Single Malt Whiskey Made in America? A Boozy Boom Is Coming
The US government is codifying guidelines for the spirit with some major differences from Scotland.
Photographer: Shawn Michael Jones for Bloomberg Businessweek
Late last year, Gareth Moore, chief executive officer of Virginia Distillery Co., was in Korea to raise awareness of his Courage & Conviction single malt whiskies. His main competition there wasn’t so much American bourbon or rye but “global” single malts such as Kavalan from Taiwan and Amrut from India. The local take on his product surprised and amused him. “There was this crazy term that I heard,” he recalls. “Cowboy hat with bagpipes.”
But while a US distillery pushing a single malt may seem to be a mishmash of cultures, it’s about to become a category defined by strict rules: Regulators are expected to ratify a binding definition of the American single malt any day now.