Mint Julep $5,000 Cups: a Derby Tradition
- From the Vault Jewelers
- May 13
- 4 min read
Most people see a julep cup. I see months of work, countless conversations, a budget to solve like a puzzle, and a deadline that is set in stone… the first Saturday in May. The Kentucky Derby!
My name is Graham Newton, and I am the operating manager of my family's small jewelry store in Louisville, KY. My mother started the business in 2000, and I began working for her in 2002 as a bench jeweler, performing jewelry repairs for retail and wholesale clients. My favorite part of the job was when clients gave me the freedom to hand fabricate items from their existing materials. In 2008, we made the leap into Computer Aided Design (CAD), and I have never looked back! I moved from the shop into the showroom and began working directly with clients to design custom jewelry. I also operated our computerized engraving machine and quickly found ways to use my CAD programs to take client logos and designs and bring them to life. At the time, the wonderful hand engraver Donna Bolton worked at our store, and I took over some of her corporate projects, working directly with companies like Florida Crystals and Churchill Downs.
I began to build a reputation as a "go-to" for challenging engraving projects, as well as for higher-end corporate gifts.
We began working with the Woodford Reserve team in 2012. They were looking for a new company to work with and wanted to work with someone local. They approached us with a smaller project, which we were able to complete in a timely fashion. We exceeded their expectations! After that, they asked if we would be interested in working on the $1,000 mint julep cup project with them, which of course we were!
The project consists of a limited run of one-thousand-dollar julep cups, and an even more limited run of higher-end cups, selling for $2,000 to $5,000 each. The proceeds from the project benefit a carefully selected charity close to the heart of the Kentucky Derby tradition each year. We are always thrilled at the opportunity to work with Woodford Reserve and their parent company Brown-Forman on this project. Woodford Reserve is an amazing company to work with. I have dealt with many different teams over the years, and they all share the same goal of supporting as many local businesses as possible. As a small, family-owned business, to be associated with such a storied company is not something I ever thought would be possible.
In the first several years of working with them on the project, we collaborated with the Woodford Reserve team to come up with the designs for the cups.
My favorite cup from this time period was our very first, which featured a simple but elegant design: a hand-engraved running thoroughbred horse on the $1,000 cup, and a sterling silver horseshoe set with approximately one carat of natural diamonds on the higher-end cup. We only produced twelve of the higher-priced cups, and I felt the design was luxurious without being over the top.
After some time, Woodford Reserve began working with celebrity fashion designers, where the designer would create a theme for the cup and we would take those ideas from paper and pen to finished silver. My favorite cup from this period was the 2015 cup, inspired by a swatch of fabric created by celebrated designer Billy Reid. This was one of the most technically challenging projects I have ever undertaken. We took the pattern from his fabric design and acid-etched both the pewter cups and the gold-plated sterling cups, giving them a unique texture unlike anything we have done before or since.
After this, we started working on cups with a more historical tie-in to the track, such as the 2021 cups, which celebrated the history of early Black jockeys and their contributions to the horse racing industry. Many people today are not aware of the major impact Black jockeys had in the early years of horse racing. Fifteen of the first twenty-eight Kentucky Derby races were won by Black jockeys, and these cups were a tribute to those forgotten pioneers. That year also presented some unique challenges, as we were still operating under COVID-19 guidelines… but we got them done!
Woodford Reserve later began working with Maker's House Creative, a local wedding planner, whose work has pushed the project forward with increasingly complex designs incorporating lab-created stones. My favorite cup from this era has to be the 2025 cup: the most challenging design we have tackled since 2015. We had to push ourselves well outside our comfort zone to achieve the final result, which included a multi-part applied design that we assembled by hand, as well as an inline halo of lab-created stones surrounding the central motif.
As I write this, I have just delivered the 2026 cups to the Woodford Reserve team, and I am excited to see how this year's design is received!
The process begins each fall, when we sit down with the Woodford Reserve team to discuss the general theme, the number of cups to be produced, and the budget. Around the holiday season, we receive a rough design template. From there, I work out the sizing, layout, and the practical path to bringing the design to life within the budget. I then share my ideas with the designer, and after some back and forth, we arrive at a final design that both captures the original creative vision and can realistically be produced. The finished cups are then made available for purchase on the Woodford Reserve website, with all proceeds benefiting Closely Crafted.
The next time you see a Woodford Reserve $1,000 mint julep cup, I hope you'll look a little closer. Behind that gleaming silver surface is a story of designers and jewelers, of deadlines and budgets, of history and craft, and of a partnership between a world-class bourbon brand and a small Louisville family business that is incredibly proud to be part of the tradition. From our bench to your hand, every cup is made with care, intention, and a deep love for this city and this sport.
Cheers! May your Derby be a winning one!
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