The Tasting Room
DIVINE INTERVENTION
Faith and Family Guide the Development of Dant Crossing Written by Bridget Williams / Photography courtesy of Dant Crossing
"If you build it, they will come," so the misquoted line from Field of Dreams goes. And, if the building relates to bourbon, chances are good they'll come in droves. According to the Kentucky Distillers Association, bourbon is an $8.6 billion signature industry in Kentucky, generating more than 20,000 jobs. Wally Dant, along with his cousins Lynne and Charles, are creating their own field of dreams on 300-plus rural acres in New Haven, just down the road from the Abbey of Gethsemane. According to family lore, in the early 1800s, when he was just 16, Wally's great-great-great-grandfather, Joseph Washington "J.W." Dant, hollowed out a poplar log and engineered a makeshift still. He grew his own grain, established cooperage, and eventually opened a modern distillery in 1870 before it was shuttered due to Prohibition and reopened in 1933. As ownership of the distilleries changed, the family lost the J.W. Dant Brand and their involvement in the industry, with production ceasing at this site in 1962 and moving to the Bernheim facility in Louisville. Today, the J.W. Dant Brand is owned by another nearby distillery and has no connection to the brand. When Wally acquired the property from the J.W. Nalley family in 2019, the ruins and remnants of his family's history were still 66 slmag.net
prominent: a 1930s era water tower, a dilapidated cistern room (where barrels of bourbon were filled), a former bottling house, the foundations of old fermenting tanks, and his grandfather’s 1930sera home. He publicly announced his ambitious plans for the site in 2019 during a National Bourbon Day celebration in Bardstown, Kentucky. Soon after, Dant Crossing was lauded as "a whiskey resort" by the New York Times and the neighboring Log Still Distillery described as the "Disneyland of distilleries" in The Tennessean. Wally says he's excited to shine a spotlight and bring jobs to southern Nelson County, which at one time had 11 distilleries. An installation on the second floor of the Tasting Room shares the site's history, while an inscription on the wall lays out the family's priorities: "To us, it's all about love of God, family, community, and bourbon". "There are so many family members involved in this, which means that as a visitor, you're not just a number coming through; the one leading your tasting will likely be a family member," said Wally. Wally's family-friendly vision has quickly taken shape since construction began in 2020. Looking better-than-new, the original virgin steel water tower presides over the heart of Dant Crossing. Wally said that a teardown would have been more economical, but it
