The Best Kept Secret
Small Town Distilling
The hunt for prestigious small batch and big name whiskey is only growing. The culture has turned from a prohibition-era risk and reward approach to an innovative artistry that takes the rich heritage of whiskey and creates something inventive, inviting us to take a step back in time through a modernized experience.
That history is one of the most prominent notes of whiskey, intermixed among that of vanilla, oak, and apple. Beyond the legacy that big distilleries, like Buffalo Trace, established over a century before prohibition, we’ve maintained that legacy but have invented upon it, creating niche, local distilling experiences each with its own unique flagship and style.
Let’s discover three local distilleries that took the rich heritage of whiskey and turned it into the exploration of new frontiers.
Whiskey Del Bac
Tucson, Arizona
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Mesquite
Desert
Char
Southwest
Rich
Rugged
Whiskey Del Bac, the authentic whiskey of the three, is distilled and bottled in Tucson, Arizona. Whiskey Del Bac got its start from the Speyside region of Scotland, which, naturally, offers a more pungent, peaty aroma and taste. One question of curiosity turned into the most unique and niche whiskey experience west of the Mississippi.
The concept of using Mesquite wood, which has a distinct smoky flavor, instead of Peat, like you would for most scotch, began the evolution into a new frontier of whiskey, paying homage to its roots: native to the Sonoran desert.
Most great innovations start from curiosity. Dorado, Whiskey Del Bac’s flagship bottle was released in 2013. Dorado has notes of “desert campfire embers” from its barley that is malted and smoked over velvet mesquite fire.
New Riff
Newport, Kentucky
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Urban
Craft
Refined
Revitalized
Innovative
New Riff, the Kentucky-born bourbon of the three, is a local distillery as north of Kentucky as you can get. Newport, the urban city resting up against the Ohio River, is the home of New Riff Distilling. New Riff preaches their revitalized and refined approach to bourbon. The tagline says it all. Their bourbon is “a new riff on an old tradition.”
They describe themselves as proud to be independent, and playing the long-term game to become one of the great small distilleries, even if there isn’t a gold medal or official title to declare it.
One of their greatest rewards from their risk was discovering a limestone water-bearing on the property the founder owns. They drilled a private well into the aquifer and gained a perfect, 58 degree, mineral-filled water source.
New Riff has reaped the benefits of freedom in their independence, opening up a world of innovation left to their discretion.
Chattanooga Whiskey
Chattanooga, Tennessee
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Resilient
Unconventional
Unapologetic
Adapative
Appalachian
Chattanooga Whiskey regenerated the concept of bringing “Whiskey to the People” by becoming the first distillery in Chattanooga in over a century. Chattanooga has withstood the tumultuous prohibition restrictions. The state of Tennessee implemented prohibition ten years before the national prohibition, which caused a century-long fight to take back distilling laws in Chattanooga by 2012.
It’s said that necessity is the mother of invention, and when roadblocks arise, strategy and creativity is essential. Though the laws didn’t lift until 2012, Chattanooga Whiskey Co. was founded in 2011, using Indiana to help produce whiskey for them while they fought for the distilling laws to rescind.
Now for over ten years, Chattanooga Whiskey has embraced the industrial age of pushing boundaries and developing a historical and modern product for the Chattanooga community.
