The Collaboration
Old Fitzgerald Bourbon and designer Jonathan Adler have launched a $425 limited-edition backgammon set, marking one of the more high-profile lifestyle merchandise plays from a Kentucky straight bourbon brand this season. The Jonathan Adler x Old Fitzgerald Backgammon Set went on sale October 14 via the Heaven Hill Distillery Shop and select inventory through Adler's own e-commerce platform, with holiday-delivery cut-off orders due by December 14.
Design and Pricing
The set incorporates Old Fitzgerald's signature green palette and its brushed-brass key motif — a reference to the brand's "Your Key to Hospitality" positioning that dates to the 1950s — alongside Adler's signature bold patterns. At $425, the product sits firmly in the premium gifting tier, above the mass-market board-game category and aligned with the luxury barware and entertaining accessories segment that has expanded as at-home hospitality spending has held firm post-pandemic. The set is positioned as a companion to Old Fitzgerald's Bottled-in-Bond 7-Year-Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon, the brand's year-round expression that earned a Gold medal at the 2025 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
Market Context
The release reflects a broader strategy among established spirits producers to extend brand equity beyond the bottle into lifestyle and gifting categories. For Heaven Hill — which maintains more than 2 million barrels aging across more than 70 warehouses in Nelson and Jefferson Counties and has been named Distiller of the Year nine times in five years — branded merchandise offers a margin-accretive channel that reinforces premium positioning without discounting the liquid itself. The timing is deliberate: Q4 accounts for a disproportionate share of premium spirits gifting, and co-branded collectibles have demonstrated staying power on secondary markets, which in turn supports perceived scarcity and brand heat for limited decanter releases.
The analog-leisure trend is a legitimate tailwind here. Tabletop gaming category sales have risen steadily as consumers seek screen-free social formats, and premium versions of classic games — backgammon, chess, and dominoes in particular — have gained shelf space in upscale retail and hospitality boutiques. Pairing a recognized design name with a heritage spirits brand gives the product credibility in both the spirits gifting aisle and the home-décor channel, a dual-market play that few food and beverage brands have executed at this price point.
Leslie Word, Brand Manager of Old Fitzgerald, framed the collaboration around ritual and shared experience — values the brand has used to anchor its marketing around the decanter series and the broader premium bourbon gifting segment. Jonathan Adler described the set as elevating "my favorite game" through a design lens consistent with his studio's wider output of ceramics, furniture, and lifestyle objects sold through more than 1,000 wholesale distribution points globally.
Old Fitzgerald's core business continues to rest on its twice-annual, highly allocated decanter releases and the Bottled-in-Bond 7-Year-Old, with the backgammon set functioning as a halo product rather than a volume driver. Whether the $425 price sustains or fuels resale activity — a dynamic that has benefited limited whiskey releases from Heaven Hill and peers alike — will be a metric worth watching as the holiday window opens.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
