INTRODUCING
Pinhook —
Artist Series
Whiskey is an inspiring muse and we see the process of distilling, blending and proofing as a true art form. The Artist Series celebrates the individuality and artistry of each bottling by commissioning an image by a renowned artist, inspired by the whiskey and the story of how it came to be.
Bourbon and rye have such distinct flavor profiles and we were intrigued to experiment with blending our custom Kentucky bourbon and rye mashbills together in the hopes that we could find a marriage that was more than the sum of its parts. We set out to create a 6 barrel blend, but with no preconceived notion of a specific proportion of bourbon to rye or vice versa. In order to make the blending process manageable, we limited ourselves to 7 barrels of bourbon and 6 barrels of rye, although even that number gave us 1,716 possible combinations. After playing around with various ratios, we discovered that the most complexity and balance was found with an equal number of barrels of bourbon and rye. Once we honed in on the ideal ratio we blended numerous iterations, searching for the perfect combination of 3 and 3 and then set out to find the proof that best showcased our two favorite blends. 112 proved to be the magic number.
A Blend of Bourbon & Rye Whiskeys
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112
November 2021
6
1,476
“It has been a dream of mine to contribute to the design of a bottle, so naturally I was very excited when I was approached by Charles. Everything about Pinhook, from its identity to its commitment to quality appealed to me.”
The first release in the Artist Series, “Accidental Marriage,” was created by chance when two of our Rye True Single Barrels — each ‘betrothed’ to separate stores — were inadvertently blended together. We were about to chalk up the barrels to bad luck until we actually tasted the mix up. What started as disappointment quickly shifted to wide eyes and big grins. The most delicious accident in Pinhook’s history had just kicked off a brand new series of releases. We commissioned Kentucky-based artist Danica Novgorodoff to make an artwork inspired by this creation story; her evocative watercolor is featured on the label.
Straight Rye Whiskey
95
5
0
113
November 2020
2
426
"When approached by Pinhook, I’d been doing a lot of botanical drawings lately (working on a picture book about a scientist / botanist / explorer / geologist from 1800), and thinking about the hybridizations of species and taxonomy... the marriage of different species that had been distinct for millions of years, because the wind blew some spores in a certain direction. There's an accidental marriage!"