Category: distilling
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Essential Oils and Cointreau’s Centrifuge
In 2011 I visited the Cointreau distillery in Angers, France. I wrote about that here. After I returned I realized I had a few more questions. Luckily, Cointreau's Master Distiller Bernadette Langlais was in San Francisco last night so I had a chance to clarify some questions about the centrifuge part of the process. To recap, Cointreau…
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How Grey Goose is Made
This September I visited Cognac, France to judge a competition for Grey Goose vodka. While there, I learned about the production process. I'm sorry I don't have pictures of all this to share- you like reading, right? Grey Goose is made in two parts: in Picardy, in the north of France, where the wheat is…
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Distillery Visit: George Dickel
This spring I visited the George Dickel distillery, located in Cascade Hollow, Tennessee. Dickel and Jack Daniel's are the two defining Tennessee whiskies: both employ the "Lincoln County Process" of running the new spirit through 10+ feet of charcoal before it is aged. Contrary to popular belief, this is not a requirement of Tennessee whisky,…
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A Visit to the Yamazaki Distillery in Japan
Yesterday I wrote about visiting the Hakushu distillery in Japan. Today I'll write about Suntory's other single-malt distillery, Yamazaki. It is located between Kyoto and Osaka, at the convergence of several rivers. I believe they said the distillery welcomes 100,000 visitors each year. (Mount Fuji as seen from the train to Kyoto.) The Yamazaki distillery…
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A Visit to the Hakushu Distillery in Japan
I visited the Hakushu distillery owned by Suntory, located in the Yamanashi prefecture, about two hours by train from Tokyo in Japan. There is a new Hakushu single malt whisky on the US market. As I mentioned in a previous post, Hakushu was built in 1973 and is located at a high elevation – 700 meters…
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DonQ Rum Visit to Puerto Rico
This summer I visited the Destileria Serralles Puerto Rico, the home of DonQ Rum. DonQ is distilled in the southern part of Puerto Rico, in Ponce. The distillery has been on the same site since 1865. As with most rum distilleries, it was once the site of a sugar refinery and the distillery was a…
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Jameson Irish Whiskey Distillery Visit
In early February I visited the Jameson Irish Whiskey distillery – actually two of them. The original Jameson distillery is in Dublin, but it is no longer made there. In 1971 it moved to the Midleton distillery in Cork. The reason is because in the late 1960's Irish Distillers was formed, a merger of Jameson,…
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Four Roses Bourbon Distillery Visit
This week I was in Kentucky for a quick visit to the Four Roses distillery. For some history on this brand, see this post a I wrote a few years ago. In short, Four Roses was only a bourbon in Japan for many years, and has recently come back to the US market. They use…
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More Fun With Distillery Waste
I am a big fan of distillery waste. Not bathing in it, but learning about it. In most cases where a grain is distilled into whiskey or vodka, the spent grain (after all the sugar has been removed to be fermented) is sold off as animal feed. In Cognac (at Hennessy anyway) the spent lees (grape parts)…
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Fettercairn Distillery Visit- Single Malt Scotch Whisky Distillery Tour
Last week I visited the Isle of Jura, The Dalmore, and Fettercairn distilleries in Scotland. These brands are all owned by White & Mackay. This post is about visiting the Fettercairn distillery. (Fettercairn marked with red pin. Map made with Google Maps) From The Dalmore distillery we went on yet another gorgeous drive over two…