Kaveh Zamanian doesn’t have the typical American whiskey origin story.
“I was a psychologist before I was a whiskey maker,” says Zamanian, who is the Rabbit Hole founder and chief whiskey officer, North American Distillers (NADL) at Pernod Ricard. “My wife is from Louisville, and we started coming down here 22 to 23 years ago. I fell in love with it. I was a big Scotch guy, but I migrated into bourbon and got really passionate about it.”
Founding Rabbit Hole in 2012, the distillery eventually moved into an abandoned tire warehouse in Louisville, Kentucky’s now very hip Nulu neighborhood. Since then, Zamanian and his team have played a big part in revitalizing the surrounding community, with the beautiful urban distillery becoming a popular visitor destination (the rooftop bar/tasting room doesn’t hurt). And Rabbit Hole itself is gaining deserved acclaim — albeit slowly — as innovative whiskey producers who think outside the box, from the liquid to the packaging.
“There’s been a handful of us who I think of as outsiders that came to Kentucky and were able to make an impact, simply because we brought a perspective outside the Commonwealth that the folks inside did not have,” Zamanian says.
After a few years enjoying Rabbit Hole (I have a few favorites listed below), I was finally able to visit the distillery in early June and spend the day with Zamanian. Below, a few things that stood out about Kaveh and his whiskey after our visit.
From Day One, Rabbit Hole Was Making Its Own Whiskey
Rabbit Hole’s physical distillery opened in 2016. But in the four years before that, Zamanian admits he had a hard time convincing other distilleries to let him experiment so he could start production.
“Even when we started in 2012, I wanted to make my own recipes,” Zamanian says. “I didn’t want to source or blend. For me, bourbon is one of the most exciting, versatile and creative whiskey expressions. You can create some really lovely and different flavor profiles using different grains, cooking processes, fermentations and so on. Bourbon is 51% corn and 49% possibility.”
The 12 Urban Distilleries You Need to Visit
Rooftop tastings, distillery-only expressions and blending classes awaitBeing a Destination Distillery Was Always a Plan
It’s hard to miss Rabbit Hole. Situated behind Hotel Genevieve near Market St. First, it’s the rare (although now admittedly less rare) working distillery located within Louisville’s city limits. And the 55,000 square foot structure is beautiful both outside and inside, from the extensive amount of artwork to an open design that allows for a fully transparent experience as you walk through the multi-floor facility, which features plenty of open space, big windows and walkways above and throughout the whiskey-making process. “I wanted something that would elevate the manufacturing process behind bourbon,” says Zamanian, who notes that the open-floor, “form follows process” design came from Doug Pierson, an architect who worked at the Frank Gehry office in Los Angeles before taking on the distillery project. “Nobody’s made manufacturing or whiskey-making look attractive.”
Kaveh also credits growing up in California with shaping how he approaches the showmanship behind Rabbit Hole. “I don’t think everybody else was envisioning what the Bourbon Trail could be,” he says. “The inspiration I had was my experience with wine country in Napa. I felt like that experience was informative and coming from a more metropolitan experience than a rural one.”
Rabbit Hole Has Elevated the Surrounding Community
Zamanian suggests that situating Rabbit Hole in Nulu not only helped build up the surrounding neighborhood but also inspired other distilleries to open cool whiskey experiences within Louisville. “We’ve seen well over $500 million in investment within a few block radius of here,” he says. “There are a lot of new hotels, restaurants and boutiques. I’m really proud of that.”
The Secret Behind Rabbit Hole Is Specialty Grains
As Zamanian noted, bourbon is 51% corn at minimum, meaning nearly half the mash bill is available for tinkering. “I think of us like a culinary kitchen,” he says. “We can pivot and use different recipes pretty easily. I see other whiskey brands essentially using the same liquid at different proofs, and that, to me, really isn’t innovation. I think you have to take a risk on the front end create something unique.”
To that end, Rabbit Hole has experimented with honey malted barley (Cavehill), German malted rye (Heigold) and even a combination of chocolate malted wheat and chocolate malted barley. (The latter is Raceking, a limited-edition bourbon that is by far my favorite Rabbit Hole expression. And one that, if I read the hints correctly, seems poised to make a comeback.)
There’s an Artistic Streak That Runs Through Rabbit Hole
As Zamanian walks around the distillery, he’ll point out the its commissioned artwork and discuss the story behind each, which includes pieces from artists based everywhere from Brooklyn, New York to South Korea. There are also several limited-edition artist series expressions available at the distillery. Even the bottles themselves were intentional — Zamanian mentioned he wanted something tall that featured both “masculine and feminine attributes.”
That artistic streak continues to the names of the bourbons and ryes themselves. Take Cavehill, one of the core Rabbit Hole expressions. “It’s named after a cemetery down the street from us where there are more dead distillers buried than anywhere else,” he says. “I thought it was important to name it after the greats who came before us. And Heigold — we’re using German malted rye and live near an area called Germantown, a neighborhood that was primarily Irish and German immigrants. There was a stonecutter named Christian Heigold, who was here after the Civil War. There was a lot of anti-immigrant sentiment back then. So he carved all these amazing stone carvings that you’ll still see in the buildings around the city, and he was putting in all of these pro-American symbols, celebrating his love of America. But if you talk to the average Louisville resident, they wouldn’t know who he was. So we wanted to tell his story and connect to our community.”
Most importantly, Rabbit Hole’s whiskey is really good while being innovative. Besides interesting mash bills, Rabbit Hole excels at unexpected cask maturations. My favorite is Starlino, a Kentucky straight rye whiskey finished in Italian vermouth casks. It’s essentially a Manhattan cocktail in a bottle and well worth seeking out. It’s part of the Distillery Series but thankfully also available online.
“I admit, I do have a little bit of a chip on my shoulder about Rabbit Hole because I feel that sometimes we haven’t received the accolades and the recognition the distillery deserves,” says Zamanian, who comes across as both incredibly friendly and forthright when it comes to his adopted industry. “I think there are a lot of good brands out there that have gotten the notoriety but, quite frankly, are very monotonous in their approach to whiskey.”
He ends the tour on a brighter note. “There are a lot of people who haven’t discovered Rabbit Hole yet,” Zamanian says. “I think once they do, they’re going to find a wonderful range of experiences for them.”
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