Are You An OC VIP?
We share all information with our OC VIPs first—from announcements about new releases, to merchandise offerings, to distillery happenings, and more. If you’re an OC VIP, you get the intel two weeks earlier than anyone else.
The best part? As our premium expressions launch, you’re first to receive opportunities to purchase those offerings. Who doesn’t love being first?
Our Storied Legacy
Unicorn bottles. Distilling legends. Look back 135 years.
The Hoffman Dynasty
Built in 1889. The birthplace of Old Hoffman, Old Spring, and Ezra Brooks. Helmed by legendary Ripy brothers after Prohibition through the late 1970s, this is where all the liquid magic began.
The Commonwealth Era
The Eighties usher in the Van Winkle reign. For two decades, Julian Van Winkle III continues his family tradition of making fine bourbon. Innumerable, iconic brands emerge; ones that set auction records today.
Old Commonwealth Is Born
Spurred by a love of exceptional whiskey and Kentucky lore, new partners refurbish the distillery in 2024. Our mission: relaunch dormant brands and tell the story of those who came before.
Our Expressions
D.H. Cromwell 15 Year
Release Date: Spring 2025
In 2000, when Louisville liquor retailer Gordon Jackson won a full barrel of 15 year bourbon from Julian Van Winkle III, Jackson immediately knew how he wanted to bottle and sell the exquisite whiskey: under the name “Dirty Helen” Cromwell.
Helen Cromwell—Jackson rightly believed—is a legend. Born in 1886, Cromwell lived a hedonistic life of reckless abandon: sex worker, madam, speakeasy operator, and finally, from the 1920s through the 1940s, the iron-fisted proprietor of Milwaukee’s infamous Sunflower Inn. There, Cromwell only served whiskey—Scotch or bourbon—and a pile of foul-mouth insults to anyone who asked for alternative imbibes, hence the sobriquet “Dirty Helen.” Enamored with Cromwell’s brazen, unrepentant escapades, Jackson believed Van Winkle’s first single barrel bourbon the perfect embodiment to honor the queen of grit.
A scant 72 bottles of D.H. Cromwell were produced, a wheated 15 year Kentucky bourbon that had an unusual proof of 92.4. Priced around $60, Jackson recalls the bottles moving slowly, though all eventually sold. Today, remaining D.H. Cromwell bottles hammer for more than $18,000 each at auction.
Now, 25 years after its initial release, Old Commonwealth is pleased to announce D.H. Cromwell is back.
- Classification:
- Kentucky Straight Bourbon
- Distillery:
- Undisclosed
- Age:
- 15 Year
- Proof:
- 106
- Mashbill:
- 75% corn, 13% rye, 12% malted barley
- SRP:
- $299.00
Colonel Randolph 16 Year Bourbon
Release Date: Winter 2025
For diehard bourbon fiends, Colonel Randolph 16 Year is a deep cut. Only produced at our hallowed facility for one year—1990 through 1991—and exclusively exported to Japan, due to a supremely low initial production run, few bottles remain in the wild.
We’re absolutely thrilled to bring Colonel Randolph 16 Year back, in a supremely unique fashion: this single barrel offering was personally selected by Gordon Hue, the very same industry luminary responsible for reviving the Colonel Randolph brand in 1990.
At 106 proof, this 16-year Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey—made with the exact mashbill as Hue’s release—shines brightly, with a depth and flavor profile that emulates and encapsulates vintage whiskey.
- Classification:
- Kentucky Straight Bourbon
- Distillery:
- Undisclosed
- Age:
- 16 Year
- Proof:
- 106
- Mashbill:
- 75% corn, 13% rye, 12% malted barley
- SRP:
- $349
Kentucky Nectar
Batch 1
Release Date: Fall 2024
Last produced in 1967, Old Commonwealth’s version of Kentucky Nectar is a double-barreled, cask-strength, wheated Kentucky straight bourbon that’s been finished in honey casks. This 106-proof stunner drinks far below its ABV, packs a delicious pile of dessert notes in each dram, and will make any honey-finish haters rethink their ire.
- Classification:
- Kentucky Straight Bourbon Finished in a Honey Cask
- Distillery:
- Undisclosed
- Age:
- NAS
- Proof:
- 106
- Mashbill:
- 64% corn, 24% wheat, 12% malted barley
- SRP:
- $99.99
