Somewhere between Orlando and The Villages, a horse farm-turned-microdistillery is churning out reliably smooth blended bourbon-style whiskey.
We know what you’re thinking, that Kentucky is the only place that can call its whiskey “bourbon,” and “bourbon-style” doesn’t cut it (see sidebar.) You might also be thinking, “Hey, I’ve tasted Florida wine, and I have no interest in muscadine whiskey or key lime bourbon.”
Settle down, Sally. We’ve found a real small-batch whiskey distillery in Florida that makes a bourbon-style whiskey called Palm Ridge that we enjoy immensely. So much so, we suggest you try this blend of Florida corn and other not-so-local grains next time you're ordering a cocktail from, say, the cozy veranda of the Vinoy, one of many spots in the area now serving it.
How did a Florida whiskey even happen, though? It’s not exactly the Sunshine State’s trademark — whiskey and bourbon all have a Deep South feel, and Florida isn’t part of the Deep South; we’re the New South.
Turns out, the New South can make a damn fine whiskey, too, and all because because Dick and Marti Waters’s daughter found something she liked better than horses.
And then, Dick Waters says, she discovered boys. This left the Waters with a piece of property too small to properly farm but too big for a non-horse-crazy family. While their daughter went on dates, Marti Waters started thumbing through trade journals, one of which had an article about a creative use for old horse barns: turning them into microdistilleries.
With that, Palm Ridge Reserve and Florida Farm Distillers was born.
It's not a fancy operation — Dick gave me a tour wearing blue sweats and a T-shirt — but that doesn’t stop places like the Vinoy from serving Palm Ridge Manhattans. This blended whiskey tastes smooth even without vermouth or accoutrements. The moniker “bourbon-style whiskey” means the recipe consists of at least 51 percent corn, which Palm Ridge gets from a Lakeland farming cooperative (the other parts of the recipe do not come from local sources). To label their whiskey “bourbon-style," Dick and Marti must also age it in new, charred oak barrels. They use orange and oak wood — two things central Florida has in abundance — to mellow the whiskey. The result? A tasty whiskey that's just distinctive enough to set it apart.
Dick and Marti produce only 500 cases a year, which means this Florida bourbon-style whiskey carries a higher price than, say, Old Grand-Dad or Crown Royal. In the stores, it sells for $54 a bottle, but many local places — Mise en Place, Fly Bar, The Bricks, Hollander Hotel, to name a few — now offer it. The whiskey comes in three varieties: Palm Ridge Virgin, Palm Ridge Rye and Palm Ridge Original.
You can buy a bottle yourself, but for the full experience, email Dick and Marti and see if they’ll give you a tour, which they sometimes do.
Drink up, Florida. Palm Ridge may not be bourbon with a capital “B,” but it's as fine a local taste sensation as oysters and beer at sunset.
This article appears in Feb 18-24, 2016.