No. 2 in the "Virginia is for Rye Lovers" series. The Rigglemans at Silverback Distillery know how to make a great Virginia Rye and share a fun experience when you stop by. Get to know all the wonderful distillers on the Virginia Rye Trail.
From our friends at Reservoir Distillery in Richmond, VA.
Reservoir’s Cask Experience. A very limited release and special collaboration with renowned French cognac maker Francois Voyer, a wheated Virginia Rye Whiskey finished in cognac cask, 86 proof. NEWS from Phenomenal Spirits, Virginia Beach, VA: "First barrel pick of the year heading to beautiful Australia and we couldn’t be more excited. At 58.9% ABV, this handcrafted, blended and rum cask finished Ry3 Whiskey is bottled at Cask Strength."
RY3 continues to expand their unique blended Virginia Rye across the globe. Learn more by visiting: https://www.ry3whiskey.com/
From The Whiskey Jar in Charlottesville, Virginia: "Ever wanted to try two Virginia whiskeys you've never had for the price of one? Monday-Friday 3-6 = 1/2 off Virginia whiskeys! It's a 2022 miracle!"
It's a great place to hang on on the Charlottesville Downtown Pedestrian Mall and they have a wonderful selection of Virginia Ryes. The latest issue of Chilled Magazine covers two of the leading Virginia Rye Brands, KO Distilling and Catoctin Creek. KO's new release of their Distiller's Reserve Bottled-in-Bond Straight Virginia Rye, which has received many accolades, is front and center. Master Distiller and Co-founder Becky Harris of Catoctin Creek is featured in a multiple part interview, see more on the magazine website. https://chilledmagazine.com/catoctin-creeks-becky-harris-talks-women-in-whisky
Axe Handle Distilling in Pennington Gap becomes the latest stop on the Virginia Rye Trail. Located all the way in the tip of Southwest Virginia, this custom built distillery and music venue offers great views, great whiskey, music, food and fun for all.
With 21 stops, the Virginia Rye Trail now covers the entire state, north, south, east and west. Making it easy for you to venture out and discover a Virginia Rye maker near you. Virginia Rye Trail Map A favorite Virginia Rye Whiskey for all those who have been fortunate to try it. Ragged Branch uses their own farm grown rye, controlling the entire process from grain to bottle.
"The holiday season means it's time to make a little Straight Rye Whiskey! Our award-winning rye is handcrafted using the same traditional methods as our bourbon recipes, including being aged in new charred American white oak barrels for more than four years. The difference comes in the recipe, which, unlike our bourbons, contains no corn. Instead, it is a rich mash of mostly rye and a little bit of malted barley. That means it's less sweet than our bourbons, but has lots of lively rye spice and caramelized wood complexity. Available at the distillery, Virginia ABC stores, and other select states." - Ragged Branch Distillery https://www.raggedbranch.com/ The Virginia Rye Trail hits 20 strong with the addition of Appalachian Heritage Distillery11/16/2021
Appalachian Heritage Distillery in Damascus, Virginia adds their 96 proof 4 year old Straight Virginia Rye Whiskey to the trail offerings. Another great reason to head out to Southwest Virginia for a visit.
A great way to spend an hour. Listen to the tale of Scotsman James Anderson, Mt. Vernon's first Master Distiller and the history of his family and journey.
The folks at Reservoir Distillery in Richmond, VA have shared a tasty Virginia Rye Hot Toddy recipe.
Reservoir Hot Toddy 2 Oz Reservoir Rye 1 Oz Fresh Lemon Juice .5 Oz Local Honey 8 Oz Hot Tea or Water Add lemon juice and hot tea/water to mug, stir until dissolved. Add rye. Enjoy!
Great series! "Five Drinks or Midnight". Meet Lauren Riggleman, Master Distiller at Silverback Distillery. Learn why she loves her Virginia Rye Whiskey products. Featuring five of her spirits including the "Lucky 13 Rye" and "Honey Rye".
River Hill Distillery becomes the 19th stop on the Virginia Rye Whiskey trail with their delicious 90 proof River Hill Rye. Luray has always been a beautiful place to visit, now you have even more reasons to go to the Shenandoah Valley. https://www.facebook.com/riverhilldistillery
A wonderful new video telling the story and passion of the great crafters of award winning Virginia Rye Whiskey, Reservoir Distillery in Richmond, VA. https://reservoirdistillery.com/
By Gary Carter, The Whiskey Wash Virginia whiskey maker KO Distilling just released two new additions to its portfolio of American whiskeys, their Distiller’s Reserve Bottled-in-Bond Rye Whiskey and Bare Knuckle High Rye Bourbon. American rye whiskey in general is seemingly having a renaissance, with more than 1.26 million 9-liter cases in annual depletions last year. This is something KO is looking to get in on more. KO’s Distiller’s Reserve Straight Bottled-in-Bond Rye Whiskey is made from 100 percent local Virginia rye, distilled in one season and aged for four years in charred new American Oak barrels. The result is KO Distilling’s second Bottled-in-Bond expression, a sequel to KO’s Distiller’s Reserve Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon, released in 2020. That spirit garnered KO a Double Gold Medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
Their new Bare Knuckle High Rye Bourbon is made from 75% Corn, 21% Rye, 4% Wheat and was sourced from Indiana six years ago, when KO Distilling was founded. At that time, it was put into charred new American Oak barrels and has been aging in KO’s Manassas, Virginia, warehouse. In keeping with the Bare Knuckle brand, which honors historic fighting figures, the six year old Bare Knuckle High Rye Bourbon bottle features International Boxing Hall of Famer Joe “Old Master” Gans – the first 20th century African-American World Boxing Champion and the World Lightweight Champion from 1902–1908. It will be offered in both single barrel and cask strengths. “At KO Distilling, we take great pride in crafting spirits that reflect the perseverance that makes this country great,” said Co-Founder and CEO Bill Karlson in a prepared statement. “Every bottle is a result of our careful approach to distilling, which combines state-of-the-art equipment with the skills of our production team to produce the best of American spirits. We’re thrilled to raise a glass and welcome these two new additions to our portfolio.” For the rest of the story on The Whiskey Wash, CLICK HERE She's Back! October 14th, 2021 marks the Re-Release of Franklin County Distillers COVETED 141 Proof Black Label Virginia Rye Whiskey. While a high proof, this stuff is incredibly smooth. Be sure to tell all your friends, and grab some before it runs out again.
https://fcdmoonshine.com/ KO Distilling will be releasing their brand new Distiller's Reserve Bottled-in-Bond Rye Whiskey next week at their 6th Anniversary Event, Sept 10-12th. Should make for a tasty way to celebrate!
Davis Valley Distillery in Rural Retreat, Virginia has barrels of aged Virginia Rye whiskey and unaged Rye available for wholesale customers. Visit their website davisvalleydistillery.com/ for details.
Two informative articles on coopering written by Shelley Sackier, Director of Distillery Education, Reservoir Distillery (permission to republish was granted).
Lock, Stock & Barrel: Going All In With Your Cooper
I could write countless articles on the topic of flavor. I could say that as we understand the term today, an easy formula to define it would be scent + taste = flavor. Or I could argue that biologically speaking, flavor isn’t determined only within the oral and nasal cavities; rather it includes parts of the brain, as well as a person’s sensory memories, personalized palate, and other internalizations. Really, I like to think of the equation for flavor as a list of five ingredients: we’ll keep scent and taste, but we’ll also add a dash of touch, past experiences, and expectations. Now that’s flavor. Of course, when we think of flavor in this way, it makes sense why spirit makers take such pains to understand their process, scanning all the components that may contribute both intended and undesirable profiles to their final product. Take it a step further, and you find an impressive list of sources to be mindful of, to play with and utilize, or to do your darndest to avoid. Here’s why wood is a great place to start… RESERVOIR, UNDER THE INFLUENCE It’s believed that a whiskey receives between 50 to 80 percent of its flavor profile from the wood it’s aged within. So while it is important to acknowledge the influence of this woody embrace, we should also highlight the impact of those relationships we share with our barrel makers and brokers. To further whittle the field, let’s simply focus on the makers—the coopers and the cooperage responsible for engineering and crafting our sacred barrels. This month, our team at Reservoir Distillery traveled southwest to Atkins, Virginia, to visit the Speyside Bourbon Cooperage—one of Reservoir’s highly esteemed barrel makers with wood expertise that originated in Scotland, 1947. It was here that we all had the privilege to meet Josh Chandler, Speyside’s plant manager and tour guide extraordinaire. It was also here that we learned just how advanced coopering has become since the days when highly skilled craftsmen practiced the trade by hand. BURIED WITHIN THE WALLS (OF A BARREL) As an industry, we’ve come to understand that wood’s weighty flavors are derived from the organic compounds located deep within the wood of each barrel. Its cell walls are comprised of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, each of which contribute the qualities we’ve come to expect and enjoy in our whiskey: The hemicellulose offers up color and sugars soluble in alcohol, providing the heady notes of caramel. The staves within a barrel, rich with lignin, break down into vanillin, furfural, syringol, eugenol, and lactones—all flavor molecules that give spirits their fruity, nutty, smokey, spicy, and buttery profiles. And one would be remiss not to include the influence of those mouth-puckering, astringent tannins. Of course, the degree to which these ingredients will present themselves (and therefore affect the flavor profile of your spirit) is dependent upon several factors:
FRINGE BENEFITS The challenge is deciding where to start first. With countless elements to factor in, will you request something time-tested and results-proven? A cask that falls within the realm of the industry standard and customer approved? Or will you stray outside of those parameters and journey a fresh path like that of a true frontiersman—play with cask shape, alter the toast, the char, or where that heat is concentrated to achieve caramelization? Will you use a different source of heat—one that might infuse the barrel with flavors unique to its wood? Applewood? Hickory? Peat smoke? An approach to toy with phenols, perhaps? Will you choose a unique type of wood, pursue oak from lands afar—chasing a distinctively place-based flavor? Or perhaps you wish to move more fully into the land of fringe-like trials and join others searching for methods where your barrel more quickly and efficiently removes some of your spirit’s less desirable compounds. Whether you work with one of the dwindling number of independent coopers remaining in the world (1,500-2,000) or a larger, modern cooperage like Speyside applying, in their words, “state of the art technology and modern manufacturing principles to the age-old craft of barrel making,” my point is easy to illustrate: Yes, the world is your oyster--but your cooper is your gatekeeper. The relationship you foster together may be the key to unlocking not just one new shelf of creativity, but access to an inexhaustible library of choice. Leverage that relationship and perhaps you’ll hack the next equation for flavor. And now, an eye-opening peek into a marvelous carpentry journey you shouldn’t miss.
Barreling Through the Speyside Bourbon Cooperage
I never miss an opportunity to visit historical museums or villages set up to recreate bygone days. Seeing people dressed in antiquated clothing performing essential tasks with obsolete tools is not an experience I scoff at, rather I find I’m reflecting on the great advancements made over the short decades behind me. Last week, our team traveled southwest to Atkins, Virginia to visit the Speyside Bourbon Cooperage—one of Reservoir’s highly esteemed barrel makers. And it was here we all had the privilege to meet Josh Chandler, Speyside’s plant manager and tour guide extraordinaire. And it was also here that we were educated as to just how advanced the coopering industry has grown since the days when highly skilled craftsmen practiced the trade by hand. We here at Reservoir impress upon our customers the strength and influence of provenance, as all our ingredients—i.e., anything that influences our flavor—comes right from our little patch of earth. Virginia has a singular taste, and we capture every drop, scent, and organic compound that allows us to say our whiskeys’ flavors are “terroir-driven.” A significant part of that distinctively place-based flavor comes from the organic compounds deep within the wood of each barrel, as the staves that comprise a five, ten, or a 53-gallon barrel are rich with lignins, which break down into vanillin, eugenol, furfural, and lactones—all flavor molecules that give our spirits their spicy, fruity, nutty, and buttery profiles. And as the majority of trees Speyside Cooperage utilizes come from Virginia forestland, we grow increasingly enthusiastic to share what we now recognize as true Virginia bourbon flavor. We pride ourselves on highlighting Reservoir’s unique process of ‘grain to glass’ whiskey making, but we’d be remiss if we did not back farther up—a step or two behind where that timeline begins. I’ve written before about one of our stave mills--The Ramoneda Brothers in Culpeper, Virginia—and Speyside operates several of their own mills as well, but I’ve yet to take you on a tour of how our barrels are assembled. It’s an eye-opening peek into a marvelous carpentry journey you shouldn’t miss. Founded in Scotland in 1947, the Speyside cooperage has impressive lineage, coming from a long line of traditional and highly skilled barrel makers. Estimates of remaining coopers worldwide are around 1,500—2,000. And for as lovely the venerable and time-honored practice of coopering by hand is, where barrel makers apprenticed for approximately seven years before being capable of raising seven casks a day, Speyside has applied, in their words, “state of the art technology and modern manufacturing principles to the age-old craft of barrel making.” Here in Virginia, those new design principles allow them to utilize equipment safer for the environment and their employees, use less energy than older manufacturing processes would require, create less waste and pollutants, and build stronger, better barrels than ever before. Not only are the barrels they produce casks of the highest quality, but the company concentrates on their overall footprint left behind after manufacturing their product. Speyside has been recognized for their sustainable log buying practices, and every scrap of byproducts is either sold to other manufacturers or utilized in house via recycling techniques. So, we here at Reservoir feel fortunate not only to partner with a company whose gilt-edged product helps to make our whiskies shine with a depth and breadth of flavor we’re determined to offer our customers, but also because their level of standards resonate deeply with ours: Offer the world the best you have. And there you have it. Another glimpse into our process. I hope it will serve to educate, entertain, but more important, enrich your next sip of whiskey. Let’s all raise a glass to these men and women of great skill. Because they’re building better barrels, we’re bottling beautiful whiskies! Rye Oh My! Rediscovering one of Virginia's favorite spirits.
The Virginia Rye Whiskey Trail gets some love in the August edition of Virginia Living magazine. Thank you! Click on the bottom photo for a larger view of the article. Just Announced. George Washington Rye Whiskey Tastings - Saturdays in September.
Sample George Washington's Virginia Rye Whiskey and other distilled spirits made in the reconstructed Distillery using 18th-century distilling methods and techniques. Tastings occur at the Distillery and tickets are required. Discounted tickets are available for members. For tickets and information, click here. Catoctin Creek makes Virginia Rye Lovers proud with 3 Medals at The 2021 American Whiskey Masters!8/4/2021
I had the chance to spend an hour with Scott Harris, co-founder with Becky Harris, of Catoctin Creek Distillery in Purcellville, VA. He gave me the full-tour and chatted with my about their plans to add new equipment later this summer that will more the double their production capabilities. He also gave me a taste of their wonderful Rabble Rouser Virginia Rye. I see why folks love it so much and it flies off the shelves when available. Pictured is the Distiller's Edition 92 proof Virginia Rye I purchased for my home bar, it's the favorite of the crew at Catoctin, and will be much enjoyed by myself and friends in the coming weeks. Catoctin Creek is a great operation with a warm and friendly team. Well worth a visit by anyone who loves great whiskey.
https://catoctincreekdistilling.com/ I had the opportunity this past week to take pictures of Three Monkeys Farm 13 beautiful acres of Organic Danko Rye being grown in Loudoun County, Virginia. Almost ready for harvest, I was told by Trent Tebbe that his crop should come in right around the 4th of July. Hopefully we all get a chance to taste it in a nice Virginia Rye Whiskey someday. www.facebook.com/Three-Monkeys-Farm-LLC-115609805312449
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Virginia RYEStories about Virginia Rye Whiskey, its makers and supporting organizations and individuals. as well as related distilled spirits industry news. Archives
March 2023
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