45% ABV. Kings County's core Bourbon is frequently cited in lists of the best non-Kentucky Bourbons. The mash bill includes 80% New York organic corn (from the Finger Lakes) and English Golden Promise barley for a high-malt recipe that avoids the wheat or rye typically used in Kentucky Bourbon. This is a Bourbon made like a Scotch Whisky—Kings County double pot-distil for purer and more flavourful white spirit, which then ages in various new, charred oak barrels for four to six years. It’s rich and deep, full of sweet caramel, fresh vanilla and dark berry spice. The quality of the ingredients and artisan processes result in exceptional composition and complexity—a complete Whiskey soaked with pleasure.

45% ABV. Kings County's core Bourbon is frequently cited in lists of the best non-Kentucky Bourbons. The mash bill includes 80% New York organic corn (from the Finger Lakes) and English Golden Promise barley for a high-malt recipe that avoids the wheat or rye typically used in Kentucky Bourbon. This is a Bourbon made like a Scotch Whisky—Kings County double pot-distil for purer and more flavourful white spirit, which then ages in various new, charred oak barrels for four to six years. It’s rich and deep, full of sweet caramel, fresh vanilla and dark berry spice. The quality of the ingredients and artisan processes result in exceptional composition and complexity—a complete Whiskey soaked with pleasure.

45% ABV. Legend has it that this unique Bourbon resulted from a malt shortage at the distillery. Faced with a waning supply of malted barley, these talented distillers grabbed some peated malt to finish the batch. The spirit was sampled a year later, and the results were so delicious that KCD decided to make a thing of it.

To be clear, this is not a classic Bourbon finished in a peated cask; it’s a Whiskey that conforms to the requirements for Bourbon, made with a percentage of peated malt. The malt Kings County use for this Whiskey was grown and kilned in Scotland and now represents 25% of the mash bill, alongside 75% New York State organic corn. So, it’s a hybrid Whiskey of the two traditions, flavourful and robust from having aged at least two years in new barrels, with a lightly smoky finish reminiscent of a Scottish Single Malt. While it’s superb sipping on its own, it also makes a killer Old Fashioned or smoky Manhattan (with apologies to the Rye purists).

45% ABV. Legend has it that this unique Bourbon resulted from a malt shortage at the distillery. Faced with a waning supply of malted barley, these talented distillers grabbed some peated malt to finish the batch. The spirit was sampled a year later, and the results were so delicious that KCD decided to make a thing of it.

To be clear, this is not a classic Bourbon finished in a peated cask; it’s a Whiskey that conforms to the requirements for Bourbon, made with a percentage of peated malt. The malt Kings County use for this Whiskey was grown and kilned in Scotland and now represents 25% of the mash bill, alongside 75% New York State organic corn. So, it’s a hybrid Whiskey of the two traditions, flavourful and robust from having aged at least two years in new barrels, with a lightly smoky finish reminiscent of a Scottish Single Malt. While it’s superb sipping on its own, it also makes a killer Old Fashioned or smoky Manhattan (with apologies to the Rye purists).

Batch #1. As this innovative distillery has done previously with Moonshine and Bottled in Bond, it now asks Whiskey drinkers to reconsider another overlooked category of spirit-blended Bourbon. In the US, blended Whiskey is most often associated with crowd-pleasing Scotch or Canadian spirits. Here—to delicious effect—Kings County utilises quality organic ingredients, careful distilling, and creative blending to create an analogy to these reliable, if unexciting, spirits.

Composed entirely of in-house, pot-distilled straight Bourbon (two-thirds), with corn, rye and malt Whiskeys, and aged between two and four years, the blend makes for a bright, complex and approachable multi-occasion spirit for neat sipping or mixing. Founder Colin Spoleman describes this new label as a “superior, all-purpose spirit”, something a bit more versatile than the other Whiskeys in the line-up, specifically in that it can be used for mixing in cocktails. In the interest of providing the highest level of transparency, the distillery lists the contributing percentages of each spirit type, along with their respective age and barrel format on each bottle.

While blended Bourbon is most often stretched with neutral spirit, Kings County’s riff is more of a reflection of the art of what the blenders can do with the distillery’s full breadth of mature inventory. “This isn’t the kind of Blended Bourbon our parents might have drunk,” smiles distiller Colin Spoelman. Smoothness is joined by flavours of honey and caramel, citrus-tinged vanilla and satisfying rye spiciness. Clad in a new blue label—which differentiates the spirit from Kings County’s established Bourbon, Rye, and Single Malt Whiskeys—it’s a delicious and versatile Whiskey, and one that is set to reinvigorate the US blended category.

Very Limited. Back in 2015, six New York State distilleries banded together to create an association dedicated to establishing a Whiskey style exclusively for the Empire State. Today, their number counts to nine and it is constantly growing. US industry estimates suggest that as much as 70% of the rye Whiskey sold in America comes from one distiller, MGP, a maker of generic and unbranded Whiskey in Indiana.

Empire Rye then, is a “controlled category” that requires, among other things, that the Whiskey is made using a minimum of 75% New York State-grown rye, that it is distilled to no more than 160 proof and aged for a minimum of two years in new oak and that it is mashed, fermented, distilled, barrelled and aged at a single New York State distillery in a single distilling season.

Kings County’s small batch Empire Rye Whiskey is made from 80% New York-grown Danko rye and 20% Golden Promise English malt that is then aged for at least two years in charred oak barrels.

Pulled from a single distilling season, this is a complex rye, with glowing notes of cinnamon, nutmeg, maple, mint and cut grass with a finish of warm bread and holiday spice. Put simply, it’s a far more potent, pure and flavourful rye than the commercial norm.

Once a regular offering, the pressure today on the distillery’s older inventory has meant their Barrel Strength has become an allocated Whiskey (we have access to very little). Clocking in at 116-128 proof depending on the batch, this is pulled from older barrels than the flagship Bourbon, stocks that have been maturing anywhere between two and five-plus years. This latest release (Batch #14, bottled 2021) has a four-year age statement but contains components aged up to 6.5 years.

Smooth and bold, this is King County’s most flavourful and intense Whiskey: look out for burnt brown sugar, marzipan, caramel, vanilla wafer and black pepper, with an oak-forward palate featuring notes of wild cherry, clove and leather. Spoleman explains that at this level of proof, the qualities of pot versus column distillation really stand out. The narrow head cuts (72% in this case) strip out the early harsh compounds resulting in a much finer and palate-friendly dram.

Once a regular KC offering, the pressure today on the distillery’s older inventory has meant that this Barrel Strength has become an allocated Whiskey. The current allotment is a particularly small blend and includes barrels pulled from the oldest stock in the Kings County Bourbon inventory. At 65% ABV, it is also the distillery’s highest-ever proof Bourbon.

Composed of 66 barrels across three different cask sizes (but built primarily from one of King’s County’s last remaining lots of 10-gallon barrels), Batch #15 features a particularly concentrated range of many of the rich end flavours which have long been considered sin qua non to the house style.

A tightly connected nose and palate both exhibit brandied cherry, viscous maple, mahogany, brown sugar and toasted malt, while a finish of stewed plum and caramelized shortbread lingers with pleasant warmth.