THE BOLD FOUNDING
Two old college friends, a few mint juleps and a story too good not to bottle.
Pat Madden, a Kentucky native, and David Wild, an Englishman from the north, first met as students at Queens' College, Cambridge. Thirty years later, a reunion brought them back together, and the conversation turned to the one thing that connects Kentucky and England like nothing else: racing.
At the 2016 Kentucky Derby, over a few mint juleps, Pat told David about a weak chestnut colt born on his family's farm, Hamburg Place, who was revived with a shot of Bourbon and went on to win the Epsom Derby at 33 to 1.
David's answer came quickly. Make a Bourbon, name it after the horse, and send it on the same journey the colt took: from Kentucky, across the Atlantic, to win in England first.
“Let's make a Bourbon and call it Never Say Die.”
David Wild, co-founder
The friendshipPat and David meet as students.
The ideaA story told over mint juleps becomes a plan.
The first barrelsFounders sign the first barrels on filling day.
The first bottlesThe first batch is bottled in England.
Seven founders on two sides of the Atlantic.
