Micro Spirits Take New York

The Micro Spirits Odyssey was held last Sunday as part of the Manhattan Cocktail Classic. The day was everything it promised to be, and more. Butter Restaurant was overrun with interesting, high quality, and (relatively unknown) spirits. It was definitely the best kept secret in NYC last weekend.

The top half of the restaurant was set up with tasting tables filled with many different micro spirits. Everything from white whiskey to absinthe was available for the tasting, and none of it was made in a fully automated commercial distillery. Every drop was made by hand, and in most cases, the distillers were there on site to walk you through the tasting notes of each of their creations.

The bottom half of the restaurant was set up for a series of seminars all related to the business of small spirits. Panelists covered a range of topics from the moon shining history of Junior Johnson to what it takes to start your own distillery.

And, don’t forget that this event was part of a larger event called the Manhattan Cocktail Classic, so the cocktails played the lead role. In all, 16 distinct cocktail were created by a cocktail company called Hush. Each cocktail was made by hand to order and featured at least one of the micro spirits on display. My personal favorites included the Cat Daddy Fizz (with Cat Daddy Moonshine) and a tall drink featuring LIV vodka (please forgive me for not remembering the name). Although these two ranked at the top of my list, I can assure you, I did not have a bad drink the entire day.

For all of you interesting in finding out more about micro spirits, here are a few of the distilleries that I had a chance to meet with at the event. While many were from the New York area, there were spirits that traveled across the entire country, so I encourage you to find out what is being hand crafted at a distillery near you.

Tuthilltown Spirits

A.B. Smeby Bittering Company

Harvest Spirits

American Fruits

Bluecoat Gin

21 Bootlegger Vodka

Piedmont Distillers

Death's Door

House Spirits

LIV Spirits

Montanya Rum

And please don't forget our favorite small distillery, Twenty 2 Vodka