Finger Lakes Distilling: Whisk(e)y Wednesday presented by Calandro's Supermarket

Jay poses outside the Finger Lakes Distillery

For the first time, Whisk(e)y Wednesday features a distillery instead of a single whisk(e)y review.  Don't worry, the actual whiskey from Finger Lakes Distilling will come in subsequent posts, but for now, I wanted to give a little shout out to Brian McKenzie and the Finger Lakes Distillery.  I had the chance to visit his fine establishment recently.  It was my first time New York's wine country, and finding the distillery certainly made me happy after two days of Reislings.  Brian's distillery puts out vodka, gin, liqueurs, grappa, brandy, and of course, whiskey.  I got a sampling of all of it, but the whiskey certainly interested me the most.  Finger Lakes had a white whiskey, pure pot still whiskey, bourbon, and rye.  Again, each will get their own separate Whisk(e)y Wednesday review, so I won't go into further detail.

The beautiful distillery sits on the hills overlook Seneca Lake.  Just a little ways from Watkins Glen and the speedway there, the Glen Thunder White Whiskey pays tribute to the bootleggers who gave birth to stock car auto racing in America.  The gin and some of the fruit liqueurs I also found to be especially interesting.  The scenery all around the distillery is fantastic, especially when copper stills and oak barrels highlight your view!  This is definitely an artisan distillery to check out if you're ever in the Finger Lakes area of New York.  Amid all the vineyards and wineries, your palate will appreciate a little whiskey break!


Whisk(e)y Wednesday is a blog post series on Bite and Booze sponsored by Calandro's Supermarket. Calandro's has one of Baton Rouge's best selections of bourbon, Scotch, and other whisk(e)ys as well as wine and craft beer. WW is created and rated by the hosts of Raise a Glass. Scores are marked for Nose, Taste, Finish, and Balance and Complexity using our own propriatary scoring system. Marks are then added and averaged, leaving us with a final score out of a 100 point scale. Our scale should be looked at on the full range of 0-100 rather than an academic range where 70 is passing and anything less is failing. A 50 should be considered a very mediocre whisk(e)y while anything below 20 is absolute horse piss and anything above 90 is rather extraordinary.