Kaveh Zamanian

Kaveh Zamanian

Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame inductee (2022) Kaveh Zamanian’s route to founding one of America’s fastest-growing whiskey brands is uncommon, to say the least. Born in Iran in 1964, Zamanian emigrated to the United States with his parents at the age of 14. Landing in California, his family settled near San Francisco, where the youngster finished his formative high school years and began college. In 1992, Kaveh received his PhD. in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology and set about preparing for a career in that field. Later, an opportunity arose for Kaveh to move to Chicago, Illinois to do postdoctoral research at Northwestern University, and it was there that he met a pretty girl named Heather, whom he eventually married.

As fate would have it, Heather was a native of Louisville, Kentucky, and when the pair visited her hometown, the self-proclaimed “wine and spirits guy” fell in love with the bourbon culture. It did not hurt that Kaveh was familiar with the hospitality business, putting himself through college and graduate school by working in bars and restaurants, which left an impression on the young emigre. “I enjoyed the world of hospitality, particularly wine and spirits. I think that food and spirits are a way to bring people together,” explains Kaveh. 

Nevertheless, the young couple soon returned to Chicago, and Zamanian continued to be very successful as a clinical psychologist. It wasn’t long before the Zamanian’s family grew, and three children were born to the couple: son Henri and daughters Jill and Bella. However, all through 20 years of running a successful psychology practice, the bourbon bug never quite left Zamanian, and one day in 2012, Zamanian came home and told his wife that, despite knowing very little about it at the time, he had been thinking about closing his practice and getting into the bourbon industry. First, she was stunned and thought he was kidding. When she finally realized he was not joking, Heather remarked that Kaveh “Was going to take the family down a rabbit hole.” Kaveh quickly called an attorney and found out that that trademark was available, and another bourbon brand was born.

A mere thirteen years later, Rabbit Hole Distillery has won several awards, including Best Kentucky Small Batch Bourbon at the 2022 World Whiskies Awards, Platinum at the 2021 Sip Awards, Gold Winner at the 2021 Barleycorn Awards; and scored 92 Points by Whisky Advocate magazine. Then in June 2019, French spirits conglomerate Pernod-Ricard acquired a majority stake in the Rabbit Hole Distillery.

From a distilling perspective, Zamanian likes to say that bourbon is “51% corn and 49% possibility.” Since Louisville’s moniker is ‘Possibility City,’ the locale and the distiller are a perfect match. “Think about a guy named Kaveh coming to Louisville to start a bourbon company,” explains an incredulous Zamanian, “in any place, that is daunting. But for me, Louisville ended up being the right place, hospitable, open to new ideas, with a friendly, gracious, and helpful industry.”

We could not agree more, and we couldn’t be more thrilled that Kaveh Zamanian decided to go down the Rabbit Hole.

Reference: Whiskey Network Magazine, Col. Brian G. Miller, August 2024

Contributed by: Tracy McLemore, Fairview, Tennessee