Potter Jane Distillery Media Day

I had the honor of being invited to the Potter Jane Distillery Media Day the other day. Denny Potter and Jane Bowie are two of the nicest people in the distilling industry. They have built a distillery that is normal in many ways, but have made some interesting modifications. First of all, they have built extremely large maintenance departments and quality control laboratories. These are important parts of a distillery and play a vital role in the making of whiskey. The quality control lab is still sparse in equipment but as Jane explained, they have room to add modern quality control equipment in the future, when expenses allow them to do so. Instead, they are depending upon the quality control panels to keep their whiskey clean and ready to barrel. This is a very 19th century way of doing quality control but it is working quite well. We tasted some of their new make and six month old whiskey and they are fine whiskeys. They also spent the money to install a vertical grain system that cost them more but allows for better use of their grains as it ensures that the grains brought in first are used first before more grain is delivered. The grains can get old and musty in traditional grain bins as the grains can sit in the bottom of the bin for some time if the grain bin is not emptied.

I like some of their other innovations, as well. They laid out the distillery so that there is a minimum piping between stages. This helps ensure that mash or distillate does not get bacterial contamination. They also refuse to use enzymes in their whiskey so they will not make a 95/5 rye whiskey. They believe, as do I, that malt adds flavor to the whiskey and there are plenty of distilleries making whiskeys with enzymes already. They also like screw caps for their bottles. Screw caps give a better seal than do corks and you don’t have to worry about cork taint on bottles. Quality is their number one concern. They have a barrel entry proof of 110, but are open to lower entry proofs. The 110 entry proof is what they were trained on at Maker’s Mark and they like the flavor it adds to the whiskey.

The distillery is still new – less than a year at making whiskey. Jane and Denny admit that money is the reason they have not built a visitors center or offered tours yet. They are saving their cash flow for the distillery and making whiskey. They have a long list of items that take priority over a visitor’s center such as lab equipment, but they do have plans for one about ten years down the road. However, they will give tours by appointment to “friends and family”.

One of the most interesting innovations they have made is their doubler. They asked Vendome, when asked if they wanted a doubler or a thumper, what was the difference in flavor? Vendome did not have an answer because they never tasted whiskey of the same mash bill made with both. So Denny and Jane asked if they could make a hybrid doubler that could do both. Vendome said yes they could and that is what Potter Jane Distillery has installed. We were able to taste whiskeys made both ways and there was a difference. Both types were very good whiskey, but I like the wheat recipe Bourbon with the thumper and the rye recipe Bourbon with the doubler. That said, there were people in the group that liked the whiskeys better the other way around.

We ended the day with a lunch and then Rosemary and I had to get home to let the dog out, but the rest of the group went to a warehouse. The warehouses are not huge warehouses. They are six story warehouses similar to the older warehouses at Maker’s Mark. Denny and Jane believe that smaller warehouses age whiskey better than the huge 100,000 barrel warehouses being built today. They are traditional warehouses with barrel racks, not palletized warehouses. They are large enough to have certain areas creating microclimates, but small enough not to have areas of dead air – places where air flow is almost non-existent.

The Potter Jane Distillery is going to be a great distillery, making great whiskey. Denny and Jane are in the business for the long run and the love of whiskey and plan on passing the business down to their children and grandchildren. A family owned distillery not indebted to stock holders. The future is bright for this distillery and I am looking forward to their aged whiskeys.