Pursuit's Whole Shebang Named Top Bourbon Distillery Tour

The World Travel Awards have named The Whole Shebang at Pursuit Spirits North America’s Leading Bourbon Distillery Tour 2026. The award was presented Oct. 11 at the World Travel Awards Caribbean & The Americas Gala Ceremony in Jamaica.

The Whole Shebang is now one of four finalists for World’s Leading Bourbon Distillery Tour 2026. Winners will be named Dec. 12 at the Grand Final Gala Ceremony in Tanzania. Public voting is open at worldtravelawards.com/vote through Oct. 30.

The 90-minute experience at Pursuit’s Whiskey Row location in downtown Louisville lets guests taste small batch bourbons and ryes, learn how mash bills and blending shape the whiskey, then sample Pursuit United Private Select bourbons and ryes. Guests pick a favorite, pull 108-proof whiskey straight from the barrel with a whiskey thief, and cork, label and seal their own bottle.

The idea grew out of Bourbon Pursuit, the podcast Kenny Coleman and Ryan Cecil launched in 2015. The experience debuted in November 2023 at Pursuit’s Mellwood Avenue warehouse and moved to Whiskey Row when the brand’s new home opened in August 2025. More than 1,500 guests had filled their own bottle by this summer, when Pursuit Spirits joined the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

“Picking a barrel used to be something most people don’t get a chance to do,” said Ryan Cecil, Co-Founder and Master Blender at Pursuit Spirits. “We wanted guests to taste through the options, argue about them a little, and walk out with a bottle that speaks to their taste profile. When someone pulls the thief out of their barrel for the first time, you can see it click. That’s the moment we built this whole thing around.”

“Bourbon Pursuit has always been about bringing people closer to the whiskey, and The Whole Shebang puts a barrel right in front of them,” said Kenny Coleman, Co-Founder and COO of Pursuit Spirits. “Being recognized alongside the names that built bourbon tourism in Kentucky, just over a year after we opened on Whiskey Row, means a lot to our team. Now we’re asking everyone who’s filled a bottle with us to help bring the world title home to Louisville.”

Price and booking

The Whole Shebang is $150 per guest, including the hand-filled bottle, a tasting glass and extra pours of limited gift shop offerings. Reservations are at pursuitspirits.com/visit-us, and larger parties can be booked on request. Trial + Error, the cocktail lounge beneath the Whiskey Row location, is downstairs.

Pursuit Spirits’ Whiskey Row location is at 722 W. Main St., Suite 100, Louisville; its distillery is at 1700 Mellwood Ave.