Drive a few hours north of Nashville and you’ll find no shortage of distilleries that’ve helped Kentucky build its bourbon legacy. With the smell of corn mash bills and stiff competition in the air, what might draw someone to stake their claim among the bourbon giants?
If you ask J.W. “Wally” Dant, it was the call of a family legacy that became too loud to ignore. “We have a big family, seven generations of big families, actually. And anytime we would all get together, we’d talk about how much we wished our family was still in the bourbon business,” he says.
But to understand the inspiration behind Wally Dant’s story, you have to look back to 1836, when his great-great-great grandfather Joseph Washington (J.W.) Dant first fashioned a budget-friendly still out of a hollowed-out poplar log for the sole purpose of making his very own bourbon. The experiment was a grand slam and propelled the Dant family into the whiskey distilling business, where they successfully produced bourbon until Prohibition brought the operation to a halt and forced them to sell their land.
Fast forward nearly two centuries after J.W. Dant’s first foray into the whiskey business, and the prodigal grandson has returned to re-establish the Dant bourbon legacy in the form of Log Still, a new distillery in Gethsemane, Kentucky, situated on the same exact land where his forefathers once made spirits and the only distillery located “south of the bridge” in Nelson County. “I’ve always been interested in the spirits business, and I even owned a wholesale distribution company in Tennessee. In 2017, a client of mine who happened to be a bourbon distiller from Kentucky said, ‘Wally, you’ve got a great story to tell. You really ought to think about doing this.’ It was a little nudge toward the dream I’d always had in the back of my mind,” he says.
Finding the people power to help launch the endeavor ended up being easier than Wally Dant anticipated. A few calls with cousins Lynne and Charles cemented their interest in reviving the family business, and soon, the Dants were recreating recipes from their ancestor’s journal. Currently, the distillery—which opens its doors to the public in late May—offers a handful of spirits for public consumption. Among them, Monk’s Row Dry Gin, a delicately balanced botanical spirit that marries watermelon rind with zests of orange and lemon; Monk’s Road Barrel Finished Gin, which utilizes Dant’s bourbon barrels to finish a heady blend of coriander, cranberry, juniper, and nutmeg; and Monk’s Road Fifth District Series, a rotating series of hand-selected spirits honoring the rich tradition of nearly-lost fifth district distilleries.
But the Log Still distillery and tasting room are only part of Dant’s bigger vision for the family land. The distillery anchors Dant Crossing, a picturesque, 300-acre escape for family vacations, weddings, and weekend getaways. Nestled among the bucolic grounds are a slew of amenities and activities including a network of wooded walking trails, a fully functional private train depot connected to the Kentucky Railroad Museum, an outdoor amphitheater, a farm-to-table restaurant, a 12-acre lake for fishing, and four unique lodging options that counts the recently opened Homestead bed-and- breakfast among them. The five-bedroom home- away-from-home embodies the very essence of Southern hospitality—from the warmly appointed bedrooms for rent to the homemade daily breakfast prepared by Homestead hostess Amy Dant.
While Log Still’s proprietary bourbon is still a few years away from hitting the shelves, visitors can make a weekend out of sampling the distillery’s gin and Fifth District Series by making reservations for the tasting room and booking a few nights on the property. “Our hope with what we are building here at Log Still Distillery and Dant Crossing is to create a one-of-a-kind destination where families and friends can come and make memories together” says Dant. “We’ve got something for everyone, not just the bourbon enthusiasts.” (logstilldistillery.com)