Archives for February 2022

Berkshire Mountain Distillers Releases Whiskies Featuring Long Trail, Two Roads, And Chatham Brewing In Craft Brewers Whiskey Project 2022 Release

February 23, 2022 By Dow Scoggins

SHEFFIELD, Massachusetts – In its final round of the Craft Brewers Whiskey Project, Berkshire Mountain Distillers (BMD) has released three new whiskies distilled from beer sourced from popular brewers Long Trail Brewing Company, Two Roads Brewing, and Chatham Brewing, available now in the BMD tasting room and across the Northeast in March.

These three whiskies are the latest and final release of a six-year collaboration led by BMD, the award-winning maker of a select line of premier craft spirits, and includes the distilling of a dozen beers from a limited collection of celebrated craft brewers. In 2021, the Craft Brewers Whiskey Project was recognized in the US Open Whiskey & Spirits Grand National Championship where BMD’s Jack’s Abby Smoke & Dagger American Whiskey won a Gold Medal.

“We’re really excited to work with a great group of partners on a unique project bringing together the craft distillery and craft beer worlds and are hoping to celebrate with some collaborative tasting events this Spring,” said Chris Weld, founder of Berkshire Mountain Distillers. “Given all the positive feedback, we’re also planning to have another project come out on the tail of this one.”

Consumer demand for this project has resulted in a wider distribution for Smuttynose, now available in New Hampshire, Captain Lawrence, available in New York, and in Spring 2022, Brewery Ommegang will also be available in New York. The success of this project has prompted BMD to distill another round of whiskies from well-known brewers including Big Elm Brewing, Two Roads Brewing, and Night Shift Brewing.

Featured in this month’s release, a complex yet easy-drinking whiskey, Long Trail Brewing’s Unearthed American Whiskey is made from an American stout base. This whiskey has a blossoming nose of garam masala, cedar, clove, and vanilla sugar with a clean, rich note of caramel, and hints of peat and cardamom.

Chatham Brewing is one of the first microbreweries in New York to produce award-winning beers. The Eight Barrel whiskey offers notes of roasted almond, madagascar vanilla, and cacao nib, with a spicy mid-palate of cinnamon and toffee that resolves into a clean and creamy finish.

Two Roads Brewing Worker’s Comp Farmhouse Ale whiskey is formulated from their iconic Saison with a unique yeast strain, complex grain build, and judicious use of hops which create rich, malty notes and hints of turmeric, sandalwood, papaya, and pineapple, finishing with a frozen banana custard richness.

“It has been an honor and a lot of fun to be included in Berkshire Mountain Distillers’ Craft Brewers Whiskey Project,” said Phil Markowski, brewmaster at Two Roads Brewing Company. “I have enjoyed being involved and observing the slow evolution of our Two Roads Whiskey over the last five years. The final result is a fascinating spirit that preserves the array of unique flavors and aromas generated by a very special strain of yeast we use to make our Worker’s Comp Farmhouse Ale. I am looking forward to future collaborations with BMD!”

The first releases of the Craft Brewers Whiskey Project were distilled from six Massachusetts-based beers including Boston Lager from Samuel Adams, Berkshire Brewing Company’s Imperial Steel Rail Extra Pale Ale, and Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers Smoke & Dagger Black Lager plus UFO White Ale from Massachusetts Bay Brewing Co., Spencer Brewery’s Trappist Ale, and Big Elm Brewing’s 413 Farmhouse Ale. The 2021 fall release included Really Old Brown Dog Strong Ale from Smuttynose Brewing, Brewery Ommegang’s Three Philosophers, and Liquid Gold from Captain Lawrence Brewing.

Whiskies are sold in the BMD tasting room and are available in select stores – Chatham Brewing whiskey will be available in the BMD store only. Samuel Adams, Jack’s Abby, and Big Elm are currently sold out in the BMD tasting room and several others are in short supply. BMD is located at 356 South Main Street in Sheffield, open daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visit craftbrewerswhiskeyproject.com and BMD.

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Watershed Distillery and Marianne Eaves Collaboration Cask Strength Bourbon To Launch Via Online Lottery

February 10, 2022 By Dow Scoggins

COLUMBUS, Ohio — In a collaboration with Marianne Eaves, one of the most esteemed tastemakers in the beverage industry, Watershed Distillery is set to release a new premium cask strength bourbon available only via online lottery.

Watershed is one of eight craft distilleries to be included in Eaves Blind—a premium, collectible bourbon series curated by Marianne Eaves, recognized as the first female master distiller in Kentucky. Created with the intent of stripping away bourbon stereotypes, the series showcases some of the most awarded craft bourbon distilleries in regions beyond Kentucky.

“My ‘aha moment’ was realizing that there are so many other regions and distilleries outside of Kentucky that are making exceptional bourbons, too,” shares Eaves. “This Ohio collaboration gave me the chance finally to work with some energetic and trailblazing industry friends. Watershed should be on everyone’s shortlist of amazing bourbons and believe me when I say they are only going to get better from here.”

Watershed Eaves Cask Strength Bourbon was created to highlight the attention the Ohio distillery pays to key aspects of the bourbon-making process, specifically grain and mashing, fermentation, distillation, and maturation.

All the unique, single-source bourbons in the series were first sampled throughout 2021 in blind seasonal tasting kits intended to remove preconceived bourbon stereotypes: color and indications of age, quality, etc. Now, each expression is available for bourbon lovers and spirit collectors.

“Here at Watershed, there has been quite a bit of excitement around this project,” adds Greg Lehman, CEO of Watershed Distillery. “Not only was it an honor to work side by side with Marianne, but to be selected to be in the company of these other emerging distilleries was a real point of pride for us.”

Watershed Eaves Cask Strength Bourbon is bottled at 130.3 proof with topline tasting notes of warm cinnamon and brown sugar, citrus peel and toasted oak with a sweet creamy palate. The price is $150 per 750 ml bottle. The bottle lottery will open on Feb. 16 and close on March 9. Must be 21 years or older to enter. Winners will be notified and allotted the opportunity to purchase one bottle in person from Watershed’s bottle shop.

Eaves’ collectible series features blends from seven other award-winning distilleries across the U.S.: Oregon Spirit Distillers (Bend, OR), Distillery 291 (Colorado Springs, TX), St. Augustine Distillery (St. Augustine, FL), Stumpy’s Spirits Distillery (Columbia, IL), Treaty Oak Distillery (Dripping Springs, TX), Journeyman Distillery (Three Oaks, MI) and King’s County Distillery (Brooklyn, NY)

ABOUT WATERSHED DISTILLERY
Watershed Distillery is the largest independent Ohio distillery and producer of award-winning craft bourbons, gins, vodka and a variety of specialty spirits. Founded in 2010 by Greg Lehman, Watershed Distillery was inspired by the vision of creating great spirits and shared experiences that bring people together. Watershed Distillery offers daily tours and is home to Watershed Kitchen + Bar—consistently named one of the top restaurants and cocktail bars in Columbus. Find Watershed online at watersheddistillery.com or @watershedistillery.

For More Information:
https://www.watersheddistillery.com/lottery

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Amalga Distillery Releases Batch #6 Flagship Single Malt Whiskey

February 8, 2022 By Dow Scoggins

To Order or get more information

Juneau, Alaska(February 8) – It’s whiskey release day! Online sales for Flagship Batch 6 will begin tonight at 7pm on our website. Some notes: this is like…ummmm. Banana fosters with chocolate chips. Took the banana fosters part from Jon, but – he wasn’t wrong. Thx, Jon. It is sweet, but never cloying. Just pleasantly so. Like, a nice pour to have with some ice cream. Or, use it to make banana fosters…now there’s a thought. It is a dessert whiskey. A nice evening pour. A treat on a Friday night. Or – if you are a degenerate who sometimes has an irish coffee going out to play in the snow (there is snow somewhere still, right!?), this would work well for that. It also still makes a great highball, giving nice subtle cola flavors. While I have yet to try it, I do believe that with a couple of nice cocktail cherries it could be more of a cherry cola vibe. Like – a high ball (whiskey, soda water, squeeze of a bit of lemon) but with some syrupy dark cocktail cherries. Yes. Please. Also – as per usual – this whiskey is particularly comfortable in Manhattans and Old Fashioneds. It just has more body and presence than your typical single malt, so it can hold up well in cocktails that typically utilize bourbon or rye.

What Amaga Distiller has to day about Flagship Single Malt Whiskey:
I feel like we have been pretty good about letting everyone know that the intent of the flagship releases was to have a whiskey that was consistent and on theme in our “house style”, but that they would not be identical. Well. This release will be an outlier, but also an incredible example of what Amalga Distillery is as a small whiskey producer. We get to be a bit creative and nimble, and for Batch 6 we took advantage of that.

If you have read our past tasting notes, you know that we have a thing for Cognac casks for finishing our whiskies. By finishing, we mean that we age the whiskey first on new American oak, and then transfer it to Cognac casks to age for just a little bit to mingle the whiskey and impart some of the Cognac characteristics. So. For Batch 6, we tried something a bit different and finished whiskey (that had previously aged for two or two and a half years) in a rum cask. And, well. It came out awesome. Like – really really really happy with it.

Some thoughts/notes. This is like…ummmm. Banana fosters with chocolate chips. Took the banana fosters part from Jon, but – he wasn’t wrong. Thx, Jon. It is sweet, but never cloying. Just pleasantly so. Like, a nice pour to have with some ice cream. Or, use it to make banana fosters…now there’s a thought. It is a dessert whiskey. A nice evening pour. A treat on a Friday night. Or – if you are a degenerate who sometimes has an irish coffee going out to play in the snow (there is snow somewhere still, right!?), this would work well for that. It also still makes a great highball, giving nice subtle cola flavors. While I have yet to try it, I do believe that with a couple of nice cocktail cherries (which we do currently have in stock…) it could be more of a cherry cola vibe. Like – a high ball (whiskey, soda water, squeeze of a bit of lemon) but with some syrupy dark cocktail cherries. Yes. Please. Also – as per usual – this whiskey is particularly comfortable in Manhattans and Old Fashioneds. It just has more body and presence than your typical single malt, so it can hold up well in cocktails that typically utilize bourbon or rye.

On a side note, we recently tried a single malt whiskey from a large Scottish producer that was made specifically for making cocktails. And, it kinda tastes like…well. A lower proof version of our whiskey. But – cool to see that our vision for single malt wasn’t all that wonky…or something along those lines.

A few closing thoughts. This particular whiskey just works well for the winter, and so it will probably go into the rotation as a regular winter release. Not as anything special; it is just the flagship. But, it is flagship release that is a little warmer and fitting for the season. Bottled again at 50% ABV, but not seeming 50% ABV. Sip it neat, add a bit of water, pour it over ice, use it in a cocktail. Do whatever you’d like with it. We made it to be versatile, so enjoy whatever way suits you.

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Willamette Valley Vineyards Enters Craft Spirits Industry with Release of Willamette Whiskey

February 4, 2022 By Dow Scoggins

Turner, Oregon – Willamette Valley Vineyards, a leading producer of Pinot Noir in the Willamette Valley, sells out of its inaugural, limited release Willamette Whiskey. The hand-crafted, small batch rye whiskey was aged in new American oak for six years, then blended down to a bottle strength of 100 proof. The winery’s top customers were offered an inaugural special price for Willamette Whiskey of $50. A second release is scheduled this winter.

Willamette Valley Vineyards Founder and CEO Jim Bernau said with the growing popularity of whiskey he is not surprised by how quickly this initial limited release of Willamette Whiskey sold out.

“The first release was snatched up in less than a few hours,” Bernau noted. “We encourage Oregon Rye Whiskey lovers to contact the winery as soon as possible to get on the waiting list for future batches of this special craft spirit.”

Willamette Valley Vineyards plans to continue to experiment in craft spirits with plans to use its barrels for special finishing in the future. The winery will be offering additional limited batches to subscribers and will feature Willamette Whiskey at its new Tasting Room & Restaurants, where permissible, coming soon in Lake Oswego, Happy Valley, Bend and Vancouver, WA.

Willamette Whiskey pays tribute to the people of Carlton, Oregon, who for 91 years enjoyed the building first known as W.A. Howe’s General Merchandise store.

Willamette Valley Vineyards now owns the lot where the store’s building — nicknamed “the Old Cabin Tavern” owing to an interior constructed of hand-hewn timber — served as a general store, a hotel, and Carlton’s first bank, with a parlor and speakeasy supper club in the basement. Built in 1904, it was destroyed in a fire on April 18, 1995.

This release heralds the beginning of the winery’s efforts to rebuild the Carlton property with a brick clad Willamette winery and distillery facility, rising in the lost structure’s place.

Willamette Valley Vineyards partnered with Portland-based Rose City Distillery to produce Willamette Whiskey. The winery’s goal was to partner with a local distiller.

For information on how to order future whiskey releases, please contact Willamette Valley Vineyards at (800) 344-9463 or visit: https://www.wvv.com/Willamette-Whiskey.

Willamette Valley Vineyards:
Founded in 1983 by Jim Bernau with the dream of creating world-class Pinot Noir while serving as stewards of the land, Willamette Valley Vineyards has grown from a bold idea into one of the region’s leading wineries, earning the title “One of America’s Great Pinot Noir Producers” from Wine Enthusiast Magazine. All of the vineyards have been certified sustainable through LIVE (Low Impact Viticulture and Enology) and Salmon-Safe programs.

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Uncle Nearest Debuts Its Own Whiskeys as It Regains Status as the Most Awarded American Whiskey or Bourbon for the Third Year in a Row

February 3, 2022 By Dow Scoggins

SHELBYVILLE, Tennessee— Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey, the most awarded American Whiskey or Bourbon of 2019 and 2020, confirmed today it has solidified this honor for the third year in a row, raking in a record 198 awards in 2021. Since its debut in 2017, the super-premium whiskey from Tennessee has topped every major spirit competition, garnering 380 total awards, including 46 Best in Class, and 213 Gold, Double Gold and Platinum medals. Last year alone, the brand won 21 Best in Class awards from the industry’s most respected judges, including at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, John Barleycorn Awards, Ascot Awards, Bartender Spirits Awards, and The Spirits Business Luxury Masters.

The distillery is continuing this momentum as it also announces today the release of its long-awaited new packaging containing whiskey 100-percent distilled, aged and bottled by Uncle Nearest, as well as unveils its 2022 slate of whiskeys which uses four different recipes. In addition to its current portfolio of core and distillery exclusive whiskeys, this year Nearest Green Distillery will release Uncle Nearest Rye, Uncle Nearest Single Barrel Rye, and a new more widely available Uncle Nearest Single Barrel Whiskey.

“Since the inception of our brand, everything in our bottles was blended to perfection by our master blender, Victoria Eady Butler, but the whiskey was sourced. Our own whiskey began fully maturing last year, and what we have in our bottles now is what we believe is the best whiskey we’ve ever released,” said Fawn Weaver, founder and CEO. “Some call Uncle Nearest a straight bourbon whiskey, some call us straight Tennessee Whiskey. We don’t care, as our whiskey meets the legal requirement of both distinctions. What we do care is that you call us super-premium whiskey as that is what our namesake made, and it is what our team and partners have been working nonstop to make each and every day.”

Among the greatest change to the new packaging is the replacement of the sketch of the property where Nearest originally distilled by the insignia of Nearest Green Distillery, which boasts a dram of whiskey encased by a horseshoe, signifying its iron Tennessee roots. Victoria Eady Butler, fifth-generation Nearest Green descendant, who has been named Master Blender of the Year by Whisky Magazine, VinePair, and The Spirits Business, has also added a note and her signature to the front of every newly released bottle.

“Our first-generation Uncle Nearest bottles shared the history of my great-great-grandfather and his significance to the Tennessee Whiskey coming out of the hills and hollows around Lynchburg,” said Eady Butler. “Our new generation of bottles reflect the future of our brand and our Shelbyville distillery being what cements his legacy for my family and every future generation of whiskey lovers. This is 160 years in the making and damn it if we didn’t figure out how to perfect it! Nearest has always deserved this.”

Last week, the company revealed via social media their plans to turn all their original bottles into collector’s items, encouraging buyers to “clear the shelves” of the “prelude” Uncle Nearest bottles and make way for the new editions.

“The packaging we used since our inception is no more as of 2022,” said Katharine Jerkens, Chief Business Officer. “If you walk into any retail store from coast to coast, you will notice something familiar – empty Uncle Nearest shelves. We waited for our Whiskey Family to completely sell us out, and now we are restocking with the bottles that will permanently cement the legacy of Nearest Green, the world’s first known African American master distiller.”

The seven bottles in their 2022 whiskey slate will first be released at the 323-acre Nearest Green Distillery in Shelbyville, Tennessee, with 1884 Small Batch Whiskey debuting last weekend and cases beginning to ship into markets across the country today. In December 2021, the company released the first new bottles of its Master Blend Edition whiskey exclusively at the distillery, which has already been met with rave reviews from both critics and consumers.

About Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey
Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey honors the world’s first-known African American master distiller, Nearest Green. The portfolio is the Most Awarded American Whiskey or Bourbon of 2019, 2020 and 2021, with over 380 awards and accolades since the brands 2017 launch, including 46 Best in Class honors. Uncle Nearest is currently available in all 50 states and 12 countries, and is sold in more than 25,000 stores, bars, hotels, restaurants, as well as at its 323-acre distillery in Shelbyville, Tenn. For more information, please visit the Uncle Nearest website, and follow on Instagram and Facebook @unclenearest.

About Nearest Green Distillery
Nearest Green Distillery is the world’s first distillery to commemorate an African American. Dubbed as “Malt Disney World,” and recognized by Travel + Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, ESSENCE, Lonely Planet, and more as a must-visit distillery, the 323-acre property has become known as a full-blown destination for whiskey lovers, history enthusiasts, and families. Every bit of the $50 million build-out is a master class in storytelling and history-making, paying tribute to the three things Tennessee is most known for: Tennessee Whiskey, Tennessee walking horses and Tennessee music. For more information or to book a tour, please visit unclenearest.com/distillery, and follow on Instagram @unclenearest.