It feels like Christmas in July. Ben Holladay Bourbons are now available at Canterbury Liquors. Why they haven’t won best bourbon in the world is beyond me. But maybe it’s best we keep it our secret. Exceptional quality, absolutely delicious, affordable, do you need any more reasons to come and grab some bottles this weekend?
…at the American Distilling Institute’s Spirits competition, Silver shined on all three of my entries. While not gold, it’s not too shabby for my first rodeo.
Kings Code Batch 1 Riona
Boston Harbor Distillery Lawley’s Barrel Aged Gin “Je Ne Sais Quoi”.
Locke+Co Landmark Series Rye “Pikes Peak”.
I created three different categories of spirits. They all made an impression on the judges. To say I’m pleased with the results is an understatement. But I already knew that from the positive feedback from my loyal customers.
About 2 years ago, after purchasing over 100 single barrels of spirits for my store, Canterbury Liquors, I started to think that there must be a better way than just “stealing’ the top one percent of spirits from a distillery. Picking a great single barrel is like shooting fish in a barrel if you have a good palate and nose. In the process, I felt like I was robbing the distillery of the ability to make their core products better by taking away the “best” barrels.
So I started a personal mission to “Make whiskey better by blending”. Word got out that I was doing this and before long, it was no longer a hobby or a personal mission. Albeit part time, I have a handful of distilleries that I am working with to make their core whiskies better and to create special releases.
During a recent email exchange with John Glaser of Compass Box, the GOAT of whiskey blending, he asked if he could steal my line about making whiskey. He’s certainly been an inspiration for me in my blending endeavors.
One Last Word, pun intended, the gin projects I’m working on have their own line – “Making Gins with a Purpose”. Je Ne Sais Quoi is the first in the lineup. A barreled aged gin crafted to be in an Old Fashioned Cocktail in place of whiskey. If you still claim you don’t like gin but you like Old Fashioned cocktails, just come see me. I will break your “Gin Aversion Meter”.. I have been known to break “Peat Meters”. Just ask my crew.
Where to buy:
Kings Code Batch 1 is available in Canterbury Liquors, CT, RI, MA and at kingscountydistillery.com.
Boston Harbor Distillery Lawley’s Barrel Aged Gin “Je Ne Sais Quoi”. is available at Canterbury Liquors and at Boston Harbor Distillery
Locke+Co Landmark Series Rye “Pikes Peak”.is available in CO and at Canterbury Liquors this summer. Stay tuned.
#ADIISC @americandistilling @kingscountydistillery @lockecodistilling @bostonarbordisti @drinkwithfood
so I did and that’s what I got at the 2024 San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2024. Kings Code Batch 1 Riona snagged a Gold Medal in this year’s competition. If you haven’t met Riona (Gaelic for Queen), you should. Kings Code is a project in collaboration with Kings County Distillery in Brooklyn, NY. It started as a proof of concept project that Colin Spoelman, Laura Graham and I came up with to see if it would fly. Well, fly I did, to Europe, Cork, Ireland in particular to buy some exceptional whiskies to put in the blend. Then off I went to Lovingston, Virginia, to scoop up some of the best American Single Malts I could lay my palate on.
Back at the Blending Lab (aka spare bedroom), I tasted and drew some cryptic diagrams. I concocted this blend to grab your attention. From the start, she lures you in with the prettiest nose from the American Single Malt in an STR cask. She fills and arrests your palate with American Single Malts in ex-bourbon cask and Pedro Ximénez cask. Her finish is powered by Clonakilty Irish Whiskey finished in Chateau d’Yquem Sauternes cask. Delicate stone fruit, peach and nectarine, white flowers linger in the back. Despite the youth of the components, this blend shows balance, elegance and complexity.
Grab a bottle or two while they are still available. I made only 800 of them. You can buy them in fine whisky stores in CT, MA, RI and at Kings County Distillery. You can get a pour at the bars that know their whiskies.
In CT, The Store Bar & Grill in Torrington, The Engine room in Mystic, Vinted in West Hartford, Zinc in New Haven, Flinders in Stamford.
In RI, the Courtland Club and the GCB (Graduate Center Bar) at Brown University.
PS look for Kings Code Batch 2 A Touch of Bessie this June. She’s smoking hot and older than Riona.
Earlier in the year we procured a single cask of ex-bourbon and peated single malt from the Milk and Honey (M&H) Distillery called Bee in my Bonnet. I named it that because this is an absolutely delicious and powerful single malt whisky that we should all be talking about and sharing sips with, It is lightly peated, so it’s a great gateway whisky for those trying to learn about peated whisky. It’s not a phenolic peat so those of you who think peated whiskies smell like bandaids, you will appreciate this. In addition, being ex-bourbon casked brings loads of honeyed sweetness and vanilla as well as a good level of char from being aged near the Dead Sea. The massive diurnal temperature change in the area is akin to aging whiskies in Texas so we know this whisky is going to be flavorful despite its youth.
On October 12th, 2023, Thursday evening from 6 to 7 pm, stop in for a taste of our pick as well as the core range from the distillery and meet Tal Chotiner. the M&H VP of international sales with close to 25 years of experience in the world of whisky. Tal used to work for Diageo in Israel and was a Johnnie walker Brand ambassador for the Middle east and “single malt advocate” from Diageo. When Tal is in Israel his job is to interrupt Tomer’s (Head Distiller & Blender) work with crazy ideas and stupid questions… I’m sure he has cool stories for us.
Come and join us for a tasting of the M&H lineup of single malt whiskies (including our single barrel pick) and meet the M&H VP of international sales with close to 25 years of experience in the world of whisky. Tal Chotiner used to work for Diageo in Israel and was a Johnnie walker Brand ambassador for the Middle east and “single malt advocate” from Diageo. When Tal is in Israel his job is to interrupt Tomer’s (Head Distiller & Blender) work with crazy ideas and stupid questions…
Join us for a special whiskey event this Saturday. There will be 3 separate tasting events from 1 to 1:20 pm (Part 1), 1:30 to 1:50 pm (Part 2) and 2: to 2:20 pm (Part 3) . We will taste a bourbon, a rye, a single malt and an Irish whiskey for each event. There are only 50 spots available for each tasting. You can only sign up for one of the 3 tastings so everyone can get a chance to try some good whiskies. The whiskies to be tasted have not been determined yet but you can be sure they will be good. As part of attending this FREE event, you will receive a raffle ticket at the door which you want to hang on to for dear life for Project Interrupted 2 that will take place promptly at 2:30 pm and end at 3:30 pm. When your raffle ticket gets called, you will have a chance to select from over 100 bottles of rare and allocated whiskies. For that privilege, we ask that you donate $25 for each allocated bottle you purchase ( in case there are fewer people than bottles) and this donation will go directly to our local non-profit organizations ( volunteer fire department, school and library) as we have done in previous years.
QS04 The Rye’d Choice is a 6 year old Putnam Rye at 66 ABV from Boston Harbor Distillery is being released this Friday Aug 4th 2023. If you already know about my Putnam Rye picks, you know what to do. If you don’t, and you chase cask strength ryes of allocated status, then you might want to come see us. Also, to be perfectly evil, we are introducing you to another brown spirit category, barrel-aged gins.
QS03 Je Ne Sais Quoi is a gin we formulated a year and four months ago to become a great sipping gin and also to make an incredible gin Old Fashioned.
5 pm to 6:30 pm this Friday, Aug 4 meet the Founder, Rhonda Kallman and Head Distiller, John Stark, of Boston Harbor Distillery. They’ll be available to autograph your bottles and answer any whiskey questions you may have.
It’s a Tuesday evening and what could be more interesting and tasty than joining us for a meet and greet, and taste of some incredible single malt whiskies, including limited and yet to be released ones. Better yet, these do not break the bank and nobody is hunting for them yet because most people don’t even know they should be drinking these. Every whisky has a story and you’ll want to hear about this one from one of the founders of the Yorkshire Distillery.
David (Dave) Thompson, Managing Director and co-founder. Spirit of Yorkshire ltd
Farmers, brewers and distillers. 100% of our whisky is produced from “Field to Bottle”
Working with farmers helping them grow Malting Barley crops for beer and whisky production, followed by 20 plus years owning and operating 2 marketing businesses and for the last 7 years working with my friend making whisky.
Third-generation farmer, Tom Mellor and I have been friends for many years and had the pleasure of watching our families grow up together. In 2012 when Tom approached me with the idea of making Yorkshire’s first single malt whisky, I was blown away by the opportunity and couldn’t wait to get involved. You don’t get many chances to produce something completely unique and Yorkshire Whisky is one of them! In May 2016 we fired up the stills and laid down our first casks of what would become Yorkshire single malt whisky in the summer of 2016. It made absolute sense to use the area around us to name our first single malt whisky. To us, Filey Bay is more than just a brand, it’s home. The ever-changing coast shapes who we are and what we do. From the gannets at Bempton Cliffs to the barley growing in our fields, our entire process is within this stretch of land. Where we respect tradition but do things our own way.
The expertise of the whisky-making process was provided by the world-renowned whisky expert, the late Dr Jim Swan, who was our mentor from the start. We set up with two Forsyth pot stills and a four-plate rectifying column that works in tandem with our spirit still. The use of the column allows us to create two distinct styles of new make spirit creating greater options for flavour in maturation and in the whisky-making process. Combining respect and tradition with a progressive approach to distillation, the result is a pair of complex and distinctive new make spirits that mature beautifully in a range of cask maturation techniques.
Much of the unique character of our whisky comes from our field to bottle approach: all of the barley used in the distilling process is grown on the farm, making it one of the only genuine field to bottle whisky distilleries in the UK. Meanwhile, the chalk aquifers directly underneath the farm provide a consistent water supply that’s ideal for whisky distilling.
I met Jack Baker and he was very excited to show me what they have been waiting to release. It was 2 single barrels of their first ever American Single Malt that had come of age and they thought it was time to show off their craftmanship. I was very pleased with the quality of the whiskey, but I thought it was still a bit young even though the nose and flavors were spot on. I asked if they would let me blend the whisky for more balance and a longer finish. Fortunately, they said yes, and the rest is history.
Whiskey enthusiasts (especially if you’re Bonafide :)), here’s your chance to get your hands on a piece of Connecticut whiskey history. On Friday June 2nd, 2023, from 5 pm to 6:30 pm, we will be launching the first American Single Malt made by the first Connecticut Distillery, Litchfield Distillery and blended by yours truly at Whisky Mentors. Peter Baker will be present at Canterbury Liquors to autograph these inaugural bottles. If you can’t make Friday, then join me on Saturday June 3rd, 2023, from 1 pm to 3 pm at Litchfield Distillery to get a piece of the action.