High Noon With La Palina

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With La Palina now in stock at all Mission locations, and their $5.99 sticks already besting a number of cigars that typically cost between $10-$15, I thought it was time to sit down with the brand and learn more about what makes their product so fantastic.

Today at 12 noon PST, I’ll be on Instagram Live with the gang from La Palina to talk history, sourcing, construction, and everything in general about the brand.

Join us at the @missionliquor handle or check back tomorrow on the blog to see the repost.

-David Driscoll

Instagram Live Repost: Talking Bourbon with Michter's Master Distiller Dan McKee

Having America’s top master distillers on speed dial is indeed a luxury, especially when you need a quick explanation or a tidbit of information to help finalize product notes.

One thing I always tell people about Michter’s is that they fill at a lower proof, so when they bottle their Bourbon it requires less water. They add the water before it goes into wood, so even the H2O gets aged in oak. The result is a creamier, softer, richer whiskey. Watch the conversation with Dan McKee for more fun facts like that.

-David Driscoll

Instagram Live Repost: Talking Mezcal With Justin Briggs

I just reunited with my old co-worker Justin Briggs on Instagram Live to talk about the exciting new Cuishe Mezcales that have just hit the California market. Working with some of the biggest names in the business, like Berta Vasquez, Cuishe started as more of a mezcalería before transitioning into a full-fledged label.

Once you hear Justin talk about the capón and how removing it concentrates the sugar into a an agave piña (and that Cuishe has a mezcal made entirely from super ripe capón-ed agaves), I don’t see how you’ll be able to resist trying a bottle for yourself.

-David Driscoll

Double Instagram Live Tomorrow

Starting at 2 PM PST tomorrow, I’ll be live with my old colleague Justin Briggs from Skurnik to talk about Cuishe Mezcal and all the supercool new selections we’ve just brought into Mission. If you’re looking for a master class in agave spirits, Justin knows more about mezcal than just about anyone I’ve ever met.

At 3 PM, I’ll be back on with Michter’s to talk about all the new developments in Kentucky and what’s been happening at the distillery.

Lots of fun stuff to look forward to!

-David Driscoll

Instagram Live Repost: Talking Bourbon With Pinhook's Sean Josephs

When you share both common philosophies and passions about alcohol, what was supposed to be a twenty minute conversation can turn into an hour. That’s what happened yesterday with Pinhook’s Sean Josephs, when what started as a brief tutorial about the Old Taylor Distillery, aka Castle & Key, turned into a much longer discussion about single barrel whiskey, the future of the Bourbon market, and general overviews on what constitutes quality.

So much fun! Can’t wait to do it again.

-David Driscoll

The Rebirth of the Old Taylor Distillery

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Every whiskey fan knows about Col. E.H. Taylor at this point due to the uber-popular label produced by Buffalo Trace.

What many whiskey fans may not know is that Col. E.H. Taylor was not only a popular figure in the Kentucky whiskey industry, he also built his own distillery in the late 1800s that still stands today! Inspired by European architecture, Col. Taylor was a pioneer in whiskey tourism, constructing a fairy tale castle on the grounds, complete with a classical springhouse and sunken garden.

That being said, the distillery had been abandoned for decades when I first started traveling to Kentucky. Back then we would hop the fence and go rummaging through the old buildings, spelunking for remnants of Kentucky Bourbon history.

For example:

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Boxes of old records, bills of lading from the late 1960s! It was all just sitting there for anyone to take.

Around 2012, however, with the Bourbon boom heating up, a group of investors began looking into revamping the ancient distillery. Inspired by the history of the location and the current movements within the industry, they eventually purchased the site in 2014 and—not being able to use the Col. Taylor license owned by Buffalo Trace—renamed it Castle & Key.

After hiring Marianne Eaves from Brown-Forman to become Kentucky’s first-ever female master distiller, distillation began once again at the Old Taylor Distillery, both for Castle & Key’s proprietary labels and for contract purchasing. That’s where my friend Sean Josephs comes in.

Knowing he would eventually need to find a permanent home for his American whiskey label Pinhook, Sean and team reached out to Castle & Key about contracting futures of both Bourbon and rye whiskey. The plan was to eventually transition out of MGP distillate and move the entire line over to C&K.

Having started that transition roughly five years ago, Pinhook is now sitting on numerous barrels of 5+ year old, C&K-distilled, Kentucky Bourbon of a custom recipe, three of which just went into a “true” small batch edition that Sean and I put together a few months ago.

That private three-barrel small batch edition is not only the first ever Castle & Key whiskey we’ve seen here at Mission, it will also be dropping into stock very soon!

Join Sean Josephs and me this coming Monday at 3 PM on Instagram Live to find out more!

-David Driscoll

The Next Great American Whiskey

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Todd Leopold is seen as one of the forefathers of modern American craft distillation. Because of that reputation, a large number of spirits enthusiasts pay close attention to what he does.

“He makes gin, right? And that Maryland rye stuff? Oh, and fruit liqueurs. And absinthe.”

Yes, the co-owner and distiller of Leopold Bros distillery in Denver is a very capable person. He makes a small batch gin from individually-distilled botanicals that are eventually blended together like a fine whiskey; a litany of incredibly pure fruit liqueurs, made with local Colorado produce and fussed over like few cordials have ever been; and of course a few whiskies, too.

As a family, the Leopolds’ achievements actually reach far beyond the incredible portfolio of spirits they've produced over the last decade-plus. Todd’s father is a landscape architect who helped design one of the most pristine distillation campuses in the country. His mother is a textile expert who crafted the distillery's stunning interior piece by piece. Don’t forget his brother Scott—co-owner, of Leopold Bros—who was trained as an environmental engineer at Stanford and constructed one of the greenest, most eco-friendly distilleries in the country.

But for everything the Leopolds have accomplished over the last twenty years—including the brewery they opened back in Michigan—one thing is abundantly clear: few whiskey drinkers have yet to experience what Todd Leopold and his immensely talented family are truly capable of. The products that will ultimately come to define the Leopolds and their distillery, those what will put their stamp on America’s distillation history, have never been released. They're sitting in wood, racked in a dunnage style warehouse immediately next to the production facility.

They are magnificent spirits, steeped in flavor, tradition, and an incredible amount of historical accuracy, painstakingly researched with a level of sophistication usually reserved only for savants. Yet, thus far, the only people who have tasted them are friends, family members, and people like myself who have worked closely with Todd for years, texting at 10 PM on a Tuesday night, discussing old Cocteau Twins records while we gossip about the booze biz.

If you haven’t yet seen the above video, then stop reading right now and watch it. You’re about to find out about the next great American whiskey.

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Todd Leopold’s chamber still rye whiskey is without a doubt the most concentrated American rye whiskey I’ve ever tasted, but the still itself is the big secret that everyone's dying to know more about, from whiskey historians like David Wondrich and Mike Veach, to whiskey super nerds who obsess over production details and spec sheets. A girthy piece of equipment, it was once used in a number of American distilleries around the turn of the 20th century and into the mid-1900s. Few people, however, seem to understand exactly how or why it was used. 

Fortunately for whiskey fans, Todd is a dedicated researcher and reader of old documents. He spends his free time digging out the recorded minutes from forgotten community farmer meetings, or various malting essays written by brewers in the 1920s. Even Vendome, the heralded American still company that made the equipment for him, doesn't really understand how the chamber still works—and that's exactly how Todd likes it. It’s his baby, his reenactment, and he thinks it’s going to set Leopold Bros apart from the general market in a major way.

Working from a design he located in an old diagram of Hiram Walker's former plant in Peoria, Illinois back in 1910, Todd helped to create this three column monster that—despite its look—distills in batches rather than continuously. I don't want to give away too many of Todd's secrets, but let’s just say that there is mash loaded into each level and as the liquid vaporizes it passes through the mash as it moves up through the chamber. Think of gin vapor moving through a botanical basket, but instead its actual whiskey vapor moving the same flavorful whiskey mash from which it was originally boiled. 

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As amazing as Todd’s chamber still rye is, it’s not going to be cheap, clocking in around $250 per bottle for a 5+ year old bottled in bond whiskey. However, the amount of risk, time, money, energy, and care that went into making this whiskey, recreating a style not seen in America since before Prohibition, was not minuscule, and the initial production is limited to just 5,000+ bottles for the entire world.

Having tasted it at numerous stages over the last four years, I’ve watched its evolution and grown downright giddy about its release as we’ve inched closer to this date. First off, you’ve never smelled a whiskey like this before. As I’m typing this now, I’m sticking my nose into a half empty bottle and getting completely bowled over by potent waves of graham cracker, root beer, toasted oak, and cookie dough. Secondly, you’ve never tasted an American whiskey like this before: sweet cereal grains, an oily texture, booming flavors of sarsaparilla, ginger, baking spices, and plenty of vanilla.

Now the time is nigh. The first release of the next great American whiskey is upon us . The question I have to answer for myself right now is: how many cases will be enough?

-David Driscoll