dated Aug. 7, 2023, 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.

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 said 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 said 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.

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.

Now that the case is resolved, Justins' owners said they're ready to move forward with curating the world's largest collection of vintage bourbon.

"Faced with the most challenging of times, we drew strength from our community, finding the resolve needed to defend our good name and our industry," Justin Sloan and Justin Thompson, co-owners of the business, said in a written statement Friday. "... With a resolution behind us, we can now move forward with a clear conscience, knowing that our patience and silence amid false narratives and hollow reporting was ultimately rewarded with justice."

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