John J. Bowman

Our John. J. Bowman Bourbon commemorates the great, great uncle of Abram S. Bowman, who founded A. Smith Bowman Distillery. We hand select some of the oldest barrels in the warehouse to produce a single barrel bourbon with hints of toffee, leather, figs, and almonds. John. J. Bowman was awarded World’s Best Bourbon in 2017.

John, Abraham, Joseph, and Isaac Bowman were Virginia militia officers in the American Revolutionary War. In 1779, they led 30 pioneer families to Madison Family County, Kentucky and established Bowman’s Station. Their great, great grandson, Abram S. Bowman, purchased Sunset Hills estate farm located in northern Virginia in 1929. Following the repeal of Prohibition, he found himself with an excess of corn, wheat, and rye by 1935 and opened a distillery on the property. The current A. Smith Bowman Distillery is located about 60 miles from the original distillery in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. It opened in 1988 and began distilling spirits in the 1991. John J. Bowman Single Barrel Bourbon is named after Colonel Bowman who was the first military commander and governor of Kentucky County.

A. Smith Bowman Distillery was purchased by the Sazerac Company, Inc. in 2003. Currently the company doesn’t produce their own whiskey distillate and doesn’t disclose who they source it from. It is believed the new make they use originates from Buffalo Trace and is their #1 mashbill. John J. Bowman Single Barrel is triple distilled. It’s unclear how many times A. Smith Bowman re-distills it through their unique copper still, but it is rumored to be twice distilled at Buffalo Trace and once at A. Smith Bowman. The company then ages the whiskey onsite. While no age statement is present, according to the company’s press materials John J. Bowman Single Barrel is aged between 9-10 years.