Two-Nineteen + New Riff in 2023

I’m very excited to announce that Two-Nineteen will be working with New Riff Distillery beginning in January of 2023, which means I’ll be heading to Cincinnati after the New Year. While New Riff is located in Newport, Kentucky, it’s just across the state line (the Ohio River) from downtown Cincinnati: an area I’m looking forward to exploring more.

Given the rise of MGP-distilled brands over the last decade, many Bourbon fans immediately check the back label of each bottle to see which state the whiskey was distilled in. For some drinkers, the difference between Kentucky Bourbon and Indiana Bourbon is massive. One is the classic name they know, reminiscent of all the romance they read about in the Bourbon marketing materials. The other reminds them of Hoosiers basketball and Larry Bird, not so much whiskey.

MGP distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana is the producer of countless contract brands over the last decade-plus. Yet, despite the seismic difference in the way people think about Kentucky and Indiana, MGP sits along the literal state line of not just Kentucky and Indiana, but also Ohio. It’s basically a Cincinnati suburb that happens to be in Indiana. It’s just fifteen miles west of the Cincinnati airport (which is actually in Kentucky).

The same goes for New Riff, my personal favorite distillery in Kentucky right now. I’m thrilled that New Riff gets plenty of love from the traditional Bourbon crowd because it’s a classic bottled-in-bond Bourbon, made in Kentucky, that sells delicious Kentucky Bourbon for a great price. But it’s just as much a part of Cincinnati as it is Kentucky due to the geography.

You might think of rolling green hills, lush forests, and the bucolic serenity of rural Kentucky when you think of Bourbon, but the God’s honest truth is that most of the Bourbon you like to drink is made in urban Louisville, jutted up against the edge of the northern border with Indiana. Brown-Forman and Heaven Hill’s distilleries are about two miles south of the state line, while Angel’s Envy, Rabbit Hole, and Peerless are less than a half mile from Indiana territory.

What all of these distilleries have in common is the Ohio River, which is what separates Indiana from Kentucky, and Kentucky from Ohio, yet unites these producers under one umbrella. Take away the government-issued distinctions, and we’re talking about meters of difference geographically.

But what about the limestone water that makes Kentucky Bourbon so distinctive, you ask? Depending on who you talk to, it would appear that some of the urban distilleries in Louisville proper rely on local municipal water for their production, rather than mineral-rich well water filtered through Kentucky’s natural limestone springs. New Riff, on the other hand (through sheer luck), happens to have highly-mineral, Kentucky limestone-filtered water from a well right under its parking lot, which runs off the final hillside you come over on the I-71, revealing the Cincinnati skyline as you descend down the freeway.

If you know the story of New Riff and its origins in retail, then you know that Ken Lewis built the Party Source just across the river from Cincinnati, on the Kentucky side of the border, because Ohio has state-controlled liquor. It’s located in Kentucky, but 90% of its clientele is coming from Cincinnati. While Ken no longer owns the Party Source, New Riff Distillery is located in its parking lot because Ken still owns that land. Fortuitously, that lot had access to the aforementioned limestone water source that goes into all of New Riff’s cooks and fermentations. New Riff’s Jay Erisman believes it’s a big reason why New Riff’s whiskies taste so good in their youth.

I’m often asked why made New Riff is my favorite distillery in Kentucky. It’s because they make Kentucky whiskey on a traditional multi-story column still just like all the big boys—none of that pot-column hybrid stuff—and they age their whiskies in an old fashioned rick house, no different from the classic distillers we know and love. It’s exciting to have new blood in the game that delivers on consumer expectations.

For those who may be confused, in no way is New Riff a craft producer, or micro-distillery making some whiskey alternative. They’re simply a smaller version of everything we already enjoy. Their whiskey is honest and distinctive. Their vision is humble and community-driven. Their production is time-tested. As their company motto states, it’s simply a new riff on an old tradition.

I’m very much looking forward to working with them in 2023.

-David Driscoll