Ezra Brooks was launched in 1957 by Frank Silverman of the Medley Distilling Company in Owensboro, and was from the outset a deliberate look-alike for Jack Daniel's — a square bottle, a black label and a tan neck, designed to slide onto bars where JD was in short supply during the great tight-stocks years of the late 1950s. Jack Daniel's promptly sued. The dispute dragged on, the bottle shape was eventually adjusted, and Ezra Brooks settled into its own identity as a straightforward, straight Kentucky bourbon.
The brand bounced through David Sherman, Glenmore and Heaven Hill before finding its current home at Lux Row Distillers in Bardstown, which was opened in 2018 by the Luxco group specifically to bring Ezra Brooks, Rebel, Daviess County, David Nicholson and Blood Oath home to Kentucky. Ezra Brooks is now one of Lux Row's flagships, and the 99 proof expression is the pick of the standard lineup.
At 49.5% ABV it hits harder than the old 90 proof, and the extra strength gives it room to flex: vanilla and caramel and orange zest on the nose, a creamy palate full of toffee and cinnamon, a long spicy finish that earns every one of those proof points. It is not a bonded bourbon and it carries no age statement, but for its price it drinks with genuine weight and richness, and it represents the Lux Row era of the brand at its most confident.
