JAYWALK

HEIRLOOM RYE

The legacy of an heirloom grain, painstakingly nurtured from just a handful of seeds into a flourishing crop, became the heart of this season's most anticipated spirit release: the Jaywalk Rye from New York Distillers. As reported by Adam Polonski in his article "Heirloom Rye Seeds American Inspiration," published on December 11, 2019, this endeavor started almost a decade ago with twenty tiny seeds, sourced from the National Seed Repository and carefully brought to life under laboratory scrutiny at Cornell University. It was a journey that would engage the commitment of not just New York Distilling Co., but also an array of partners ranging from academics to heritage farmers. As the distillery's co-founder Tom Potter profoundly put it, "Whiskey humbles you… it teaches you to be patient." And patient they were, waiting until the Horton rye seeds bloomed into enough ripe grain to distill their first meaningful whiskey batch by 2017 followed by the anticipated release in 2023. Today, this carefully crafted heirloom whiskey demonstrates the graceful union of tradition, patience, and innovative distilling arts.