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Heaven Hill is full-line distilled spirits company but they were founded in 1935 as a whiskey distillery and American whiskey has always been the centerpiece of their portfolio. In addition to bourbon they make rye and corn whiskey, and are the only major distillery that makes wheat whiskey.

During American whiskey's darkest days -- roughly the two decades between 1970 and 1990 -- they were one of the few distilleries that continued to make rye whiskey. Their reward was to be well-positioned to capitalize when rye suddenly got hot a few years ago. This year WHISKY Magazine declared Rittenhouse Rye Bottled-in-Bond to be the best American whiskey, period, better even than all of the bourbons. This from a product that sold for about $12 a bottle a few years ago and is still less than $20.

Rittenhouse is Heaven Hill's brand and they have enjoyed its success except for one little thing. Ever since Heaven Hill's Bardstown Distillery was destroyed by fire in November, 1996, all of Heaven Hill's rye whiskey has been made at Brown-Forman. This was necessary because Heaven Hill's new distillery, Bernheim in Louisville which they bought from Diageo in 1999, didn't have enough capacity.

The news is that they have increased Bernheim's capacity by about 40 percent and nearly two years ago moved all of their rye production there. Okay, something that happened two years ago may not be news, but just remember that we won't actually have any of that whiskey in bottles for another two years.

They are now mashing rye one day a month, which is up from three or four days a year just a few years ago. Supplies are very tight right now but a batch of nearly 1,000 barrels will come of age in October, so it should be much easier to find after that.

Although they weren't making rye whiskey at Bernheim at first they were making wheated bourbon for Old Fitzgerald, which they acquired with the distillery. Wheated bourbon is still bourbon, i.e., mostly corn, but it contains wheat instead of rye as a flavor grain.

With all of that wheat around they also hit on the idea of making a straight wheat whiskey. Although everyone assumes people made wheat whiskey before Prohibition, there is no record of it, and although a few micro-distilleries have made wheat whiskey, Heaven Hill is the only major producer that makes it. (A wheat whiskey mash must be at least 51% wheat.)

Heaven Hill started to make wheat whiskey shortly after they bought Bernheim and started to sell it in 2005 under the name Bernheim Original, with a suggested retail price (SRP) of $39.99. The label doesn't state an age but Heaven Hill says it is five years in wood.

Now in its fifth year on the market, Bernheim Original has grown slowly. Each year they have made a little more. At the beginning of this year they decided to start driving more volume by cutting the SRP to $29.99. They also added a brand ambassador, Rob Hutchins, who is responsible for Heaven Hill's premium American whiskey portfolio, including Rittenhouse Rye and Bernheim Wheat.

I like both of these products very much. Even though the price has gone up, Rittenhouse Rye is still a great value and $30 is the right price for Bernheim Wheat, so while maybe this news is not exactly timely, it is undeniably good.

Matt Carr's Chilla Champagne Cooler for Umbra's U+ collection

Impressions of the Tales of the Cocktail 2010 spiked with rum and gunpowder over at A Mountain of Crushed ice.

Reynolds and Reyner designed 23 luxury sets for Colier's sparkling wine.

Tom Lix, an entrepreneur, says he found a way to do it, and he received a permit from the feds and got a grant from a local community college innovation fund to conduct his research. Here’s an excerpt from the article, which ran in a Cleveland, Ohio, publication:

Last month, Lix gained a federal permit to operate an experimental distilled spirits plant. And he has a sponsorship with the American Distilling Institute, a 1,200-member trade group for craft distillers.

Bill Owens, president of the institute, said he was impressed with a scientific paper Lix submitted to the group.

Owens directed Lix to a bourbon distillery in Kentucky that supplied Lix with a batch of “white dog.” That’s the highly potent spirit distillers age for years in charred oak barrels to make bourbon whiskey.

Lix started in his home, refining a process that uses heating, cooling and pressure to greatly reduce the maturing time for whiskey. Essentially, a six-year whiskey can age in six months, Lix claims.

Owens said Lix is placing charred wood in the spirits to impart the color and vanilla tastes that come from barrel storage.

Read the entire story here.

What do you think? Is he legitimate?

And do you think it’s good for the craft distilling movement, or will this kind of experimentation tarnish this young industry’s reputation?

Sleeves! Sleeves! Sleeves! Everything in sleeves! Moet-Hennessy found the hot new look of the season by putting sleeves on all their products. Perhaps they were inspired by the champagnes they put in sleeves a few seasons ago, like this attractive ice jacket for Veuve-Clicquot. Sassy! Then they did the same thing with flasks of Hennessy V.S. just this year. So fresh! SO funky! Thinking ahead for fall, they knew it would get chilly, and said, "SLEEVES FOR EVERYONE. EVERYONE GETS...

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Hooray! Fishing comes to the world of wine and spirits. I got this email the other day. It's obvious fishing/wire fund/money order spam to me, but might not be if you happen to sell wine in Texas. Be on the lookout, and God Bless America Gerrard Silver reply-to salest9@gmail.com to salest9@gmail.com date Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 9:06 PM subject Thailand Wine Inquiry !!!! hide details 9:06 PM (13 hours ago) Hello, My name is Gerrard Silver , an...

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I’ve been wanting to tell you about two new websites on whisky worth checking out.

The first one, www.canadianwhisky.org, is being run by knowledgeable whisky enthusiast, Davin de Kergommeaux. The site currently reviews Canadian whisky and conducts interviews about Canadian whisky.

To quote Davin: “The site is intended to take an in-depth look at Canadian whisky, starting with some reviews, and soon to include news, technical information and so on.”

It’s still new and just building content. But, if you like Canadian whisky, you should keep an eye on it.

The second site, www.americancraftspirits.com, takes a look at the exploding craft distilling scene here in the U.S. It includes reviews, interviews, and distillery profiles (including a list of products each distiller makes).

As I discover other new sites, I’ll pass them on to you.

To-Drink List: 4 exciting new spirits sampled at Tales of the Cocktail last week.

This has to be a first, me recommending an Issue Analysis from the Freedom Works Foundation (Dick Armey's outfit), but this paper about HR 5034 is right on.

The title's a dud but the paper is good.

"No Wine Shall Be Served Before Its Time—At Least Not Without Wholesalers Taking a Cut."

He flubbed the old Paul Masson slogan. It was, "we shall sell no wine before its time," but his fact-checking otherwise is solid .

It is a libertarian argument and one that I endorse. The way alcohol is regulated in this country is a good example of government using its power to protect the private profits of favored clients. If passed, HR 5034 will only make it worse.

Hurom Slow Juicer ~ i'm impressed ~ the combination of screens and maceration create the driest pulp i've seen, and the least frothy juice! Perfect for super fresh cocktails!

House made cranberry liqueur is the star in Bittercube's Wiscosmo, a modern version of the Cosmo with a Midwestern spin.

Hand-crafted Grenadine: add this sweet pomegranate syrup to your sideboard’s lineup of house-made ingredients and begin your cocktail experimentation.

This week’s Liqurious roundup is an interesting mix of bright and summery with dark and cool.

Planning to visit Tales of the Cocktail next year? Here´s some of what you can do in New Orleans.

Chopin Vodka custom-designed bottle chiller by c/c ~ are silicon accessories the new alcohol trend?

I was at an event last night, pitching bourbon woo. Also there was my friend Meg Bell from Koval Distillery. They make unaged grain spirits -- white whiskey -- although Koval doesn't use that term.

This wasn't exactly a straight whiskey crowd, yet people seemed to know the term "white whiskey" and what it meant. How is that possible? People barely know what whiskey is but they already know what white whiskey is?

(I was already thinking about white whiskey yesterday because of Kevin Erskine's post about Death's Door.)

I guess it's the Tyranny Of The New. White whiskey isn't even new, it's just a new name for something that has been around forever, something people stopped drinking more than a century ago when better tasting distilled spirits became cheap and widely available.

White whiskey and its micro-distillery kin, very young whiskey, are not so new that they haven't already generated some pushback, as Steve Ury demonstrates here.

Duncan Taylor NC2 (distilled at Glen Scotia), 1981 vintage, 18 year old, 46%, $114
Glen Scotia has always been the bridesmaid to Springbank. This is justifiable, considering that both production and availability of quality bottlings have been sporadic over the past decade or so. I like this one. It really shows the simple, coastal pleasantness of this Campbeltown distillery. Ripe  malty notes are accompanied by brine, cut hay, banana cream pie and honeyed vanilla. Lingering salty, malty finish. With all the sherried and wine-finished Springbanks recently on the market (not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with it), here’s a nice, no-frills, Campbeltown whisky.

Advanced Malt Advocate magazine rating: 87

On July 21, 2010 I gave a talk at Tales of the Cocktail on How to be Interviewed for Print, Radio, and Television. I covered the print part and Jennifer English (no relation) covered radio and TV. The description of the seminar is here. Several people asked that I share the slides from the talk, so I've added them to Scribd website. The slides are viewable here. And if you happen to be in the conference planning business, please note...

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Crazy bottle of Budweiser found in NYC by The Worlds Best Ever