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.
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.
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