EZdrinking

Spirit Reviews, Tasting Events and Consulting

Searching for the world's best drinks and what makes them extraordinary. EZdrinking is a drinks blog by Eric Zandona that focuses on distilled spirits, wine, craft beer and specialty coffee. Here you can find reviews of drinks, drink books, articles about current & historical trends, as well as how to make liqueurs, bitters, and other spirit based drinks at home.

Filtering by Tag: Distillery of the Year

Most Underrated Wheated Bourbon

Bottle purchased at retail by EZdrinking.

AT A GLANCE

  • Spirit: Florida Straight Bourbon Whiskey

  • Owned, Distilled and Bottled by: St. Augustine Distillery, St. Augustine, FL

  • Spirit Type: Bourbon

  • Mash Bill: 60% Florida Corn, 22% Malted Barley, 18% Florida Wheat

  • Still Type: Pot Still

  • Aged: Aged 3 Years

  • Strength: 44% ABV

  • Price: $50

This summer I got to visit St. Augustine Distillery, right before they were name the 2024 Distillery of the Year by the American Distilling Institute. Philip McDaniel and Mike Diaz opened the distillery in 2014 and released Florida’s first bourbon in 2016. McDaniel and Diaz solicited the help of Master Distiller Dave Pickerell who helped them develop their wheated mash bill using local grains and a maturation plan for how to age their bourbon in the hot and humid Florida climate.

Over the last eight years, the age statement on their bourbon has only crept up from two to three years. And while many whiskey fans have been conditioned to only think older is better, St. Augustine’s Florida Straight Bourbon is a good example of how hotter climates can, in the right hands, produce a more mature tasting whiskey in less time. With over 175,000 annual visitors, I believe the results speak for themselves. Their Florida Straight Bourbon is perfectly crafted for their unique location and they are making what I believe to be the most underrated wheated bourbon in the country.

Tasting Notes

Nose: The bourbon opens with an inviting aroma of vanilla caramel and a touch of green apple. Underneath that are warm smells of baked bread and toasted wood with just a hint of sweet cherries and cloves.

Palate: At first sip the whiskey has a slight bight of cinnamon that then softens on the tongue. There is a pronounced grain and oak character followed by notes tobacco, vanilla, and a hint of candied orange peel.

Finish: The finish has a light sweetness with lingering notes of oak, tobacco and leather.

Conclusion: Yes St. Augustine's Florida Straight Bourbon is a touch young but the whiskey is a testament to the skill and ingenuity of the team to craft a very good wheated bourbon in their hot and humid environment. For those who like their bourbons a little lighter and with less oak, this is a good fit. I have enjoyed drinking this neat, on the rocks, with water and in an Old Fashioned. I have also observed that having a pour half way through the bottle is a more enjoyable experience than when you first crack it open, which tells me that a little aeration won’t hurt. If you are a fan of Maker's Mark and have been looking for something new to scratch that wheated bourbon itch, I cannot recommend this more. I am also confident that as they are able to gradually push the age of their whiskey some of the young grain quality will fall away and you will see that St. Augustine's is making one of the most underrated wheated bourbons outside of Kentucky.

Kings County Distillery: ADI's 2016 Distillery of the Year

Image by Gail Sands

Colin Spoelman grew up the son of a Presbyterian minister in Harlan County, one of Kentucky’s 39 dry counties. Despite growing up in a town with no liquor stores or bars, Spoelman, as recounted in the prologue of his book The Kings County Distillery Guide to Urban Moonshining: How to Make and Drink Whiskey (Harry N. Abrams, 2013), he and his friends obtained liquor from either a local bootlegger or a woman who sold booze out of her home with seeming impunity. While living in New York in 2005, Spoelman began to ponder the idea of making and selling distilled spirits. After a couple of years of experimenting, Spoelman and David Haskell founded the Kings County Distillery, and in April 2010 they began making whiskey out of the old Brooklyn Navy Yard.

In six short years, Spoelman and Haskell have grown the reach of Kings County Distillery both in terms of distribution and influence within the industry. Today, their spirits can be found in seven U.S. states and five countries. Originally working with five 25-gallon stills, Spoelman and Haskell produced a corn whiskey “moonshine,” and laid down a portion into new small barrels for bourbon. Their award-winning spirits were received by an enthusiastic public and, in part because of favorable New York State laws for small distilleries, Kings County Distillery began to grow. In 2013, Kings County Distillery upgraded to two larger Scottish-made whiskey stills and open wood fermenters. Spoelman explained that by using corn grown in New York, open top fermenters and an aging room without temperature controls, they were attempting to create whiskey that embodies the character and terroir of New York and would be purposely different from the bourbon coming out of Kentucky. And, as their production for aged spirits has grown, they have also gradually increased the size of the barrels they are using.

In 2014, Kings County Distillery earned a Gold Medal: Excellence in Packaging award from ADI. To date, all of Kings County Distillery’s spirits have been bottled in a glass hip-flask bottle with a simple metal screw-top and a slim paper band as a label. This simple package has helped their product stand out on liquor store shelves and served as a testimony to both Spoelman’s upbringing in Kentucky and the distillery’s humble beginnings. This otherwise generic bottle, closure and label have become immediately recognizable and synonymous with Kings County Distillery without any of the irony or kitsch of the mason jar used by a number of small distilleries. Spoelman and Haskell have continued to use this simple packaging because the contents have come to speak for themselves.

Kings County Distillery Barrel Room. Photo by  Valery Rizzo

One of the reasons for the success of Kings County Distillery’s spirits is the talent they have been able to attract to their mission. Blender Nicole Austin oversees their barrel program and ensures that each new batch of whiskey they bottle is the best expression of what they make. Andrew Lohfeld, a former distiller at Kings County Distillery, believed an oat whiskey had potential and convinced Spoelman that they should try it as an experiment. As it turned out, Lohfeld was right and their Oat Whiskey earned a Gold Medal and Best of Category: Alt Whiskey at ADI’s 2016 Judging of Craft Spirits. Because of their collective efforts, Kings County Distillery has earned more than a dozen awards for their spirits. And despite their success—even in the face of their success—the team at Kings County Distillery have not been overly jealous of other people’s success or opportunities. With the blessing of Spoelman and Haskell, Lohfeld has gone on to leverage his experience and intuition as a distiller and co-founder of a new rum distillery in New Orleans.

Bill Owens, President of ADI, presents the 2016 Distillery of the Year award to Colin Spoelman of Kings County Distillery. Photo by Carl Murray.

This year ADI recognized Kings County Distillery with its Bubble Cap Award as the 2016 Distillery of the Year. Kings County Distillery joins a small group of distilleries that represent the highest standards in the craft spirits industry in terms of the quality of their spirits, their camaraderie in the industry, and their work as ambassadors to consumers for both their own company and the industry at large. ADI is proud to champion the ethic and commitment to quality embodied by Kings County Distillery, and looks forward to their continued growth and success.

Originally published in Distiller Magazine Summer 2016