Understanding Heritage Grains With Laws Whiskey House

Cocktails Distilled

With Laws recently winning the title of 'World's Best Small batch Bourbon', we thought it was a good time to talk with founder, Al Laws, to talk about the very niche yet thriving world of heritage grain whiskey.

While heritage grain may sound high brow, for distillers like Laws, who started Laws Whiskey House in Colorado more than a decade ago, heritage is all about unique flavour profiles.

As Laws prepares to start the year with a series of new releases, we talk to him about grains, small-scale distilling and the faith required in every step of the whiskey-making process.

So whether you're a whiskey aficionado or a curious novice, you'll be enticed by the Colorado terroir at the heart of Laws Whisky House.

Chapters

1. Understanding Heritage Grains With Laws Whiskey House (00:00:00)

2. There's quite a movement towards heritage grains. What impact do you think this is having on the whiskey industry? (00:00:46)

3. For you, which came first, your interest in whiskey or your interest in heritage grains? (00:01:43)

4. Are you experimenting with different grains, or are you working with the heritage grains your growers were already planting? (00:08:33)

5. If someone has never experienced heritage grain whisky before, how will they find the flavour different from a typical whisky? (00:10:57)

6. Do you distill a heritage grain differently from a non-heritage grain? (00:14:03)

7. You bottle in bond. For anyone who doesn't understand that term, do you want to describe what it means? (00:15:44)

8. Tell us a little bit about your new releases. (00:22:18)

9. I imagine you and your staff need to do a fair amount of education around the heritage grains? (00:26:07)

10. And I believe that your tasting room is going to resemble a church. (00:28:28)

11. How do you want somebody to approach your liquids? (00:30:16)