THE BIG IDEA American Single Malt Has Arrived
In the century-old barn that houses Tenmile Distillery, visitors can watch a pair of massive copper stills turn malted barley into whiskey. Come for a tour of the facility and master distiller Shane Fraser, a Scotsman who previously worked at Oban, Glenfarclas, and Wolfburn, will show you how things work before directing you to the adjacent bar for a cocktail or a dram. This might sound like a scene in the heart of Speyside, but it takes place five times a week, just 90 miles north of New York City—a location notable due to the kind of juice the distillery produces.
Tenmile, which specializes in the burgeoning category of American single malts, got up and running in 2019; it launched Little Rest, its first bottle, in April. “We occupy that Highland-Speyside [Scotch whisky] space,” Fraser says of Little Rest's style and character, “and I think that's a good place for us to be as an American single malt.”
Single-malt whisky—the version of the spirit made in one location from 100 percent malted barley, then aged in oak barrels—has beenenough respect and recognition to reach an important milestone: an imminent legal definition, furnished by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, that wall put it on par with its big sister, bourbon. “It is not often that an entirely new category of whiskey reaches mainstream acceptance and recognition by the government,” says Matt Hofmann, cofounder of Seattle's Westland Distillery. “In time, we'll look back and see this as something special, one for the history books.”
