imbibe magazine: NY Distilleries

[silverfish]

The March/April 2012 issue of imbibe magazine features

a piece on NY Distilleries. Distilleries mentioned include

Tuthilltown Spirits, Finger Lakes Distilling, Kings County

Distilling and Coppersea Distilling.

"There are now around 30 craft distilleries in New York;

almost all are less than four years old, most less than

two, and new startups appear with such frequency that

any exact count is almost immediately obsolete."

A decent enough written piece (even if they do cover

some non-whiskey spirits!) and it's always good to see

the local boys get some ink.

[cigarnv]

John... do you have any favorites in the bunch? I am still struggling with the product of most craft distilleries... especially at the price point they sell for...

[silverfish]

John... do you have any favorites in the bunch? I am still struggling with the product of most craft distilleries... especially at the price point they sell for...

Yeah, the price thing can be off-putting, even for NY

residents!

I have had the Tuthilltown Baby Bourbon and found

it to be enjoyable but the cost for a 375 ml bottle

(cute, but pricey!) keeps me from buying another. I

would like to try their Rum and Four Grain Bourbon

and may overlook the price of each to do so.

I have had our own tmckenzie's Finger Lakes Bourbon

and the Rye. Both are easy to drink and are reasonably

priced as low as $42. and $36. respectively. That's for

a 750ml, using wine-searcher and should be noted that

I'm NY so prices for me might be less than out-of-state

sources. Even so, not a bad price for a full size bottle

from a smaller Distillery.

Greg (BourbonDork) had this to say about the FL Rye.

I have also had the FL Glen Thunder Corn Whiskey. At

$20. a bottle, this is one tasty little bargain.

I have a tentative visit to FLD scheduled in May of this

year. I'll be going with a couple wine & Scotch drinkers

so we'll have a few differing palates taking on the FL

products.

I am not familiar with the other Distilleries listed in the

piece but have made a note to look into their products.

[Jono]

How many of these micro distillers have their own rack houses? I am sure their internal storage areas are small, so do they ship stock out for storage elsewhere? Are any expanding such facilities? NY weather, being cooler overall than KY, means a bit longer aging time will be required.

[bourbonv]

The McKenzie bourbons (both the traditional style and the wheated bourbons) are excellent at an early age. I tried both that were "almost 3 years old" as tom put it, and found them better than most 4 year old bourbons from the big distillers. I love his 100 proof barrel entry proof and i do believe it makes for a better tasting bourbon at a young age. I can't wait to try this bourbon after 5 or 6 years in the barrel.

Mike Veach

[tmckenzie]

We have a barrel warehouse. it is not a traditional warehouse like the KY distilleries use, but a big open space. We put the barrels up on racks 5 barrels high. The building is ventilated and heated, so we can cycle the temps in the winter, if we did not do that it never would age right as cold as it normally is in NY. As for the other disillers in the state, I cannot speak to what they do.

[Parkersback]

Tom, when do you plan on releasing your wheated bourbon?

[tmckenzie]

right now we are watching it close, I would say at least another year or so.We did not put a whole lot of it up to start with as we wanted to see what it would do. We put it up regularly now. It is good right now, but it has more potential. We are using top raw materials and the best wood, so it should only get better.