Taster’s Choice

For some people, the metaphors on the back of a whiskey bottle — “notes of sherry,” “sweet wood aromas,” “hints of molasses,” “cherry undertones” — are simply marketing rhetoric. But a connoisseur can expound on the subtle differences in every shot, and when Kentucky’s New Riff distillery debuted its premier kosher line, a group of frum testers were on hand to prove it

ONa beautiful Thursday morning, our small group of hashkamah minyan members from Congregation Zichron Eliezer in Cincinnati, Ohio, filed into the tasting room of the New Riff distillery in Newport, Kentucky. The two oversized chandeliers overhead established a Brooklyn Hungarian ambience, but the five test tubes with brownish liquid in front of each seat gave off more of a science lab vibe. A decade after opening, the distillery was scheduled to bottle its first certified kosher run, and we were here to help make it happen.

Kentucky has been home to the bourbon industry since the late 1700s — hence the moniker “Bourbon Country” — and it’s fascinating to watch the process, which is still remarkably similar to the way it’s been done for hundreds of years. Corey, who was giving us the guided tour of New Riff’s facilities, led us through one of the distillery’s three rickhouses, the buildings in which this delicious bourbon is stored.

This five-story rickhouse — which is on the smaller side for a rickhouse — has no temperature controls, only windows, allowing the 14,000 barrels stored inside to age naturally. Some places are computerized and control temperature, humidity, and other factors, but New Riff is making bourbon old Kentucky-style. With each barrel outputting 200 bottles within just a few years, we’re talking 2.8 million bottles of bourbon. At an average of $50 a bottle, this nondescript concrete building is worth $140 million. (We were standing in a gold mine and couldn’t help wondering what their insurance policy costs.)

When we asked Corey if the barrels are moved around at all during the four-year aging process, he explained that the taste of each barrel varies based on its spot, and they don’t want to interfere with that process. (Other distilleries move barrels throughout the aging process to keep the taste of the final product uniform. It’s similar to your outdoor gas grill; even if all the knobs are turned to the highest setting, the back center and the front left never give the same sear, so you rotate your meat. Here at New Riff, there is no rotating.)