Craft spirits news from in and around Pennsylvania
Sharpsburg’s 4Four6 Distillery releases its first aged rum today. The distillery took its spiced white rum and aged it in a new American Oak barrel for four months. The rum mellowed during its time in the barrel and picked up a bit of color. 750 ml bottles are on sale for $35 each.
4Four6 now offers three rums, four gins and cocktails to go. The distillery’s first whiskey release has come and gone, but be on the lookout for more releases throughout 2021.
Kingfly Spirits out of Pittsburgh has just released a special rum for the holidays, Morphos Amber Rum. Originally from Trinidad (the country, not a small town somewhere in Pennsylvania), the rum was aged for 12 years in used bourbon barrels. It’s described as having a “warm aroma of dates, caramel apple, coffee and vanilla…. Brilliantly copper in color, Morphos delivers balanced tasting notes of dark chocolate, cinnamon and mocha with a velvety finish.”
750 ml bottles are $42 each and are available at the distillery or online for shipping across Pennsylvania. The Strip District distillery also offers something they call “cocktail catering” where their bartenders batch up fresh cocktails starting at $32 for four cocktails.
Black Friday marks the seventh anniversary at Pittsburgh’s Maggie’s Farm Rum and the distillery is celebrating with FIVE different releases.
And it isn’t just rum being released this year. Maggie’s Farm is releasing two eau de vie-style brandies (pear and blueberry), two rums (single-barrel and vanilla flavored), plus the seasonal favorite, Peppermint Coffee Liqueur.
The brandies are both fermented from recent farm pressings and crafted to retain as much fruit flavor and aroma as possible. 375 ml bottles of the pear brandy and blueberry brandy are available for curbside pickup or shipping across Pennsylvania.
Continue reading “Maggie’s Farm Celebrates Seven Years with Five New Releases”
This weekend, Pittsburgh’s Wigle Whiskey is rolling out not one, but two brandies. Look for apple and peach brandy at all of Wigle’s locations, plus get it shipped to any county in the Commonwealth.
The Apple Brandy qualifies for the VSOP designation, “Very Superior Old Pale” as it has been aged for four or more years. Wigle’s Apple Brandy is made exclusively from locally-harvested apples and has been aging in 53-gallon American Oak casks. The age brings the oak and vanilla notes forward, but there are floral and sweet notes from the apples as well.
375 ml bottles of the 80 proof Apple Brandy retail for $37. Order it now for pickup or delivery.
For just about any other distillery, one brandy release a year is about all you could expect, but Wigle drops two on the same day.
Described as “peach cobbler in a glass,” Wigle’s Peach Brandy is the result of hand-pitting more than 2,500 local peaches from Andrews Fruit Farm in Adams County. After fermenting with wine yeast, the result is distilled and then aged in a recently emptied bourbon barrel where it remained for two years.
This very limited release is $65 for a 375 ml bottle. Purchase is available for pickup or delivery.
Brandy is great on its own or as part of a classic cocktail.
Wigle Whiskey is releasing two six-year aged whiskeys. Wigle in the Woods was distilled with local heirloom wheat and has been aging for six years in a full-size cask. The one-off whiskey is described as having tasting notes that include, “warming notes of vanilla, cherry, and freshly baked bread compliment chilly moments spent outside.”
This weekend, a purchase of a Wigle in the Woods can be combined with a venison dinner for two for $90. 750 ml of bottles of Wigle in the Woods are $49 and available at Wigle locations.
If you thought that would be enough for one weekend in early November, you haven’t been following this website for very long. Wigle Whiskey is also releasing a six-year aged Single Barrel American Whiskey. Described as having a “unique sweetness that conveys notes of caramel apples, pecans, cinnamon, vanilla, cardamom with undertones of earl grey tea.”
The 94 proof, 750 ml bottles are available for pickup or shipping in Pennsylvania for $65 each.
We raised an eyebrow when Wigle Whiskey announced the recent release of their bottled Old Fashioned was to be the last batch of the bottled cocktail for the year. That makes a bit more sense now that Wigle has released a Bottled Manhattan. The Manhattan begins with Wigle’s Organic Straight Rye Whiskey, adding Wigle Amaro Vermut and Wigle’s Pomander orange bitters to the recipe.
Bottles ae available at all Wigle locations including the recently opened Bakery Square location. And this weekend you can pair your bottle with a drive-through dinner for two of brown butter gnocchi. The $45 bottle is also available to be shipped across the Commonwealth.
Continue reading “Wigle Adds Bottled Manhattan To Lineup”
Strip District Neighbors is working with Wigle Whiskey, Maggie’s Farm Rum and Cinderlands Beer Co. to produce a series of Strip District Reserve whiskey, rum and beer. A portion of all proceeds from the products will go to the district’s programs supporting the neighborhood’s small businesses.
Wigle Whiskey is releasing just 500 bottles (two barrels) of its five-year reserve whiskey as its Strip District Reserve Whiskey. Like many of Wigle’s limited releases, this bottle features a label designed by a local artist, in this case it is Sarah Zeffiro capturing the energy and businesses of the Strip District. The five-and-a-half year aged whiskey is described as featuring malt, tobacco and baking spices. Order the 750 ml bottles of the 80 proof whiskey for delivery across Pennsylvania, pick up at the distillery or at Wigle’s Ross Park Mall location.
Maggie’s Strip Reserve Rum will be released on Saturday, October 24th. The rum is their standard 50/50 Dark Rum (half white rum, half aged Central American blend) aged for two years versus the normal six months of aging.
Maggie’s Farm Strip Reserve Rum will be $45 for a 750 ml bottle, and available at the Strip District distillery as well as available for shipping across Pennsylvania.
One of the silver linings of the pandemic has certainly been seeing distilleries getting creative by offering packaged cocktails to go and for delivery. And has the months have stretched on the packaging has gotten significantly more attractive. Wigle Whiskey has had the packaging down from the get-go with their bottled Old-Fashioned Bourbon Cocktail.
So we’ve got good news and bad news. The good: The bottled Old-Fashioned will be back in stock on Friday, October 9th at the Pittsburgh distillery. The bad: it’s the last batch for the year. So if you’re considering the gift of easy cocktails this holiday season, now is the time to get your credit card out.
The bottled Old Fashioned is made with Wigle’s Organic Straight Pennsylvania Bourbon, Wigle’s own orange bitters and sweetened with cane sugar. You just have to pour it over a large ice cube and garnish with an orange peel.
Pre-order today for pickup or delivery across Pennsylvania. 750 ml bottles are available for $39.
Wigle Whiskey and its affiliated Threadbare Cider are opening a holiday pop-up location in Bakery Square.
The pop-up is located between Anthropologie and Free People stores in the Pittsburgh lifestyle center that also features Google’s Pittsburgh offices. The shop will offer bottle sales of both Wigle spirits and Threadbare ciders.
The grand opening celebration is set for Friday, October 2nd from 10 am to 6 pm with two dollar discounts on Wigle’s Cinnamon Whiskey and Threadbare’s Sweet Peach Cider.
The pop-up will be open Thursday through Saturday, from 10 am to 6 pm.
Maggie’s Farm Rum and Liberty Pole Spirits have come together to do a barrel trade. Liberty Pole gave Maggie’s Farm a freshly dumped bourbon cask and Maggie’s sent Liberty Pole a used dark rum cask.
Maggie’s Farm took their normal “50/50” dark rum and finished aging it in that bourbon barrel. Maggie’s Farm founder Tim Russell says, “we’ve done bourbon barrel finishes with this rum before, but we really took our time with this one and even did some additional blending. I’m definitely proud of this one now, but I think I’ll still be proud of it a few years from now (which you know is rare if you know me).”
Continue reading “UPDATED: Barrel Swap Leads To Two New Spirits”