SPECIAL RELEASE
2021
by Nicholas Blechman
2021
Artist Series No. 2
by Nicholas Blechman
Whiskey is an inspiring muse and we see the process of distilling, blending and proofing as a true art form. The Artist Series celebrates the individuality and artistry of each bottling by commissioning an image by a renowned artist, inspired by the whiskey and the story of how it came to be.
Whiskey Nicking
Created by Nicholas Blechman, a New York-based art director, illustrator, and designer. Formerly the Art Director of The New York Times Book Review and The Times op-ed page, he is currently the Creative Director of The New Yorker.
BEHIND THE NAME
A horse’s bloodlines, or ancestry, carry specific strengths. When the crossing of two bloodlines consistently produces champions, that phenomenon is known as a “nick.” Thinking of mashbills as bloodlines, we set out to blend two spirits to produce a whiskey greater than the sum of its parts.
With 1,716 possible six-barrel combinations of the 13 we worked with, we found the rich and robust nick in three barrels of Pinhook bourbon blended with three barrels of Pinhook rye.
It has been a dream of mine to contribute to the design of a bottle, so naturally I was very excited when I was approached by Charles.
Connect
An equal blend of Kentucky Straight Bourbon and Rye whiskeys.
Bourbon and rye have such distinct flavor profiles and we were intrigued to experiment with blending our custom Kentucky bourbon and rye mashbills together in the hopes that we could find a marriage that was more than the sum of its parts. We set out to create a 6 barrel blend, but with no preconceived notion of a specific proportion of bourbon to rye or vice versa. In order to make the blending process manageable, we limited ourselves to 7 barrels of bourbon and 6 barrels of rye, although even that number gave us 1,716 possible combinations. After playing around with various ratios, we discovered that the most complexity and balance was found with an equal number of barrels of bourbon and rye. Once we honed in on the ideal ratio we blended numerous iterations, searching for the perfect combination of 3 and 3 and then set out to find the proof that best showcased our two favorite blends. 112 proved to be the magic number.
Details
- Proof 112
- Barrels 6
- Bottles 1476