From Field to Glass
The Estate Distilling Movement Hillrock Estate Distillery, the return of American estate whiskey, and why knowing where your grains com from may be the next big conversation in whiskey. There is a question whiskey drinkers rarely ask. We know who distilled our whiskey. We know the mash bill. We debate barrel char, warehouse location, proof, age statements and whether a bottle was finished in port, sherry or some obscure wine cask. Set among the rolling hills and working farmland of New York's Hudson Valley, near the small farming community of Ancram, Hillrock Estate Distillery does not immediately feel like the stereotypical American whiskey operation. The setting is pastoral rather than industrial: open fields, old farm buildings and a landscape that makes it clear agriculture came first. Those fields are not scenery for the tasting room. They are part of the distillery. The corn matters. The rye matters. The barley matters. And increasingly, the particular field and growing s...
