"Tuthilltown Spirits" news and stories

My friend Tony Conigliaro is a pretty neat guy. Besides sporting a unibrow AND a bow tie with an air of a nutty professor, he fascinates me with his love for the science of cocktails. His intrigue has led him to be declared one of the molecular mixology masters. His London bar that has no name but is referred to by its address -- 69 Colebrooke Row -- and has the cocktail kingdom buzzing with one of his latest creations: aged cocktails.

Inspired by an old bottle of the fortified wine aperitif called Dubonnet that Tony says had aged to a point where it was "exquisite, complex beyond words," he decided to try aging some cocktails in bottles. He experimented with 20 different cocktails, but none impressed him after six months. While cleaning out the basement over a year later, he rediscovered his experiments. The aged Manhattan was "astonishing," so he offered it to his bar patrons.

Bartender and blogger Jeffrey Morgenthaler visited Tony's bar and came back to his Oregon bar base of Clyde Common and decided to give the aging cocktail notion a totally American touch by aging drinks in used barrels. He first started with an oak cask that had previously held Madeira wine. After five to six weeks, he shared his aged rye Manhattan and sold it all within a few days.

Tuthilltown Spirits Old Gristmill Authentic American Corn Whiskey is 40% abv. / 80 proof and is an un-aged, clear, corn whiskey made from 100% Hudson Valley Grown New York State Corn.

Tuthilltown Spirits make a great line of premium spirits including whiskeys of several types, rum, and apple based vodkas. I've tried most of them at various events around the country, but this is the first bottle that ever made it home, and it was a close call this time as well. As you can see, the clear spirit is almost gone. This was from less than five minutes at a party I went to, where I mistakenly took the bottle out of my bag to show to my friend and fellow blogger, Joe Distefano. He grabbed the bottle and put it to his lips and took a sip, then way too loudly pronounced it excellent. Before I could get the bottle back in my grasp it had made a quick round of those in our vicinity, and the level had decreased precipitously by 3/4's. To make up for my loss I had a bit as well, and then greedily stashed it back in my bag out of sight. When I got home it accidentally ended up in my spirits storage area and lay forgotten until I ran across it last night. So I poured a nice glass on the rocks, which reminded me how much I like this spirit. Not just as a fan of fine distillates, but as a distiller as well.

I've visited Tuthilltown Spirits in Gardiner, NY and seen them make their spirits. They grind the corn (and other grains depending upon the product), add the clean, sweet, and pure filtered water from their well, heat it up to make a mash, add the yeast, and ferment it. Then they take the alcoholic mash and distill it several times to produce their wonderful whiskies.