This is dispiriting

That craft whiskey you’re planning to give to your boss for his birthday? Did you look at the label? Did you wonder how your local distillery that’s only been in business for eleven years managed to produce a fourteen year old Bourbon?

Read the promotional materials for the Rancho de Los Luceros Destilaría and you form an image of a supremely artisanal effort. The distillery creates “small batch heirloom spirits handcrafted in New Mexico.” Each batch of their rye whiskies, vodka, and gin is “individual and unique,” and “each bottle is hand bottled and hand marked with batch and bottle number.”

These are the standard selling points of the craft-distilling movement, with its locavore lingo, terroir talk, and handmade hype. But, in the new crowd of micro-distillers, it is now standard for the alcohol being sold to come not from their own distinctive stills, but from a hulking factory in Indiana.

I could distill it down for you, but you should read the whole dispiriting story by Eric Felton, Your ‘Craft’ Rye Whiskey Is Probably From a Factory Distillery in Indiana, at the Daily Beast.

Hat tip to Mike the Mad Biologist.

Comments

[Downpuppy]

The MS Walker distillery is definitely down by the tracks in East Somerville. When I pony up a full $9 for a liter of Ruble Vodka, there's no doubt I'm getting it fresh & local!