Bourbon talk with industry teeth.
Bourbon Pursuit is a fast, insider-friendly look at American whiskey, from merger chatter to high-proof bottle reviews. The show moves between industry analysis, distillery interviews, weekly news, and relaxed banter that assumes bourbon fans like the business as much as the pour.
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Bourbon Pursuit is a bourbon show with its eyes on the whole machine behind the glass. It covers bottles, but it is not only a tasting show. It covers news, but it is not a dry trade brief. Recent episodes move from Brown-Forman and Pernod Ricard merger speculation to the future of hemp-derived THC drinks, from Southern Distilling's North Carolina ambitions to the storytelling problems that whiskey brands create for themselves. The show is at its sharpest when a business headline turns into a wider conversation about power, place, and access. Louisville philanthropy, Old Forester's family history, wholesaler consolidation, contract whiskey economics, and layoffs at distilleries all become part of the same larger story. That story is bourbon growing up, getting crowded, and losing some of its old simplicity. The format stays loose. A sponsor read may slide into a personal aside, a news item may become a roundtable argument, and a bottle review may start with complaints about wax before landing on the whiskey itself. The hosts and guests speak in practical terms, with enough technical detail for serious whiskey fans but enough plain talk for listeners still learning the map. Whiskey Quickie episodes add a shorter, bottle-focused rhythm. This Week in Bourbon brings headlines, lawsuits, releases, distribution fights, and market shifts into a faster news lane. Longer interviews let distillers, marketers, and adjacent industry figures explain how the category looks from their side of the counter. Daniel Whittington frames marketing as identity rather than advertising. Pete Barger connects manufacturing know-how to craft bourbon and American single malt. Jim Higdon pushes the conversation toward cannabis regulation and the threat hemp businesses see from alcohol interests. The result is a show that treats bourbon as culture, commerce, product, and community at once. It can be funny. It can get blunt. It also keeps asking what the next few years of American whiskey will cost, who gets leverage, and which stories survive the dealmaking.
Made for: For bourbon fans, collectors, craft whiskey followers, and industry watchers who want more than tasting notes. It suits listeners who enjoy market chatter, distillery interviews, release news, and candid arguments about where American whiskey is headed.
What sets it apart: Bourbon Pursuit blends bottle-level enthusiasm with unusually granular business context. Its edge is the way it connects mergers, distribution, regulation, marketing, philanthropy, and craft production without losing the loose feel of a whiskey conversation.
The Official Podcast of Bourbon! The best in news, reviews and interviews with people making the bourbon whiskey industry happen. Join hosts Kenny Coleman, Ryan Cecil, and Fred Minnick as they talk with prominent guests and provide insight on American whiskey 3 times a week. Catch all new episodes every Thursday with special Whiskey Quickie reviews on Tuesday and get caught up on bourbon news with This Week in Bourbon on Friday.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Bourbon Pursuit connects whiskey production, brand strategy, consolidation, and distribution to the business pressures behind the bottles.
Bourbon Pursuit treats every bottle as the product of manufacturing choices, brand storytelling, and market power. Kenny Coleman, Ryan Cecil, and Fred Minnick move among operator interviews, industry news, and roundtable discussion, keeping the business of American whiskey in…
Kenny Coleman's bourbon conversations reach clay bricks; your curiosity has found a useful detour.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A merger story with Louisville's fingerprints all over it.
This Bourbon Pursuit roundtable treats the possible Brown Forman and Pernod Ricard merger as both a business story and a Louisville story. The discussion moves from leverage and the shareholder side of the deal to Brown Forman's presence in the city, including jobs, museum ties,…
A bourbon business roundup tying layoffs, excess inventory, and consolidation to the category's next turn.
Brown-Forman and Pernod Ricard's confirmed potential merger gives Bourbon Pursuit's This Week in Bourbon a firm business hook, with the surrounding headlines showing a category under pressure.
A whiskey conversation that treats marketing as the first real customer touchpoint.
Marketing is treated here as a companys first real customer touchpoint, not a late add-on. The strongest thread is the way whiskey storytelling is tied to trust: through tone, access, and community, not promotion alone.
A bourbon business discussion about new bottles, distributor consolidation, and a vulnerable three-tier system.
Whiskey distribution, not the bottles themselves, becomes the episode's real business story. Bourbon Pursuit starts with Uncle Nearest back in the headlines, Heaven Hill's Elijah Craig Single Barrel 15-Year release, and Edmund Williams' five limited-edition single-barrel…
An engineer's manufacturing instincts shape a North Carolina distillery built around bourbon, malted grain, and scale.
Southern Distilling comes across first as a manufacturing story, then as a bourbon one. Co-founder Pete Barger brings an engineer's eye and agricultural background to a facility just outside Charlotte, and his experience building brick and structural-tile plants helps explain…
A possible merger becomes a bourbon story about leverage, Louisville, and a family brand's place inside a global portfolio.
Bourbon Pursuit's roundtable treats a possible Brown Foreman-Pernod Ricard merger as more than a portfolio shuffle. It frames the deal around where power would sit in bourbon, moving from international leverage to American whiskey and the question of whether drinkers would feel…
Industrial LinkedIn signals, stress-tested for reality.
Australian beer, with the paperwork left in.
Market signals for strategic decisions.
Bourbon Pursuit hosts Kenny Coleman and Fred Minnick, with guests from Breaking Bourbon and other whiskey media, analyze the potential merger between Brown Forman and Pernod Ricard.
The Bourbon Pursuit hosts review the 2025 Angel's Envy 10-year cask strength bourbon, the 14th edition in the series.
The merger talk starts with leverage.
This episode promotes Pursuit Spirits' P-Club membership for whiskey access and announces the Bruisel Fest craft whiskey festival in 2026.
Bourbon Pursuit's April 3, 2026 This Week in Bourbon centers on Brown-Forman and Pernod Ricard's confirmed merger interest, with the hosts citing about $450 million in synergies and a 50-50 chance of a deal.
Daniel Whittington joins Bourbon Pursuit to talk about why marketing starts long before a brand feels ready.
This episode reviews the Garrison Brothers 2025 Cowboy Bourbon, a 146-proof Texas whiskey with a thick wax seal, discussing its opening experience and release details.
The show opens with its March 27th, 2026 headlines, putting Uncle Nearest, Heaven Hill's Elijah Craig Single Barrel 15-Year, and five limited-edition single-barrel bourbons with collegiate editions on the board.
Kenny Coleman starts with the people who opened Kentucky facilities to a manufacturer who knew plants, but not bourbon.
This episode explores the future of cannabis and hemp, focusing on regulatory challenges, competition with the bourbon industry, and the potential mainstreaming of THC beverages.
This episode covers recent bourbon industry news including Stoli Group USA and Kentucky Owl's liquidation, B3 Beverage Company's acquisition of Casey Jones Distillery, and Penelope Bourbon's collaboration with Serena and Lily.
This episode features an interview with Jeff Arnett, former master distiller of Jack Daniels, discussing his transition to a startup role at Company Distilling and insights into the bourbon industry.
This episode explores the journey to becoming a certified Master of Bourbon through interviews with Will Breeden and Chase Henry, discussing the rigorous certification process, career impacts, and a fun oral exam segment.
This episode features an interview with Jay West, discussing his journey from whiskey enthusiast to industry expert, his role in growing the Reddit bourbon community's barrel program, and his work as a whiskey maker for the Reveries brand.