With the recent debut of Shine XXX corn whiskey by the Philadelphia Distilling Co., expected to be widely available on Pennsylvania store shelves by Aug. 22, we now have an impressive local entry in the white whiskey craze, a national phenomenon driven by the high-end revival of the cocktail and the growing ranks of craft distillers who fuel it.
"Of the 155 people I know making whiskey, a full third of them are now making white whiskey from rye, corn, barley, or another grain," says Bill Owens, president of the American Distilling Institute, an artisan spirit trade group.
Some large distillers have gotten into the act, such as Buffalo Trace and Heaven Hill, but Owens insists it was the small distillers who led the way, in part due to economics.
"Why would you want to make bourbon anyway? It's already been done great," says Owens. "You can't be bothered to lay something down (for 12 to 20 years) like a Pappy Van Winkle - that's stupid! They've invested all their life savings into a distillery, and they can't wait six or seven years to turn a profit."
Max Watman, author of Chasing the White Dog (Simon & Schuster, 2010), a history and firsthand exploration of illicit moonshine, agrees.
"Those micro-distillers don't have [stylistic] rules to follow, they don't have to listen to their accountants first, they're light on their feet," he says. "They can do whatever they want."
As a result, the quick-return demands of small business (the same impulse that saw the first craft distillers earlier this decade begin with ready-to-sell vodkas and gins) has, in fact, created something wonderful - an entirely new and wide-ranging category of liquor.
