A limited 10-year-old bourbon honors Royce Neeley’s grandfather, Earl “PaPaw” Sizemore, with a unique release built from barrels the two distilled together.
SPARTA, KY — September 9, 2026 — Neeley Family Distillery is bringing one of its most personal releases yet to the 2026 Kentucky Bourbon Festival: PaPaw’s Legacy Reserve 10 Year Old Pot Still Bourbon, a 110-proof, cask-strength wheated bourbon created in honor of Royce Neeley’s grandfather, Earl “PaPaw” Sizemore.
The limited release will debut September 11 at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival in Bardstown, Kentucky, and at Neeley Family Distillery in Sparta. Only 750 bottles will be produced for the initial release, with bottles retailing for $299.99 per 750 mL.
The release also represents a notable milestone for the distillery. According to Neeley Family Distillery, PaPaw’s Legacy Reserve is the oldest triple-pot-distilled bourbon ever released, continuing the distillery’s longstanding use of traditional pot still distillation.
A Bourbon Built Around a Family Legacy
For Royce Neeley, the story behind PaPaw’s Legacy Reserve goes back long before the bottle was conceived.
Growing up, Royce spent time with his grandfather, Earl Sizemore, working on cars, hearing stories about moonshining, and learning family lore from a whiskey-making tradition that stretches back eleven generations. When Royce entered the family distilling business legally in 2015, PaPaw remained closely involved, helping with distillation, giving tours, signing bottles, and becoming a familiar face to visitors at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival.
Together, Royce and PaPaw distilled more than 1,000 barrels of whiskey.
After PaPaw died in 2024, Royce was left with a problem that was also a reminder of how finite that shared history was: eventually, the last barrels they distilled together would be gone.
Rather than simply bottling the final barrels and closing the chapter, Royce created a reserve intended to preserve the whiskey and the connection behind it for years to come.
He selected the 10 best barrels from the distillery’s rickhouses and combined them in a neutral holding tank, stopping further aging. Each year, Neeley Family Distillery plans to release only a portion of the reserve, never more than half of the tank’s contents, and replenish it with the best-tasting barrels available.
The result is PaPaw’s Legacy Reserve, designed to keep the original whiskey at the center of the release while allowing the tradition to continue.
“It’s bittersweet to think of someday the barrels being depleted that PaPaw and I distilled together, but through replenishing our holding tank each year with the best barrels, it’s a way for PaPaw’s legacy to live on, and I know he would have loved to be celebrated this way.”
— Royce Neeley, Master Distiller.
The Kentucky Bourbon Festival connection makes the inaugural release even more fitting. PaPaw attended the festival for years, where thousands of visitors had their pictures taken with him and had bottles signed.
His final Kentucky Bourbon Festival appearance came in 2024, shortly before his death. Despite being very ill, he attended each day with what the family remembers as his trademark smirk, continuing to sell and sign bottles.
For the debut of PaPaw’s Legacy Reserve, the distillery is leaning into that personality. Customers who dress like PaPaw will receive 10% off the bottle at both the Kentucky Bourbon Festival and Neeley Family Distillery.
What We Know About PaPaw’s Legacy Reserve
- Name: PaPaw’s Legacy Reserve 10 Year Old Pot Still Bourbon
- Distillery: Neeley Family Distillery
- Age: 10 years
- Proof: 110 proof / 55% ABV
- Style: Wheated bourbon
- Distillation: Triple pot distilled
- Filtration: Neeley Family Distillery’s traditional non-chill-filtered approach
- Release size: 750 bottles
- Bottle size: 750 mL
- Price: $299.99
- Release date: September 11, 2026
- Availability: Kentucky Bourbon Festival and Neeley Family Distillery in Sparta, Kentucky
- Festival promotion: 10% off for customers dressed like PaPaw
“Despite being very ill, he attended each day with what the family remembers as his trademark smirk, continuing to sell and sign bottles. For the debut of PaPaw’s Legacy Reserve, the distillery is leaning into that personality.”
Why This Matters
The bourbon world has no shortage of limited releases built around age statements, barrel counts, and carefully constructed stories. PaPaw’s Legacy Reserve stands out because the story isn’t something added after the whiskey was made.
The whiskey itself is part of the story.
Royce Neeley and his grandfather actually distilled these barrels together, making the decision to preserve a portion of that whiskey more meaningful than a typical commemorative release. The reserve also gives Neeley Family Distillery a way to keep that connection alive beyond the remaining individual barrels.
There is an interesting whiskey-making philosophy behind the release, too. Instead of allowing the selected barrels to continue aging indefinitely, Neeley moved them into a neutral holding tank and established a system for releasing only a portion each year. That makes the reserve less about chasing a progressively older age statement and more about preserving a specific piece of the family’s distilling history.
For collectors and Neeley Family fans, the inaugural 750 bottles are likely to carry the greatest significance because they represent the first release from that original reserve.
And for anyone attending the Kentucky Bourbon Festival this weekend, there is perhaps no better excuse to dig through the closet for an old-fashioned outfit and pay tribute to PaPaw himself.
“PaPaw’s Legacy Reserve stands out because the story isn’t something added after the whiskey was made. The whiskey itself is part of the story.“
Bourbon Bishop Bottom Line:
PaPaw’s Legacy Reserve is interesting before you ever pull the cork. Not simply because it is a 10-year-old, 110-proof bourbon, but because of the barrels and family history behind it.
The idea of preserving whiskey Royce Neeley distilled alongside his grandfather gives this release a genuine sense of place and purpose, while the annual replenishment plan makes it something that can continue beyond a single commemorative bottling.
Whether $299.99 makes sense will ultimately come down to the whiskey in the glass, but as a Kentucky Bourbon Festival release, this is one worth knowing about. It is a rare example of a bourbon release where the family story isn’t marketing decoration; the liquid is literally part of the family legacy.
PaPaw’s Legacy Reserve launches at 11 a.m. September 11, 2026, at both Neeley Family Distillery and the Neeley Family Distillery booth at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. Quantities are limited to 750 bottles for the inaugural release and will be available each day of the festival while supplies last.
About Neeley Family Distillery
Neeley Family Distillery is a small, family-owned and operated distillery in Sparta, Kentucky, built on a whiskey-making tradition that reaches back eleven generations. The Neeley family distilled and bootlegged whiskey illegally in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky for generations before Roy Neeley and his son Royce Neeley brought the family business into the legal distilling industry in 2015.
Master Distiller Royce Neeley continues to draw on the family’s traditional methods, including pot still distillation, cypress fermenters, sweet mash and the family’s own yeast strand, which is propagated at the distillery. Neeley Family spirits are also non-chill filtered, preserving the natural character of the whiskey. The distillery has earned numerous awards, including Double Gold and Platinum honors at competitions including the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, Ascot Awards and New Orleans Bourbon Festival.
For more information, visit Neeley Family Distillery online or follow the distillery on social media at @neeleyfamilydistillery.
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