Horse Soldier
100 years from now, Horse Soldier Bourbon and the Horse Soldier Distillery will be one of the biggest and most established names in the whiskey industry. It might sound like a bold claim, but after spending some time with one of the brand’s co-founders, I’m willing to bet the farm on the brand’s success over the next century and beyond.
While you might not be familiar with the name Horse Soldier Bourbon yet, you’ve undoubtedly been the beneficiary of the impact the brand’s co-founders had on our country in the past two decades.
Horse Soldier Bourbon describes itself as “a family of families” which includes the “family” of co-founders who were bonded together as brothers when their small team of Green Berets became the first soldiers to enter Northern Afghanistan just three days after the 9/11 attacks.
Over dinner with one of the co-founders, Scott Neil, he told us the story of being in a training exercise as the first tower was hit in lower Manhattan. At the time, the team of Green Berets believed this was just part of the training exercise at Ft. Campbel along the Cumberland River; it wasn’t until their commanding officer came to inform them of the second tower being hit that they realized America was under attack.
If this story sounds familiar, it’s possibly because their story was made into a film titled 12 Strong starring Chris Hemsworth and Michael Shannon. After being flown into Afghanistan with only what the Green Berets could carry on their backs and all passing out in the choppers due to oxygen deprivation (only the pilot had supplemental oxygen), they then rode on horseback in Afghanistan and became the first US soldiers since WWII to ride on horseback in a war…hence the name Horse Soldier Bourbon.
Cass Anderson / BroBible
That particular chapter of their story began when the distillery opened up shop in 2014. Even if you’ve never started a company, you likely know there are plenty of things to consider when you decide to tackle any kind of business.
I think most people would agree it would help to have a team of highly-skilled tacticians who are trained to exhaustively plan out every single scenario so they are never surprised by any possible outcome because in their field a surprise could have grave consequences. It’s also not going to hurt to have a business partner who never acts rashly or irrationally because they’ve already mapped out every possible outcome to every scenario in their head before opening their mouth to speak.
I know that’s certainly the kind of team I’d want to go into business with if I was seeking to start a new empire—which brings us to Horse Soldier Bourbon’s 100-year plan.
Horse Soldier is currently based out of St. Petersburg, Florida but they have broken ground on a $200+ million distillery in Southeastern Kentucky (here are the co-founders describing their state-of-the-art distillery in Somerset, Kentucky).
When everything is said and done, the Kentucky outpost of Horse Soldier Bourbon Distillery will span an area of 225 acres. Located on the grounds that were once home to Waitsboro Hills Golf Course, it will feature a 27,585-square-foot distillery visitor center, 5,000 person amphitheater, an on-site luxury hotel for guests, a chapel, horse stables, a shopping/retail village in the center of the property, and additional cabins.
It’s safe to say it will look a bit different than it did when the groundbreaking took place on October 19, 2021.
Every tiny detail of the Somerset distillery was carefully considered before construction began—and you could argue that journey really began a few hundred years ago: it was designed by Roger Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP), which did some exhaustive research en route to revamping the Macallan Distillery in Scotland (which is possibly the finest distillery on the entire planet).
Have you noticed I haven’t talked much about the actual Horse Soldier Bourbon yet?
After spending hours with the Horse Soldier co-founder and COO, sipping bourbon and discussing their plans for the future, it struck me that we hadn’t really discussed the actual bourbon itself all that much.
We’d gone through a tasting of their flagship expressions (Premium, Signature, and Reserve) and we discussed tasting notes, proof, etc. but what I came to find is the bourbon speaks for itself and is already so tasty there’s no need to try and sell someone on it.
If you went down to your local store right now and picked up a bottle of the Horse Soldier Barrel Strength you could put it against anything else on your shelf in a blind taste test and I virtually guarantee you’d rank it in the 90s on a 100-point scale. It’s that good.
The Horse Soldier Barrel Strength “Wheated” Bourbon has a deep Amber color, is uncut, has been awarded 93 points at the New York International Spirits Competition, 95.5 points in the Whiskey Bible, and what struck me the most was the rich butterscotch and vanilla aroma. At 110+ proof it is still bursting with flavor while packing plenty of heat.
I’d invite you to try their three flagship spirits: Premium, Signature, and Reserve. And you can purchase all three through their website or at the Urban Stillhouse in Downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. It is Horse Soldier’s current headquarters as the distillery in Kentucky is under construction and the Urban Stillhouse served up the best Bison Fillet I’ve ever had.
The stories shared by Horse Soldier Co-Founder and COO Scott Neil over dinner were just a taste of what the future has in store for Horse Soldier. I said above that I’d bet the farm on Horse Soldier becoming an empire in the next 100 years and I’m not so sure I’ve ever been this confident in a whiskey’s future success.
Cass Anderson / BroBible
They’re being led by THE TEAM of specialists you want planning any operation regardless of the scenario. They are producing world-class Bourbon that is already racking up awards and would easily win blind taste tests at home.
The success of the “family of families” that’s been bonded together through multiple generations of serving in our nation’s military isn’t a matter of “if” but a matter of “when”—and I feel fortunate that I discovered Horse Soldier Bourbon when I did so I can appreciate their past, current, and future history as it evolves over time.