Thirty years of passionate study in whiskey led Jay Erisman to co-found New Riff Distilling in Newport, Kentucky, where he serves today as global brand ambassador, head blender, and fourth string truck driver. From 2001 to 2014, Jay ran the groundbreaking fine spirits and education program at iconic Kentucky liquor retailer The Party Source, working closely with Kentucky’s bourbon distilleries to create new whiskeys. As a whiskey writer, Jay’s work has appeared in many global publications. Today, New Riff has been earning awards and accolades for its “new riff on old tradition,” with a diverse portfolio of sour mash bourbons, ryes, single malts, and more.

Whiskey #1

Bruichladdich

The Laddie Ten

Today’s Bruichladdich, the wonderful distillery on the Rhinns of Islay, is acclaimed around the world, a shining example of how a Victorian-era distillery can exist in the 21st century. But when I started at the Party Source, Bruichladdich was shut down and ‘silent’, and in fact I had never scarcely ever tasted the stuff. It was brought back to life in 2001. I always felt like Bruichladdich and I came up in the whiskey world together, and certainly they were a huge influence on us at New Riff. I’m pleased to say we remain friends to this day.

Whiskey #2

Knappogue Castle

1951 Pure Pot Still Irish Whiskey

At the Party Source in the early 2000s, we lucked into some incredible finds. At one point, our distributor, having decided they could not move this rare, expensive Irish whiskey — about 36 years old at the time, and distilled in pure pot still style at the original Tullamore plant — proposed it to us at a closeout price. And every week the
price would go down, until we had bought it all. I used it in a tasting with our whiskey club, and sure would appreciate another bottle: so let’s order one for my desert
island bar!

Whiskey #3

Clifton Springs Distilling

Echo Springs 1917

Go back in time to the years before Prohibition, and my hometown of Cincinnati was the whiskey capital of the country, the nexus of the American whiskey business. Clifton Springs was one of the local distilleries, standing in the neighborhood where I grew up; I think I played soccer in the late 1970s in the shadow of its old, crumbling buildings. They made good
juice too, if the liquid remaining in my vintage bottle of the Echo Springs label
is any indication.

Whiskey #4

New Riff 

Balboa Rye

I am often asked, of our many New Riff whiskeys, to choose a favorite. Truly, they all feel like my children, and I love them all for different reasons, but I must say that sentimentally, Balboa Rye really moves me. As an ex-director of the Slow Food chapter in Cincinnati, I have a passion for good, clean, and fair food, and with that comes an interest in biodiversity and the preservation of old flavors. I had always hoped that New Riff could work with heirloom grains — never an easy task when you need 8,000 pounds of rye for a single batch -— and amazingly, our farmer in Indiana had silos full of heirloom Balboa rye just waiting to get turned into whiskey. The rest is history, and multiple awards later, Balboa is a legend.

Whiskey #5

Springbank 

Local Barley 1966

If ever I had my hand upon the tiller of the ship that became SS New Riff, the North Star that I steered by was Springbank: the greatest whiskey distillery in the world, and the most influential whiskey brand of our lifetimes. So many trends in worldwide whiskey — purity and no chill filtration/no coloring, cask finishes, multiple mashbills, and more — can be traced back to Springbank. Their fiercely independent stance completely informs that of New Riff. This famed 1966 Local Barley release presaged the local-foods movement; I do have a bottle of it, but clearly, for this
desert island assignment, I shall require another bottle… 

Luxury Item

2013 Vintage Champagne

I’ve always said, Champagne was the ultimate stranded-desert-island wine. One: it goes with seafood, two: you can drown your sorrows of being stranded, and three: you can toast your eventual rescue! I’ll take a pallet of the 2013 vintage, a tremendous year for ‘Champs’ and also the year I became a father, which is always nice.