While I originally made my name sourcing unique barrels of single malt whisky from Scotland, purchased from independent bottlers with vast warehouses, I’ve long stopped believing there’s much left across the Atlantic to discover. The supply chain has been co-opted, the distilleries have long been bought out, and the prices no longer offer much in the way of value. Labels that once offered intrigue and variety are often now just leftovers that no one wanted to purchase.
That development was already well underway back at the beginning of 2019, when I found myself on a barstool at Petit Trois in Sherman Oaks, sitting next to Adam Polonski and Nora Ganley-Roper, drinking cocktails, and lamenting the devolution of the Scottish independent cask trade.
“What if someone were to create an American independent bottler?” Adam asked me, as we sipped; “There’s a considerable amount of solid whiskey coming from the United States at this point. Someone just needs to shine a light on it.”
Or a lantern in this case.
That’s when Adam told me he had quit his job at the Whiskey Advocate (and Nora hers at Astor Wine & Spirits). They had taken a leap of faith, jumped in their car, and travelled all over the United States, visiting numerous distilleries and tasting single barrels of whiskey along the way. They were in the middle of a huge road trip and were soon heading out to Utah to meet with another producer.
The plan was to create a proper American independent label, one that would bottle single barrels from various distillers, but also blend numerous whiskies into new expressions. Two years later, that vision has become a reality and the whiskies have been put into bottle. Lost Lantern has arrived at Mission, flush with eight different single barrel releases, along side a fabulous vatted malt featuring six different American single malts in the blend.
We’ll have more details about each whiskey as the week unfolds, but join us this afternoon on Instagram to hear Matt and Nora tell their story firsthand! At 4 PM PST over at the @missionliquor account, we’ll be drinking Lost Lantern and learning more about America’s new independent bottler devoted entirely to American whiskey.
-David Driscoll
