When Alex Clark started Fort Hamilton Distillery in 2016, he was among just a handful of craft producers making spirits in New York City for the first time since Prohibition.
Today, the number of Big Apple distilleries has increased—and the quality of what they’re making has improved, too. The spirit you’re most likely to see? Whiskey.
“New York’s distilling scene was one of the first to flourish, because the government paved the way for it in the 2000s,” Clark explains. In 2007, New York State’s Farm Distillery Act made it much easier to establish a distillery and sell directly to consumers at on-site tasting rooms. As a result, some distilleries have been around for more than a decade, giving distillers time to hone their craft and aged spirits, like whiskey, ample time to mature. Kings County Distillery, for example, opened in 2010; New York Distilling Company in 2011; and Van Brunt Stillhouse in 2012.
“I guarantee, you can find whiskey in New York as good as any place in America—and that includes Kentucky,” Clark says. “That wasn’t true 10 years ago.”
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The distilleries listed below offer bar spaces, where visitors can relax and enjoy a straight pour or a cocktail, and bottle shops, some with distillery exclusives. Further, most focus on products made with ingredients grown in New York State, a requirement for those with farm distillery licenses, which includes many New
This Article was originally published on Wine Enthusiast
