According to Tom Bulleit, son of a preacher, great-great-grandson of original creator Augustus Bulleit and developer of the modern brand, the first batch of Bulleit bourbon was made around 1830. Augustus continued to produce it up until his death in 1860. The current recipe follows the original mash bill produced by Augustus Bulleit, which used two-thirds corn and one-third rye. As implemented today, Bulleit Bourbon is 68% corn, 28% rye and 4% malted barley. Tom Bulleit began distilling his version of Bulleit bourbon in 1987, with the whiskey first commercial produced under a 4,000-case contract distillation run at Frankfort’s Leestown Company Distillery (now Buffalo Trace Distillery) in 1989. After aging, it first reached retail stores in the summer of 1995. Seagram bought the Bulleit brand in 1997 and began distilling it in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. The brand was widely introduced to Australia, Uk and Germany in 2000. Diageo acquired various Seagram’s assets, including the Bulleit brand, which was then produced by its subsidiary Kirin Brewing Company at the same Lawrenceburg plant. On March 14, 2017, Diageo opened a new Bulleit distillery. The 300-acre (120 ha) $115 million facility is located just east of Shelbyville in Shelby County, Kentucky. In June, 2019, Bulleit opened its visitors’ center at its Shelbyville distillery in Kentucky. The Visitor Experience includes guided tours, a cocktail bar and an opportunity for visitors 21 years or older to design a customized Bulleit label to apply to their own bottles.