New Riff Winter Whiskey

‘Tis the season to try something different.

Ken Lewis has been selling Spirits for more than thirty years. He owned and ran one of the most successful retail stores in the country — The Party Source in Bellevue, Kentucky. He sold the company to his employees in 2014 and used the funds to launch New Riff Distillery with co-founder Jay Erisman in Newport that same year — just across the river from Cincinnati, Ohio. As head distiller Brian Sprance was distilling Spirits and laying down casks for aging, they sourced Spirits from MGP in Indiana and sold them under the O.K.I. band (now retired). They are now releasing their own complete line of house-crafted Spirits and are an official stop on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

New Riff Winter Whiskey is a unique Bourbon. It brings a special combo of spicy raw and malted oats with roasted cocoa and chocolate malt notes as supporting acts. Not unlike the warmth and cheer of the winter season, eh. It’s unlike anything you’ve tried so far from New Riff. Bottled in bond without any chill filtration, the mash bill is complex with 65% corn, 20% malted oats, 7% pale ale malt, 5% steel raw cut oats, and 3% chocolate malt. Aged for 4 years, this lovely bottling brings a delicate dryness with a sweeter inner core and dry cocoa bursting together with oak and spice.