Myer Farm Distillery- True Organic Farming & Distilling.
This Myer Farm Distillery visit was interesting. My father wanted to come with me, but again, he
doesn’t like whiskey. I keep telling him he doesn’t have to try and like it, but I do appreciate his effort. Although, he has started to favor rye’s that we have tried. I am hopeful for this option in the future. Anyways, we drove the hour and a half down to Myer’s and he decided that the bike we had in the back of the car was how he was getting home. Halfway through my tastings he changed into gym shorts and said to meet him at home. If you have met Tom, you know there is no arguing with him. It took him almost 5 hours due to a headwinds, but he rode the 76 miles home.
Now that all of that chaos was over, I was able to focus on my tastings. Myer’s Farm Distillery has a variety of whiskeys along with a range of single barrel bottling's. These small batch bottles were super cute.
If you know anything about the Finger Lakes and it’s beauty, then this location is no exception. Just minutes from the water. The drive down is great too if you haven’t seen Amish people in a long time. They have a classic Scottish malting room pagoda (although no malting is done here). According to some of the employees the farm has been in the family of two brothers since 1867 and they have well over 1,000 acres. They are true, all natural, organic farmers which many farms cannot call themselves this, let alone a distillery claim this. They also have the right to not only gain the benefits of tax breaks from growing and sourcing within New York State, but they also can have the word “farm” in their name. This word comes with a very stringent set of requirements to have this approved. The link below gives a great guide to all current liquor laws for New York State. To use the word “farm”, distilleries do not have to be located on the piece of land they grow the grain, but wineries do have to have to be located on the farm.
http://esd.ny.gov/nysbeveragebiz/faq.html#farm-licensed
I did three tastings, but wanted to share my favorite-- the rye. This was a very fresh, fruity rye!
MYER SINGLE BARREL RYE
Holly's Tasting Note..
Nose: Mango, pineapple, fruity drink, no wood. Surprised this fruity for a rye?
Palate: Spice, pepper, orange, brine, good linger.
Distiller's Tasting Note..
Nose: Cherry, amaretto.
Palate: Orange marmalade, porridge, brown sugar with bread, butterscotch and maraschino cherry finish.
Overall it was a classic, wine trail tasting room. Their whiskeys come in the same bottles, just different colored labels. I like this clean aesthetic look. I started talking with a man just down the bar named Mark Thomas. At first we spoke a bit about what I was doing with HER WHISKY LOVE and then he told me he built the distillery building. He also soon told me that he left out the small detail that he was one of the distillers! He was nice enough to take me into the back room and show me around. The only way to see the column and pot stills are through a tiny viewing window if you are a regular visitor. I of course wanted to see more.
They were actually in the middle of finishing the first distillation run for a wheat and barley whiskey. You could smell the grains and cereal being heated for the next batch of rye. As we walked around the aging barrels that are on site as well, he began telling me how they use enzymes instead of messing with malting and also use steam for heat instead of direct fire. They are also using a combination of stainless steel and copper. There are of course many differed opinions on steam, stainless steel, enzymes.. really all of it is preference. I was then fortunate enough to go back this week and help with the final spirit/stripping run. This is the final run of distillation (they distill twice) and I was able to taste the heads and the hearts right off the still! What an amazing experience!
What an amazing family run business and I look forward to watching them grow!