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Photo by Sara Hughes
The Bourbon Review partners
The Bourbon Review partners include (l-r) Seth Thompson, Justin Thompson, Bob Eidson, Ryan Hardesty and Justin Sloan, pictured at the downtown bar Belle’s Cocktail House, which is partially owned by members of the company.
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Photo by Sara Hughes
The Bourbon Review magazines
The Bourbon Review publication is published quarterly. The company has expanded its focus in recent years, to enhancing its online platform, increasing merchandise and producing bourbon-themed events.
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Photo by Sara Hughes
The Bourbon Review publication is published quarterly. The company has expanded its focus in recent years, to enhancing its online platform, increasing merchandise and producing bourbon-themed events.
Bourbon. As a Kentuckian, there’s a good chance you just got really excited. When you live in this state, you know that bourbon isn’t just a drink; it’s a lifestyle – and perhaps no one knows that better than the men behind The Bourbon Review.
Seth Thompson, founding publisher and current director of sales of the Lexington-based quarterly publication, is a quintessential Southern gentleman, approaching a recent interview with a big hug and lots of gratitude for talking to him about his “little magazine.” But The Bourbon Review isn’t so little these days.
Along with his brother, Justin Thompson, and his friends Bob Eidson and Brad Kerrick, Thompson began publishing The Bourbon Review in 2008. At the time, bourbon was still a drink mostly consumed in Kentucky, and their desire to create the first national bourbon lifestyle magazine was ambitious. They hoped it would be successful, but it wasn’t expected to have too great a reach outside of the commonwealth. But as Kentucky’s native spirit has exploded in popularity in recent years, so has The Bourbon Review, with a print subscription base of 16,000, a digital subscription base of over 23,000 and an e-newsletter subscriber list of more than 200,000. Digital users can be found in all 50 states and in 120 countries, but The Bourbon Review still remains a local product, with the team’s office located in downtown Lexington and its printing handled by Publisher’s Press in Shepherdsville, Kentucky.
A big part of The Bourbon Review’s success is its focus on quality – high-end photography and the magazine’s distinct, textured cover set it apart, and industry connections that the company has developed over the years have allowed for unique access to insider information and insights. The publication’s content focuses on anything bourbon-related, including coverage of industry news and events, reviews of restaurants that boast stellar bourbon collections, introductions to new products of interest to followers of the “bourbon lifestyle” and more.
Print media has changed greatly since 2008, and in response the company has enhanced its focus on its online platform, merchandise sales and producing bourbon-related events. Additional short articles, reviews and recipes not in the print issue are regularly posted to the website, in order to continually engage readers in up-to-the-minute industry information, and since introducing its original merchandise line – bourbon-themed apparel, barware and products made from reclaimed bourbon barrels – in 2013, sales have increased to $250,000.
Hosting bourbon-themed events has also become an integral part of The Bourbon Review’s brand. Among the annual events the group hosts are the Bourbon Shindig, an experience that includes dinner, bourbon parings and tastings, live music and more at Taylor Made Horse Farm in late August, and the Julep Shindig, a new springtime event coinciding with Keeneland’s spring meet. The company’s largest event is the Bourbon Classic, a week-long education and entertainment event hosted in Louisville with about 1,000 attendees. The team also hosts many small events and private tastings, and has created multi-day “bourbon lifestyle” travel and event packages that tie in distillery tours, horse farm tours, tastings and exclusive dinners.
The team has been remarkably stable. Although Kerrick eventually left the company, Eidson holds the post of CFO, and Justin Thompson is the editor in chief. They werejoined in 2012 by Ryan Hardesty, who managed merchandise, digital strategy and growth until steppin gdown in August to focus on his work with eLink Ventures. Justin Sloan is responsible for the company’s merchandise operations and the future growth of Bourbon Outfitters, the name they’ve given to their growing merchandise arm.
Bourbon hasn’t always been popular outside of Kentucky, but in the past few years the drink has invaded the mainstream – Thompson credits multiple pop culture influences for the surge, from the popular television show “Mad Men,” which helped make cocktail culture cool again, as well as Garden & Gun magazine, which has helped usher in a new audience for upscale Southern culture.
When confronted with the classic question “What’s your favorite bourbon?” Thompson says that being a bourbon fan is like being a movie buff – you can’t choose one favorite, because there are so many factors. Is it summer or winter? What are you eating with it? Are you drinking it straight, on the rocks or maybe mixed with an Ale-8?
It’s all different, and it’s all according to taste.