Buffalo Trace Revives 5 Forgotten Prohibition-Era Whiskey Brands in New $1,000 Collection

(Photo: Buffalo Trace)

Buffalo Trace Distillery is bringing five long-forgotten whiskey brands from the Prohibition era back to life with the release of the third edition of its annual Prohibition Collection.

The 2026 limited-edition release commemorates the whiskeys that were legally bottled and sold at what is now Buffalo Trace Distillery while most of the American whiskey industry was shuttered under Prohibition. During the 13-year period from 1920 to 1933, only six U.S. distilleries were licensed by the federal government to bottle medicinal whiskey for sale with a prescription, including the George T. Stagg Distillery, the Frankfort facility now known as Buffalo Trace.

This year’s collection revives five historic brands once bottled under the leadership of Albert B. Blanton: Henry Watterson, Kentucky River, John G. Carlisle, Walter B. Duffy and Cove Spring.

Drawing from archival records preserved by the distillery, Buffalo Trace recreated each whiskey with a modern interpretation inspired by the original brands, labels and historical significance.

Henry Watterson is an uncut and unfiltered Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey bottled at 140.6 proof and named for the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and outspoken Prohibition opponent. Kentucky River is a 100-proof blend of Kentucky straight whiskeys honoring a former distillery that helped expand operations under Blanton’s leadership.

John G. Carlisle pays tribute to the Kentucky congressman who helped shape the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897 with a 100-proof Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. Walter B. Duffy, a blend of 10- and 14-year-old bourbons bottled at 107 proof, recognizes the businessman whose decision to appoint Blanton as president helped shape the distillery’s future.

Completing the collection is Cove Spring, an uncut wheated bourbon bottled at 120.2 proof and named after the spring that supplied water to the distillery more than two centuries ago.

“The Prohibition Collection gives us the opportunity to bring important chapters of our Distillery’s history back to life,” Buffalo Trace Master Distiller Harlen Wheatley said in a news release. “Each year, we uncover stories, brands and whiskey traditions that might otherwise have been lost to time.”

The five 375-milliliter bottles are packaged in a custom wooden display case featuring archival imagery from the distillery’s history. Each bottle recreates the appearance of its Prohibition-era counterpart, while the accompanying cartons include reproduction prescription cutouts similar to those once used by physicians to authorize medicinal whiskey purchases.

Buffalo Trace Prohibition Collection #3 will be released in limited quantities through Sazerac’s U.S. distribution network with a suggested retail price of $999.99.