11 Oldest Bourbon Brands Still Sold in the US: Mashed’s Historic Names

Bourbon’s roots and rules

Bourbon is an American whiskey category with specific requirements. It must be made from a mash containing at least 51% corn and distilled in the United States, along with rules governing aging and proof.

The spirit’s history has deep ties to Kentucky, though some brands began elsewhere. The historic names described here include both bourbon producers and a rye brand with a place in whiskey history.

Michter’s long journey

Michter’s traces its beginnings to 1753, when John Shenk, a Swiss Mennonite farmer in Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania, founded Shenk’s. The distillery was known for rye whiskey, and it later became Bomberger’s before changing hands several times.

The Michter’s name emerged in the 1950s. After the original location closed in 1989, the operation was revived in Kentucky in the 1990s; Michter’s sold its first branded bourbon in the late 1990s. Its 10-year bourbon is described as oak-forward, with sweet and spicy flavors and notes of dried fruit, cooked cherries and candied orange peel.

Buffalo Trace and Jim Beam

Buffalo Trace traces its roots to Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1775 and is described as the oldest continuously operating distillery in the United States. Its site is a National Historic Landmark and includes the Old Taylor House, built in 1792. The operation became known as Buffalo Trace Distillery in 1999, after earlier names that included O.F.C. Distillery and George T. Stagg Distillery.

The distillery makes Buffalo Trace, Blanton’s and Eagle Rare, as well as Pappy Van Winkle and Weller. In 2025, it filled its nine-millionth barrel since the end of Prohibition. Jim Beam’s family began selling bourbon in 1795; the brand’s history runs through Old Tub and the post-Prohibition Jim B. Beam Distilling Company, founded in 1935.

Beam’s range and Old Overholt

Jim Beam expanded into small-batch bourbon in the 1980s, with a collection that includes Basil Hayden’s, Baker’s and Knob Creek. The brand is described as the world’s best-selling bourbon. Old Overholt is technically a rye, rather than a bourbon, but is included for its place in bourbon and whiskey history. Its website calls it the “first family of bourbon.”