A special edition bourbon celebrating the 50th anniversary of Secretariat’s Triple Crown Win is coming from Ragged Branch Distillery.
The farm-to-glass whiskey distillery in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains announced the new expression in a recent statement.
“A lot of people think that Secretariat was a Kentucky horse because he won the Kentucky Derby, but he was actually from Virginia,” wrote Alex Toomy, founding partner and head distiller at Ragged Branch. “The best racehorses can come from here, and so can the best bourbon.”
It was in 1973, when three-year-old Secretariat won horse racing’s hat trick: the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes. His Triple Crown victories set records that still remain.
In honor of their hometown hero, Ragged Branch Distillery used corn grown on the farm where Secretariat was born, earmarking it for a special bourbon to honor “Big Red.”
“Both Secretariat and Ragged Branch represent Virginia excellence. They’re truly top of the line,” said Kate Chenery Tweedy, daughter of Penny Chenery, who raised Secretariat. “We had no idea back in 1973 that Secretariat’s records would never be surpassed and we’d still be talking about him 50 years later as the best of the best.”
The distiller explained that Ragged Branch Secretariat Reserve was made from a mash bill of corn, rye, and malted barley, aged five years and Bottled-in-Bond. The bourbon has a suggested retail price of $99.99.
The new bourbon will launch April 22nd in Virginia ABC stores and at the Ragged Branch Distillery, with limited availability to follow in several mid-Atlantic markets and a few select, online retailers.
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The commemorative bottle features art by New York-based artist Eric Helvie. At the same time as the bourbon’s debut, a larger-than-life-size statue of Secretariat will go up in Ashland, Virginia, following a “Triple Crown Tour” that will bring it to racecourses throughout the 2023 season.
Ragged Branch makes bourbon and rye, growing the grain to use in their recipes, and they’ve produced, aged, and bottled every drop of their whiskey on-site since the beginning.
For more information, check out www.RaggedBranch.com.
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