The Creation of One Truly Unique Bourbon - Legent is an unprecedented collaboration between two whiskey legends. Fred Noe, from the founding family of bourbon and Jim Beam's seventh-generation Master Distiller and Shinji Fukuyo, from the founding house of Japanese whisky and Suntory's fifth-ever Chief Blender.
The Pursuit of Mastery - For Fred and Shinji, Legent started as a passion project but it became much more than that. They realized there was much they could learn from one another. They could push bourbon's boundaries as well as their own.
The Best of Two Worlds of Whiskey - together they have developed a truly unique bourbon that is the perfect example of what they do best. Fred used generations of heritage and his own insightful expertise to take Legent from grain to barrel. While Shinji's imaginative and meticulous blending techniques took it from barrel to bottle.
Generations of Bourbon-Making Tradition - since his birth, Master Distiller Fred Noe's life has revolved around the distillery in one way or another. Always looking for new challenges, Legent was a chance to do something that nobody's ever done before. Create a unique bourbon by taking everything from his family's 220 years of making bourbon and combining it with the craft of Japanese blending.
A World Of Whiskey Blending - from Japan to Scotland to Kentucky, Chief Blender Shinji Fukuyo has travelled the world over learning, studying and perfecting the art of blending whiskey and distilling spirits. For him, Legent presented numerous unique challenges. Bourbon isn't a spirit that's blended routinely. He also wanted to honour Fred's family heritage and produce a unique bourbon of the highest quality. After years of tasting, testing and refining the recipe with Fred, Legent has become another step in Shinji's pursuit of mastery.
From Grain to Bottle
Like any bourbon, it all starts with the grains. But unlike any other bourbon, how Legent ends up in your glass is a completely unique process.
For generations, seven actually, Fred's family has been making bourbons loved the world over. Each starts with premium grains, like corn, rye and malted barley, and is aged in select white oak barrels so it can become a traditional bourbon. For most bourbons, this is where their journeys would end. But not Legent.
Legent is aged again in sherry and red-wine casks where it picks up several unique flavours. Then Shinji meticulously blends these secondary-finished bourbons with more Kentucky straight bourbon. Blending allows Shinji to balance, add and unlock layers of complex flavours. This is how Shinji took a historic recipe from Fred's family from barrel to bottle.