I’m a writer and distiller. Not an especially common combination.
If you’re new here, and we all are, I’m Colin, the co-founder and distiller at Kings County Distillery in Brooklyn. We’re a lot of things: a brand, a distillery, a small business, a factory, a whiskey, a neighborhood bar, a community, an argument for a way of doing things, an ambition to make great whiskey, and 15 years of history building each of these things.
I’m also an author, first of a whiskey DIY manual the Guide to Urban Moonshining in 2013, a morbid history of whiskey makers (notorious and overlooked) called Dead Distillers in 2015, and a more recent survey of American whiskey at the height of the boom in 2023, The Bourbon Drinker’s Companion.
Julian Van Winkle’s Grave in Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, KY
There are plenty of sources for whiskey commentary, but this one is from a decidedly specific perspective. That of a small, independent distiller. I’m not a professional taster, not a journalist, not an influencer. My opinions are my own and are very much colored by where we are in Brooklyn, the challenges of being a small player in an industry that favors global enterprise, and someone who believes that whiskey can not just be better than it has been (at least in America), but can be a lens through which to challenge modern culture. It sounds ambitious, but I’ll let you be the judge. So consider this place to expand on the whiskeys that we make. The who and the where and the why, especially.
As Winston Churchill was fond of saying, “the road to hell is paved with abandoned Substacks.” I misquote Churchill because whiskey writing should be a little fun, delivered with a cold stare, and with a nod to history. I hope to live up to the promise of this post (and honor Mr. Churchill’s memory, pickled as it is with whiskey). One of the great other writer distillers of modern times was none other than Julian Van Winkle the First, more affectionately known as Pappy. His medium was advertising copy, and he was a maestro of the form.
Julian Van Winkle ran Stitzel Weller, one of the last independent, family-owned distilleries in Kentucky.
“Reflect a bit and you will see that our horse-and-buggy methods make good business sense. As a family distillery with limited production, our facilities for winning customers are also limited. Through sheer quality, OLD FITZGERALD must earn their continued loyalty, or we close our still.
Through my 63 active years, I have found no surer way to stay happily ‘married’ to customers than by sticking to our one and only model.”
Pappy Van Winkle
Pappy’s columns were text-based prose when images were dominating alcohol marketing. They were already a throwback, and I’m hoping this column too might be a throwback, a way to talk about whiskey and culture in a more in-depth, apolitical, honest way that aims to treat the reader and the consumer with respect and gratitude. After all, we are small too, and word of mouth and a good product are all we have to work with.
There’s a lot going on in whiskey, and I’ve often wanted a space to expand on what we say in our newsletter. So let’s see where we go?
