Old Pogue and New Riff Distilleries

In completing the Kentucky Craft Spirits Trail, we left home at 7:30 am headed for Old Pogue in Maysville, KY and New Riff in Newport, KY.

The drive to Maysville along the AA Highway was nice, there was a little patchy fog along the Ohio River but otherwise easy driving.  We got to Maysville a little early and enjoyed the drive through the historic old town.  There are some beautiful old homes on the Kentucky hill facing the Ohio River.  Many of these old homes are still occupied and appeared to be in good repair.  Some large buildings nearer the river appeared to have been boarding houses or hotels in Maysville’s boom days.  We especially liked the old row houses along the Mary Ingles Highway (W. 2^nd Street) that looked to need some work but may well be still structurally sound.

It was a good thing that we got to Maysville early since the GPS took is to the exit for the distillery.  We were able to make a quick U turn then go up Germantown Road to get to the entrance to Old Pogue Distillery.  We drove down the steep and winding driveway to the small gravel visitor parking area.  As soon as we opened the car door we were greeted with the unmistakable sweet smell of a distillery.  We were struck by the beauty of the Pogue home nearby that overlooked the original Pogue Distillery that was located below on the Ohio River. 

When we entered the small distillery building we were met by John Pogue, the six generation of master distillers.  The two of us were the only ones for the 10 am tour and John met us warmly and shared the history of Maysville, how Bourbon helped to shape Maysville’s growth and his family’s role in that growth.  The Pogue Distillery dates back to 1876 and was able to sell remaining Bourbon for medicinal purposes during Prohibition.  However before the 18^th Amendment’s repeal by the 21^st Amendment in 1935, the Old Pogue folded in 1926 when the last barrel of bourbon in storage was sold.  

Members of the Pogue family worked as distillers and consultants for other companies, bringing the Bourbon expertise to other brands.  The recent revival of interest in quality Bourbon caused members of the Pogue family to tap stored family documents and recipes and begin making quality Kentucky Bourbon.  Members of the Pogue family had backgrounds not only in distilling but in business, law and, in the case of John, geology, came together to recreate family traditions of fine Bourbon.

The Pogue family buys rye, malted barley and locally grown corn that are ground for distillation in the small distillery.  After fermentation, the “beer” is piped a few feet to the fermentation tanks for a few days to allow the yeast to convert the grain sugars to about 10% alcohol when it is piped to the copper still a few feet away.  After distillation, the barrels of white whiskey are shipped to rented rickhouse space in Bardstown, Kentucky, a few hours drive away. 

At this time, Old Pogue makes only 50 barrels of Bourbon per year.  In addition to Old Pogue Bourbon, they make Five Fathers Pure Rye Malt Whisky that has a mashbill of 100% rye and Limestone Landing Single Malt Rye Whisky.  The huge demand for super premium Bourbon has caused a shortage of Old Pogue and has driven the price to $80 per bottle.  The distillery may be the only place remaining with bottles of Old Pogue to sell and they limit purchases to one bottle per visit. 

As we were leaving the distillery, another group of six visitors came and John took us through the old brick Pogue house next to the current distillery.  

The home has been beautifully restored with hardwood floors, photos of the original distillery and vintage Bourbon and rye bottles.  We walked out on the veranda to look down on the river and to appreciate the sunny summer day.  After touring the house, we returned to the distillery to sample Old Pogue Bourbon.  Mary bought a couple of very good Bourbon ball candies before we said our goodbyes and left for Newport on the AA Highway.

After about an hour drive, we arrived at Joe’s Crab Shack in Newport, across the highway from the Party Source and New Riff Distillery.  We were pleased that Sarah and Greg could meet us for the afternoon.  Joe’s Crab Shack has a good seafood selection and is generally well prepared.  While we waited on our lunch we had the appetizer sampler which included crab dip, spicy crab balls and calamari. For our meals, Mary had a shrimp platter and Greg had the East Coast platter, Sarah had mahi tacos and had crawfish half and half which was fried crawfish and crawfish etouffee.  We all enjoyed our meals.

Since our tour at New Riff wasn’t until 2 pm, we had about 30 minutes to spend at the nearby Party Source.  I had a shopping list of my favorite Bourbons but was surprised that there is a shortage of Eagle Rare, Blanton’s Reserve, Willett and W. L. Weller.  Although we were disappointed that these spirits were unavailable, we bought a bottle of ready to drink Mojito for Mary and Bulleit Bourbon, Johnny Drum Private Stock Bourbon and Gentleman Jack Tennessee Whiskey.  We hope that production of Bourbon catches up with demand and our favorite brands become more available.

The New Riff Distillery is a beautiful structure with a towering column still that is located in a glass area making the glowing copper visible from the Party Source parking lot.  Silos outside the distillery store corn and rye to be ground for the mash to be turned into Bourbon or rye whiskey.  They also grind small quantities of malted barley to include in about 5% of the Bourbon mashbill.  Although they consider themselves a Kentucky Bourbon distillery, they also make rye whiskey.  The Bourbon mashbill is 70% corn, 25% rye and 5% malted barley.  To keep the distillery operating in the four years until the Bourbon ages in a nearby rickhouse, New Riff bottles and sells O.K.I. Bourbon that is named for Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana where parts of the Bourbon making process took place.

The ground grain is piped to one of the large stainless fermentation tanks where yeast strains convert grain sugars to ethanol.  The Vendome copper column stills and pot still distill the fermented mash to clear white whiskey.  Distillers assess the flavor, smell and alcohol concentration of the distillate at each step of the process to assure quality.

The distilled rye and Bourbon whiskeys are sent to large stainless steel cisterns where new white oak barrels are filled.  Unlike many Kentucky distillers, New Riff doesn’t get barrels from Independent Stave Company but rather from Kelvin Cooperage near Louisville.  

New Riff also does not chill filter their spirits prior to casking.  While the chill filtration makes the Bourbon less cloudy and removes oils and fats from the grain that may lend off or unpleasant flavors, the filtration also removes substances that contribute to complexity and unique flavors to the whiskey.  We also noticed that New Riff shrink wraps their barrels to reduce the volume that evaporates from the barrels as the “Angel’s Share”. 

After our interesting and informative tour, our guide took us around the building. In addition to the distilling operations, there are two beautiful party spaces in the distillery building.  Once of the spaces on the second floor even has a nice outdoor area that overlooks the river.  Both social spaces have a great view of the copper column still.

We finished our tour back near the distillery entrance where we did a tasting of the O.K.I. Bourbon.  It needed a splash of water to open the flavors up.  It was a little higher rye (35%) than we prefer but was a very drinkable Bourbon.  The guide told us about the Ranger program at New Riff in which a $60 Membership in the distillery gets a special bottle of New Riff Bourbon as soon as the four year aging is complete.  In addition, Rangers get first opportunities to purchase new or limited products that come to the distillery.  I was glad that I had taken advantage of the opportunity to join on the first day the program became available in May 2014.

After we left New Riff, we drove to Cincinnati for a short visit with Greg and Sarah.  We checked on their gardens and chatted about what is new with us.  Sarah gave Mary some knitting tips until we left for home at 5 pm.

We came back part of the way on US 52 along the Ohio River.  The drive wasn’t bad once we got out of traffic around Great American Ballpark where the Cincinnati Reds would be playing the Pittsburgh Pirates later that evening.  We crossed back into Kentucky at Maysville, had a fast dinner at Taco Bell, filled up with gasoline ($3.49/gallon) before driving on back on the AA Highway arriving home by 9 pm.

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