Many distilleries start out by sourcing whiskey instead of actually making it, and there’s nothing wrong with that—this is a practice that has been around since the start of the American whiskey industry. The problem, at least in many consumers’ eyes, has been a lack of transparency. After all, people like to know where what they are eating or drinking actually comes from.
One distillery that has been open about sourcing whiskey from the start is Baltimore’s Sagamore Spirit , but the newest release is an exceptional rye whiskey that was 100 percent distilled in-house. Sagamore Spirit was founded by the former CEO and founder of Under Armour, Kevin Plank, along with some business partners over a decade ago in 2013. The distillery makes one thing: rye whiskey (well, along with a few one-offs like a rye-based amaro).
In this case, “makes” means it has been distilling whiskey onsite since 2017, but also contract distilling at MGP , the massive Indiana distillery known for making the whiskey that goes into other brands like Bulleit Rye and Brother’s Bond . Sagamore Spirit uses a blend of high and low-rye whiskeys for its core product: a “barely legal” rye with 52 percent rye grain in the mashbill, and the 95 percent rye/5 percent malted barley rye that MGP is most famous for, each aged for about four to six years. The new Small Batch Rye Whiskey is a blend of those same mashbills aged for the same amount of time, but this whiskey was 100 percent distilled in Balt.