George Washington Rye Whiskey

[arrScott]

Historic Mount Vernon finally released the first bottling of whiskey distilled on-site to public sale today; I managed to pick up a bottle before they sold out. The first bottling is unaged - George Washington's white dog! - and the mash recipe is supposedly based on records kept in Washington's day. In all the excitement I didn't write down the numbers before the details slipped from memory, but it was approximately 65% rye, 30% corn, 5% barley. Bottled at 43% ABV.

The unaged rye was said to be half of a 96-gallon batch, with the other 48 gallons being aged for several years in new oak. Had a tiny taste at the event, and it was surprisingly smooth for white dog. A little of the oiliness from the corn came through, but it was well-balanced. I'm not usually a fan of unaged whiskey.

This run is 375 ml bottles, numbered. Mine is #269, and if I'm doing the math right 48 gallons works out to a potential 485 bottles. I know from Mount Vernon staff that not all of the batch made it into bottles, though! It was $85 a bottle, limit one per, and the publicly available bottles sold out today.

First whiskey made at Mount Vernon to be sold since 1805.

Hopefully, someone else who bought a bottle will be adventurous enough to open his and taste it for real and tell us what we're missing! I plan to hold on to my bottle unopened for a while; I'm contemplating barrel-aging it myself after my current project of aging Virginia corn whiskey. Not sure if I can get good results from so small a quantity. I'm used to aging in 1.75 liter batches.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1398843&id=1425764334

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1398844&id=1425764334

(Behind the bottle is a painting of the distillery site as it would have looked in 1799.)

[cigarnv]

Was down there also... grabed a bottle and had Dave sign it....

[cowdery]

How can it be called rye whiskey if it's not aged? I guess the rules are different for ex-presidents.

[Rughi]

How can it be called rye whiskey if it's not aged? I guess the rules are different for ex-presidents.

[Josh]

"When the President does it,

that means that it is not illegal"

- Richard M. Nixon

:slappin:

Post of the week.

[cowdery]

I checked with Dave Pickerell and, in fact, they poured it into a new, charred oak barrel then right back out so they could label it "rye whiskey." As he said, "when you sell it for $85 a pint, you can afford to do that."