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lending whiskey is the art of putting barrels together, where the hope is that the sum is greater than its parts. Blends can be achieved through a variety of methods, depending on the goals for the whiskey. Sometimes those goals are limited to the whiskey category (rye, bourbon), or the age (straight, age statement), and sometimes there is the option to take the path less followed. When it comes to blending, categories and shelf placement often rule supreme, as many producers fear the no-man’s land that is the DSS shelf; however, there are still creative ways to achieve flavor combinations without suffering from the cold placement on a long-forgotten shelf. When it comes to blending, weaving a story can create different layers of flavor. Telling this story can be either a literal or figurative interpretation. Mel Heim of Big Nose Kate (BNK), Nic Christiansen of Barrell Craft Spirits, and Ale Ochoa of Find Familiar Spirits (FFS) all tell stories using whiskey as their pen, creating blends that are novel and well-regarded.
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WRITTEN BY MOLLY TROUPE
PEOPLE Big Nose Kate Western Whiskey is blended as an homage to a once-living person, Mary Katharine Horony. Kate was best known for her relationship with legendary figure Doc Holliday, and was a person of many contradictions. A product with her as the muse needs to speak to the complexity and tension that she lived. As such a person, there is no one that could have breathed life into this project as well as Mel Heim. At the time of this interview more than a year ago, distilling industry veteran Mel Heim was the company’s co-founder and partner whose main responsibility was blending Big Nose Kate. Now CEO, she remains a large part of the reason Big Nose Kate is blended the way that it is. The decision to make the product a rye came early in the project, and that was as much a desire to avoid the bourbon category as it was a reflection of Kate’s Wild West image. Over time, the rye whiskey was combined with American single malt, and together, they created a fire and earth. The goal for BNK from the beginning was to grow and enter new markets, and the blend has gone through several evolutions based on
A product with Big Nose Kate as the muse needs to speak to the complexity and tension that she lived.
availability. The final product consists of different mashbills of rye whiskey and single malt. It includes a range of age statements (4-6-yearold whiskies) and is bottled at 45 percent ABV. Heim’s blending style for BNK comes from the world of Scotch, whose mantra is “go slow.” Sensory starts with samples before barrels arrive. With each sniff test, the barrel is accessed in terms of any differences created in the final blend. The barrels remain offsite until production is ready to blend, and when blending starts it is approached slowly, with some whiskey in oak and some in vats, proofing over time to bottle strength. The ultimate goal is consistently good whiskey with an accessible price point. 53