In music, most of us are attracted to a song’s continually repeated musical rhythm, "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones, or "Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes, but once those were new to us. Our guest today is here to remind us of the pleasure we get when discovering a new riff.

Sponsored by Visit Cincy, I am thrilled to introduce you to Mollie Lewis, the President of New Riff Distilling, which took Kentucky’s leitmotif of bourbon and sprinkled in a few eighth-note surprises to create a liquid that is winning awards not only at home but around the world. Her story proves there’s always room for a new tune in town.

Not only am I excited to introduce Mollie to you, but also the whole Cincy Region — where North meets South and Ohio meets Kentucky. Just a bridge apart, Cincinnati’s German heritage and urban energy connect with Northern Kentucky’s Southern charm.

While you are there, you can sip bourbon, sample craft beer, and savor award-winning cuisine. There are tons of vibrant street art, historic landmarks, and stunning architecture to explore — all along a riverfront that’s buzzing with festivals year-round.

You can plan your trip at visitcincy.com.

Our cocktail of the week is the New Fashioned:

INGREDIENTS 

• 2 oz. New Riff Bottled in Bond Bourbon
• 3 dashes Angostura Bitters
• 3 dashes Orange Bitters
• 1/4 oz. Rich Demerara Syrup*

METHOD

• Add all the  ingredients to a mixing glass
• Add ice and then stir until chilled
• Strain over a large rock in a rocks glass or coupe
• Garnish with an orange peel

*Rich Demerara Syrup - In a large pot, mix 12 oz of water and 24 oz of demerara sugar together on low heat. Use a spoon to slowly stir as the mixture heats up. Heat through until sugar dissolves, never allowing the mixture to come to a boil. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 month. 

You’ll find this recipe and all the cocktails of the week at alushlifemanual.com, plus links to most of the ingredients.

Full Episode Details: https://alushlifemanual.com/new-riff-with-mollie-lewis-president/

-----

Become a supporter of A Lush Life Manual for as little as $5 - all you have to do is go to https://substack.com/@alushlifemanual.

Lush Life Merchandise is here - we’re talking t-shirts, mugs, iPhone covers, duvet covers, iPad covers, and more covers for everything! And more! 

Produced by Simpler Media

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram

Get great cocktail ideas on Pinterest

New episodes every Tuesday, usually!!

>> Susan Schwartz: In music, most of us are attracted to a song's

continually repeated musical rhythm. Think Smoke

on the Water by Deep Purple, I Can't get no

Satisfaction by the Stones, or Seven Nation army

by the White Stripes. But once those were new to

us. Our guest today is here to remind us of the

pleasure we get when discovering a new riff. I'm,

um, Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion and

this is Lush Life podcast. Every week we're

inspired to live life one cocktail at a time.

Sponsored by Visit Cinse. I'm, um, thrilled to

introduce you to Molly Lewis, the president of New

Rift Distillery, which took Kentucky's light motif

of bourbon and sprinkled in a few eighth note

surprises to create a liquid that is winning

awards not only at home, but around the world. Her

story proves there's always room for a new tune in

town. Not only am I excited to introduce Molly to

you, but also the whole Cincy region, where north

meets south and Ohio meets Kentucky. Just a bridge

apart, Cincinnati's German heritage and urban

energy connect with Northern Kentucky's Southern

charm. While you're there, you can sip bourbon,

sample craft beer and savor award winning cuisine.

There's tons of vibrant street art, historic

landmarks and stunning architecture to explore all

along a riverfront that's buzzing with festivals

all year round. You can plan your trip

and@visitcincy.com now grab that Old Fashioned and

let's join Molly. So it's really great to have you

on the show.

>> Susan Schwartz: Thank you so much for joining me.

>> Susan Schwartz: I can't wait to hear your story.

>> Speaker C: Ah. Uh, thank you. Thanks, Susan, for having me.

>> Susan Schwartz: Absolutely. I've already given you an intro, but

why don't you introduce yourself again?

>> Speaker C: Absolutely. Well, my name is Molly Lewis and my

current title is president of New Riff Distilling.

A New Rift Distilling is actually my family

business. We're located here in Northern Kentucky

in a pretty small town called Newport. It runs

right along the river of Cincinnati. So we have

Ohio to the north and we consider ourselves the

top of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail or the beginning

of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail here in Newport.

>> Susan Schwartz: I love Newport. It's such a fun town. And if

people have listened to my first episode about,

uh, Northern Kentucky, we talked about Newport

being the Las Vegas of its day. So how exciting.

You're right in there with the, with the

prohibition stuff and everything.

>> Speaker C: There's a lot of storied history here in Newport.

It has a pretty checkered but interesting past and

we're pretty proud to be a part of that too.

>> Susan Schwartz: So let's get into it. New rift. Tell me the

beginnings. I know you're.

>> Speaker C: You're.

>> Susan Schwartz: I believe your dad started it. And maybe you can

tell us a little bit about how he even thought to

create a bourbon company.

>> Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. So I grew up here in Kentucky.

So did my father. Actually, my. Our, uh, grand.

His father, my grandfather, came to Kentucky from

New York after immigrating from northern Europe.

>> Susan Schwartz: Is there a reason why he decided to leave New York

and come to Kentucky?

>> Speaker C: No. He was an engineer, and he was a businessman

as well. He was trying to find his way. He was a

young man. And I believe the story is that a

friend told him that things would be easier in the

south and that he would have more opportunity to

do all the things that he wanted to do. And there

was less opportunity in crowded New York. He was

in Rochester. And so he took a leap of faith. I

believe he and some friends moved down to

Kentucky, and then he met my grandmother, and they

planted roots, and so be it. But I never remember

him having a Kentucky accent. And therefore, I

don't think a lot of us in the family had this

strong Kentucky accent, but we're certainly

Kentuckians at this point, you know, so the story

is. It's fun. So my grandfather started a

consolidated store. They were selling a lot of

army surplus and things, and there was a small

liquor section in the store. His brother, my

father's uncle, was running that store. And you

know, the story, the family story, is that he was

a gambler and that he was drinking all the

profits. And so my grandfather kicked him out and

asked my father, who was in early 20s, he had just

finished college, to help him run the store. And

it wasn't really what my father wanted to do, but

he said, sure, I'll help you out. Family

obligations. And then he found out that he really

had a knack for it and was really good at putting

the store together and was really interested in

the product. And so he never went back. You know,

he never. He was studying to be a teacher, and he

was sort of a teacher by osmosis, uh, all of his

life, teaching, teaching me and teaching. So many

people that have worked with and for him. But he

never went back formally to the classroom and just

continued to build stores and create a beverage

alcohol chain here in Kentucky. And then the last

one that he built, uh, which is the largest one,

is a store called the Party Source. And the Party

Source folks in the area know it. It's actually

still, to date, the largest independent beverage

alcohol store in the United States still today,

which is really neat. So he built the store in the

early 90s. It's right on the border with Ohio.

Ohio has state laws that control the pricing of,

uh, spirits and whatnot. And so it was a success.

Folks would travel over the border and shop. And,

you know, he had his finger on the pulse of what

was happening in Kentucky and the bourbon scene.

You know, he has amazing stories about in the 90s

being offered full barrels of, you know, you name

it, Pappy x 15 year old this and, you know, four

roses that and all the buffalo trace items that

are special. And, um, he just saw the boom

starting to happen. And he remembers when

Blanton's was on the shelf and you had to dust it

off, you know, nobody wanted to buy it. And so

that really, he fell in love with Berman and fell

in love with the fact that it was America's native

spirit. Uh, America's only native spirit. And that

really the good stuff comes from Kentucky.

>> Susan Schwartz: Yeah.

>> Speaker C: And so this is a long winded way of saying that he

fell in love with bourbon and then kind of took a

look around here in Northern Kentucky and realized

that since Prohibition, there really hadn't been

anything of significance in the distilling world

here in Northern Kentucky there were a couple

small, small operations, you know, uh, uh, pot

still operations, a barrel a week kind of thing,

but nothing really of significance. Putting

Northern Kentucky on the map as far as being a

bourbon destination in the state of Kentucky. And

so his, his second chapter, if you will, was to

try to change that.

>> Susan Schwartz: All right, before we get to the second chapter,

let's go back to the first chapter for a second.

I, as a Pennsylvanian, have heard of the Party

Source. It is huge. It is huge. It must have been

really interesting for him in the 90s being in

Kentucky, because that was of course, the time

when vodka was king. And when you say that, you

know, he could have all these barrels, I mean,

they just probably didn't know what to do with

them really.

>> Speaker C: They were probably giving them away to an extent.

I mean, you know, it was an interesting time. And

as we've been told, bourbon is really a cyclical

market item. And so certainly in the 80s

particularly and early 90s, it was, there was a

real slump. Right. I mean, some of the heritage

distilleries were still making some production,

but it was, it was a hard item to sell. Didn't

have certainly anything near the cachet that it

started to accumulate as it got more in more

recent times. Yeah.

>> Susan Schwartz: And I guess being a Kentuckian, he was had bourbon

in his veins. Was this something that he drank at

home?

>> Speaker C: You know, it was around. It was something that he

was aware of and he drank socially and he learned

about. I don't remember him drinking a lot of

bourbon at home growing up. I remember he smoked a

pipe and, you know, would drink cocktails and

things. I don't remember bourbon being

particularly the most meaningful thing that he

drank until I was in high school. And a little bit

later, I remember the interest growing. Uh, and I

remember there was an interest in rye whiskey as

well. You know, the stories are. Back in the early

90s, there were one, two, maybe three selections

on the shelf. Now in the party source, there's a

whole wall of. Of rye. But I remember when he

talked about rye being, ah, a growing category

too. So he just. He was in it every day. He saw

what was coming in the door, he saw that there was

going to be a boom. Um, he envisioned this

trajectory that ended up really happening.

>> Susan Schwartz: And you, by osmosis, must have just.

>> Susan Schwartz: Been not even realizing, but soaking it all in.

>> Speaker C: Uh, you know, it was a really exciting time. I

learned a lot about a lot of different species. I

was allowed to drink wine at the table when I was

18 and we were a family that really embraced

drinking being part of the table. I like to think

we were a little Italian or European in that

regard. Yeah, it was a part of life. It was a part

of our family life in a way that maybe it wasn't

for a lot of Americans at the time growing up.

>> Susan Schwartz: Yeah. And, um, through my research, I know that

you were an artist and although you were drinking

at the table, that you then got to drink in other

places in other countries. Tell me about how you

got. Before we get to the second chapter, but your

first chapter before you got involved with New

Riff.

>> Speaker C: Yeah. Well, thank you. So, you know, there was

always. I'm the firstborn. And, uh, there was

always a lot of pressure that at some point I

would come into the family business. Right. There

was, uh, an expectation that just sort of like

lived in the ethos. But I was really encouraged to

figure out what my passion was and what I was good

at. And so I gravitated to. To the arts at a young

age. Painting, visual arts was really my thing. I

had the privilege of going to a magnet art high

school, which was unusual, especially in Kentucky,

that that thing was. That kind of thing was even

offered. But it really was. I went to a pretty

interesting magnet high school where we had some

fascinating teachers who really encouraged

personal development. And so I was also Encouraged

to go to art school. And I felt like that was

really my calling. Uh, we looked at a number of

different schools. I was awarded a couple of

scholarships. I'm proud to share. And I ended up

going to Parsons School of Design in New York. And

Parsons is known for fashion in all transparency,

but they actually have a very interesting art

program. And one of the strengths of Parsons is

that it's located in New York City. So you're

soaking up all the culture and, uh, the arts and

the multiculturalism just by, just by being in

that city. So that's, that's where I went. And I'm

so glad that I did.

>> Susan Schwartz: And, and then I know that you, um, you took that

passion for wine and ended up in Italy.

>> Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, I did. I did absolutely. Well, I, you

know, I dabbled in the arts. I did a five year

degree program at Parsons. Loved living in New

York, but it's hard to make money in the arts.

Right. And so I remember, uh, in my early 20s,

having a conversation with my father. I call him

Ken, you know, at work. But I remember talking

with him and he was like, well, you drink enough

wine, why don't you learn something about it? You

know? And I think the impetus was to always to

have me learn something about wine and then come

back to the family business, which was still

retail at the time.

>> Susan Schwartz: And it makes me laugh. It sounds so much like my

dad too, but is that right? Yeah.

>> Speaker C: So I, I got a job in the tasting room in, uh, at

Behringer. Poured some white zinfandel when I was

24 years old. Uh, but it was really a great

learning experience to learn about. Just to learn

about wine, to see what people, the kinds of

questions people were asking. I mean, it was a

great starting point. It was a great experience,

and I'm fortunate to have had that opportunity.

And then I did. I worked in a number of different

wine positions through distribution, I worked in

restaurants, and then had the opportunity to go to

Italy in 2007, which was very exciting, I will

say. I followed a guy to Italy who I am no longer

with, but ended up being the best thing that I

ever did for myself. And I ended up staying there

for five years.

>> Susan Schwartz: What do you feel that you.

>> Susan Schwartz: I know you're no longer in wine, but I'm sure you

still love it and love Italy.

>> Susan Schwartz: But what do you feel that you.

>> Susan Schwartz: Brought back with you from Italy?

>> Speaker C: Absolutely. No, that's a great question. I don't

know if I've ever been asked that question so

directly. And I love it. Um, I think there's such

a, just a wonderful culture around food and

beverage coming out of Italy. It's in people's

veins, you know, just sitting at the table, uh,

wine or even a spirit cocktail being a part of the

table. And, uh, that's how I think too. So it was

a really exciting time. I absorbed a lot. I

learned a lot about authenticity and a sense of

place, terroir. And I really was excited to come

back to Kentucky when. And we'll get back to it, I

think about how we decided to move forward with

New Rift, but there were a lot of parallels. You

know, we're talking about America's native spirit,

we're talking about bourbon. And although you can

make bourbon in any state, in the entire 50

states. There'S a theory that all the best stuff,

all the best bourbon comes from Kentucky. And so

the idea of being in a family business

representing a sense of place was a great parallel

to what I was learning and what I was doing in

Italy. And I do think that I brought some of my

hospitality that I learned over in Italy back to

what we do here at New Rif. Um, I don't want to

skip too far ahead, but we decided early on that

we were going to be champions in Single Barrel, in

our Single Barrel program.

>> Susan Schwartz: Wait, uh, before we do get to that, let's go to

the second chapter and let's talk about New Riff

and why your dad from the Party Source decided to

bite off a huge, you know, this is a huge thing

that he did to create a distillery. Uh, it had to

be a huge passion.

>> Speaker C: It was a huge thing. Yeah. And he wasn't young. I

mean, I'll give you that. You know, he had had

his, his career in retail. He'd been in as a

retailer for over 40 years. Right. And I will be

completely transparent, the Party Source at this

point was a debt free business. I mean, a lot of

folks in his shoes might have just moved to

Tahiti. You know, and sometimes he probably

wishes, why didn't I do that? But you know, he had

a real passion. He's an entrepreneur. He, he, he

doesn't sit still. You know, he doesn't like it

when things get too comfortable. He has that

crazy, crazy. I'm not necessarily like that. But,

you know, he likes to push the limit and the

envelope and the edge. And so he got it into his

head that he wanted to create a bourbon, a real

bourbon destination here in Northern Kentucky and

put Northern Kentucky on the map as being one of

the, the Meccas, one of the Focal points in

Kentucky for bourbon and bourbon tourism. And so,

you know, we say that New Riff was created in

2009, 2010, around the dinner table. A little bit

of it had to do with Kent, you know, him visiting

me in Italy and experiencing some of the family

wineries that we spent time in. You know, I think

that definitely kind of fueled the interest. And,

um, he started really putting, putting the layers

into practice and making it happen. Uh, what I

always love to point out is that the Party Source,

which we actually share a parking lot with,

believe it or not. But he, in 2014, one of the

best days and most memorable day, memorable days

of my life was when he told the employees at the

Party Source, and there are about a hundred

employees in that store, a hundred different

families. And when he sold the store to the

employees. So I, I love to point that out because

I do feel that that gives an image of the value

system and the ethos that New Riff was built on.

But he could have made so much more money selling

to a total wine and more or one of these larger

chains or who knows, might have been interested.

But he wanted to take care of his people and he

wanted to take care of his employees and he made

them all owners of the store. You know, it's, uh,

being an ESOP is a profit sharing opportunity for

the employees of the store. So to this date, you

walk into that store, which is still the largest

independent retail store in the country. That's

amazing. And it's employee, which is, it's such.

>> Susan Schwartz: A generosity of spirit.

>> Speaker C: I love that. It's a generosity of spirit. It's

taking care of people. You know, he, of course he

wants to live well. He wants to make money. I

mean, who doesn't? But he also believes in

sharing. And I think that's a really important

value system that we have now adapted or always

had to as the second generation of leadership here

at New Rift. But I don't want to get too far ahead

from that. So that enabled us financially to build

New Rift from the ground up. So we got the money,

Party Source was being run by the employees, and

we started to build this building that I'm

currently in right now from the ground up. And we

finished construction in 2014 and had our first

distillation in May of 2014.

>> Susan Schwartz: So what, what had you planned? Did you have then

the MASH bill? Did you have a bottle design? Did

you have the name?

>> Speaker C: Yeah, you know, we none, none of us had done this

before. Ken certainly hadn't. I certainly hadn't.

And then we had, uh, an awesome team who mostly

are still here. We had an eight team, an eight

member team. Hannah Lohan, who's our current CEO,

and Brian Sprantz, who's our master distiller,

were all already on board, already part of the

team. The naming of the distillery, it's really

hard to do. It's like naming a child. There's a

lot of responsibility there. Right? We had a lot

of other names. We kept thinking about, do we call

it north of the south or do we talk about

Kentucky? And none of that really resonated with

us because we felt that we weren't being

authentic. You know, we don't have grandpa's

recipe under the bed. We don't have hundreds of

years of distillation culture in our family, or,

um, the original dsp, you know, here in the state.

So we felt that those names were a little

inauthentic. But we kept coming back to being a

new rip on Ken's life. You know, here he was,

older than midlife, making a complete career

change, starting a whole new business, very

capital intensive. And so we, we kept going back

to it being a new riff on Ken's life. And then we

started thinking about products that we envisioned

making and that we were planning to make and that

it was based in tradition. It was based on the

sour mash regimen, which is what we consider the

Kentucky regimen. It's how whiskey is made here in

Kentucky. So we were honoring that. But our plans

were to really to innovate and to create something

new and something special and something a little

different. And so we started talking about, hey,

wait a second, we're a new riff on an old

tradition, right? So it just, it just sort of fell

into place in a nice way and felt real and felt

authentic. And then with the bottle, you know,

when we had decided on the name, we wanted to have

a bottle that was a nod to traditional. Right. The

shape of the bottle is actually a relatively known

bottle shape. You might have seen it in the

market. There are a number of important brands,

whiskey brands that did do use this bottle shape.

We modernized it or we put our riff on it or a

spin on it by this ombre, which really hadn't been

done before in the industry. So we think that that

was really neat. You know, there were lots of

evolutions. At first the ombre was on the bottom

and it graduated to the top. And then we switched

it and, you know, we had a lot of fun designing

this bottle, but it was a risk. You know, we took

a risk with this sort of modern take on a, uh,

traditional bottle. Now you see it a little bit

more in the industry, but at the time it was

really one of the first.

>> Susan Schwartz: And, and the recipe, how do you even start? How

many different trial and errors did you have? Or

did you just come up with it in the first

iteration?

>> Speaker C: So that's, it's an interesting story in and of

itself. So, you know, Ken had not been in the

distilling business. None of us had. Right. We

all, we, we consider ourselves almost like

corporate refugees. Is a, is a term we used early

on for a employees here at New Rift. And so our

master distiller, Brian Sprance, actually, uh,

people find this hard to believe, but he had

actually never distilled a thing in his life when

we hired him. So.

>> Susan Schwartz: Wait, wait, I have to stop you there. So he

answered an ad for a master distiller.

>> Speaker C: Well, he, he, he had experience. He had worked for

Sam Adams for over 15 years. So he was a master

fermenter.

>> Susan Schwartz: Which by the way, everyone, Sam Adams is in

Kentucky. It is not in Boston.

>> Speaker C: Absolutely it is. And it's, it's industry here and

it's important. And so Brian worked there. He was

a master fermenter. I mean, a title doesn't really

exist, but he really knew fermentation backwards

and forwards. And so the vision that Ken felt very

strongly about was, I don't want to hire an

assistant master distiller from Maker's Mark or

from Woodford. Bring them up here and have Makers

north or Woodford North. You know, I want to, I

want to have something unique and something

representative of northern Kentucky. And so that

was why strategically, we went out and found Brian

because he had the base down. I mean, being an

expert, you have to keep everything so clean. I

mean, fermentation is really, really, really a

skill to master. And we had a clean slate. You

know, he was interested, he was excited, and you

know, he dug right in. We did have a consulting

master distiller who really took Brian under his

wing and train Brian and help us put together our

distillery down to what fermenters to build and

what pipes to put in. His name was Larry Ebersole.

Uh-huh. And he, folks might have heard of him. He

is a world renowned master distiller that had

worked for Seagrams, the former Seagram's plant,

for over 30 years. And rye was really his area of

expertise. That's where he particularly shined. So

we were his first consulting project. And he came

in and Brian likes to say that Larry taught Him

everything he knew, he knows about distillation.

>> Susan Schwartz: Yeah, See it's a new riff on his career as well.

>> Speaker C: New riff on a lot of things in the industry. And

you've probably heard this too. When we first

started, there was sort of a, uh, word on the

street that the fermentation wasn't as important,

you know, that the beer, the distiller's beer

wasn't super important. And we approached it from

a very different angle where from the get go we

said this is extremely important. We need to have

uh, absolute best distiller's beer we could

possibly make to be the foundation of our whiskey.

And so Brian, no one better to bring in than

someone who really knew fermentation.

>> Susan Schwartz: Absolutely. And so about how long did it take from

starting it to your liquid or having the right

recipe?

>> Speaker C: Well, so we were committed to doing things what we

call the right way. I mean that's our

interpretation. But our, our interpretation was to

be as transparent as possible. Right. Uh, which

was also more rare at the time. Now you're seeing

things like mash bills put on bottles and, and

things like that. But that wasn't the case when we

first started. So when we first came out of the

gate we said, okay, we're going to wait. We're

going to wait at least four years until our uh,

whiskey tells us that it's ready. It sounds silly

but really that was what we were saying back then.

We want to release it at four years but if it's

not going to, if it's not ready, we'll wait. That

was the commitment to the quality. And we also

wanted our entry level spirit to be bottled and

bond, which you're seeing a lot more of in the

industry now. There's been a resurgence in, in

bottled and bond products. But we were one of the

first to actually make our uh, I think we were the

first distillery that I know of to make our first

entry level product also bottled in bond. So to be

bottled in bond it has to be at least 4 years old.

It has to be 100 proof come from. Followed by the

same distilling team its entire life. So we were

that committed to quality. In fact we embossed it

on the bottle. So we didn't release anything until

uh, 2018. So we hurried up, we distilled and then

we waited.

>> Susan Schwartz: Now you kind of let it slip. Were you making any

gin or anything else while you were waiting?

>> Speaker C: We also, one of the things that we said was we

were only going to make things that we like to

drink. So gin was Something that we made right out

of the gate. We love, we love gin. We still make

it. We do a, what we call a Kentucky wild gin and

then we also make a bourbon barrel aged gin, um,

which is really exciting and fun. We sold a little

bit of that along the way. We did some contract

distilling for some larger clients to keep the

lights on. And we waited until 2018 and then we

released bourbon and rye here in the Kentucky

market. And it was worth the wait. I'm so glad we

did.

>> Susan Schwartz: It must have been so exciting.

>> Speaker C: Uh, it was such an exciting time. You know, it's,

I mean it's like creating anything, right? It's

almost can be across the board in any industry.

When you're releasing a product to the world for

the first time, you don't know what folks are

going to say. You don't know how people are going

to respond. You know, it's, it's a very nerve

wracking moment. The one thing we were sure about

was we knew what was in the bottle was good. We

knew the flavor was there. We priced things

fairly, we priced our bottles. Not what the market

could have borne at that time. But that was Ken's

retailer background. You know, he wanted it to be

fair. We wanted the whiskey to be your favorite

thing to drink on a Tuesday night and also what

you wanted to drink on Saturday too. And so, but

Gary, it's unnerving. You never know what folks

are gonna say. And luckily the response was

wonderful. Mhm. So we've been riding the wave ever

since. It's been, I have to pinch myself sometimes

that it's only been 12 years because, um, we've

come a long way.

>> Susan Schwartz: Now, right off the bat, were you thinking, okay, I

know we're gonna do bourbon first and then we're

gonna have a rye and maybe a single malt later. Or

were these ideas after you wanted to see how the

bourbon went?

>> Susan Schwartz: So.

>> Speaker C: Well, uh, our bourbon is a high rye bourbon.

Right. So the mash bill, that's something else we

do. We put it on the back of the bottle. The mash

bill is always, always. Yes.

>> Susan Schwartz: We didn't talk about that on the back.

>> Speaker C: Right. And so our bourbon is 65% corn, 30% rye,

which is pretty high when you think of, you know,

rye percentages and 5% malted barley. And so out

of the gate we knew we were going to make a rye.

Larry, from his former Seagram's years had shared

the, what we sometimes refer to as the original,

the bullet Bourbon. The Bullet rye recipe. Sorry.

At uh, 95 rye, 5% malted barley. And so we made

that out of the gate too. But we. We put a riff on

it. We put our spin on it. We made 90, 95% rye, 5%

malted rye. So that was a product we made out of

the gate. And we also made a little bit of 100%

malted rye pretty early on, too. Brian asked Larry

his favorite thing that he ever made at Seagrams,

and Larry's at. I made this thing. I made this.

This mash bill one time. It was so good, but, you

know, the higher ups wouldn't let me make it

because it was too expensive, so I never made it

again. And Brian said, well, what was it? And he

said, well, it was this a hundred percent malted

rye, which is still a very unusual mash bill. So

we started making that early on.

>> Susan Schwartz: So what is that like?

>> Speaker C: Oh, it's so good. It's so good. Susan, do you

still make it your bottle? We do, we do. It's.

It's part of our core line. You know, it's not

everywhere like our bourbon and rye. I mean, none

of our products are everywhere, but, uh, it's not

as easy to find, but it is exceptional. And, you

know, we learned a lot, too. We expected it to be

just like a rye on steroids, you know, bold and

spicy. And it's not. When you malt the grain, it

actually gives a softer, more elegant flavor. And

so it's a real. It's a real fun whiskey to try. I

would love anyone listening to try to pick up a

bottle if you can find one. It's hard to know

where to put it on the shelf. I think that's.

That's the issue, because it doesn't. Calling it a

malt whiskey doesn't really do it justice. Right.

And it's not really a rye because the flavors are

so different because of the malting. So it's kind

of this unknown category, but it's just another

nod to our innovation and experimenting. You know,

Ken, one of the things that he was really good at

was getting out of people's way and saying, brian,

you know, I trust your palate. I trust what you're

learning. Like, let's make some. Some great

whiskey.

>> Susan Schwartz: Yeah.

>> Speaker C: And you mentioned our single, single malt program,

which we just disclosed to the public three years

ago now. But it was something that we started

producing early on as well, actually. You know,

there was a, uh, love for scotch whiskey and a

love for international whiskies here from the get

go, Brian. And some of his teammates traveled to

Scotland to learn about how scotch was made. And

single malt particularly, so came back and started

dabbling a little bit. It's still about 2% of our

overall production. It's pretty small, but it is

delicious. Mhm. And the commitment to quality and

the commitment to what ends up going into the

bottle. I mean, there's so much work, it's so much

tasting there. It's pretty special.

>> Susan Schwartz: How old is it?

>> Susan Schwartz: It's also the four years or is it older?

>> Speaker C: No. So we released our first single mall at seven

years. So it's aged at least seven years and we've

released a new offering of it every year. So we

make just a little bit and then the following year

we'll make a little bit. But it's, it's seven

years old or older generally. And it's, you know,

it's 100% malted barley. It's our nod to Scott

Scotland.

>> Susan Schwartz: And so I know also that people can come and visit

you.

>> Speaker C: Yeah. Northern Kentucky is the most underrated

place to visit in Kentucky and it shouldn't be

that way. It's such a great place to visit. I will

say we planted our roots here and then now we

actually have nine distilleries in the Northern

Kentucky area. So there's been a lot of growth.

And because of that growth, we have some amazing

restaurants, we have some amazing bars, giant

bourbon and whiskey selections. We actually also

have the international airport. We have CVG

Cincinnati Airport, but it's in Kentucky about 20

minutes from here. And we have a direct flight to

London every day on British Airways from this

airport.

>> Susan Schwartz: Yes, yes. It wasn't around, uh, when I came. Uh,

and uh, yes, I can vouch. I love Covington and I

love Newport. I think they're great. But I meant

they can actually visit your distillery and have a

drink there.

>> Speaker C: Oh, uh, well, 100%.

>> Susan Schwartz: Yeah.

>> Speaker C: Everyone should come. They should come on the

international flight or drive in and we do. We

have a tasting room bar on our third floor of our

distillery we're very proud of. We renovated it

about two years ago and we call it the Aquifer. So

one of the things about New Riff that's really

special, sometimes we refer to it as our secret

weapon is that the entire distillery is run on an

alluvial aquifer that runs right underground,

right under the distillery. So it's very, very

hard water, very mineral rich water. Calcium.

What's in limestone? Calcium. Right. It's

limestone calcium rich water and it fuels

everything we do here at the distillery. So we

named our tasting room after it. So come visit us

at the aquifer. You can have world class

cocktails, beer, um, wine, and most importantly,

you can try over every. Everything we've ever

made. We have Apora. We've held back bottled, so

you can try all of our whiskey club offerings as

well as our core staff.

>> Susan Schwartz: Did Ken know when he was building the Party source

that there was an aquifer below it or just. It

happened?

>> Speaker C: He didn't know. He didn't know. It'd be a great

story if he did. We didn't even know it when we

were building the foundation for this building. In

all transparency, I think it's a.

>> Susan Schwartz: Better story that you don't know that you didn't

know. It just happened, right? It just happened.

And it was meant to be.

>> Speaker C: It hap. You know, the plan was to use municipal

city water, right? Which, you know, Newport water.

It's not the best, I'll tell you. It's certainly

not the best in Kentucky. It's fine. It's

filtered. It's not that, you know, it's kind of

empty water. It's water you drink. Right. Um, but

when the foundation was being laid and the plans

were being built for the distillery, we realized

100ft underground was this alluvial aquifer, which

is really amazing. You know, you think about

serendipity and those kinds of things, it's hard

not to believe in them, um, when one's. A well is

running right under our distillery. But it's been.

We test it all the time. We test it year after

year to make sure it's. It's good quality. And

it's just. It hasn't changed. It stays the same

temperature all year long. It provides a, uh,

tremendous energy, green energy savings for us.

And it's just. It's great water for our whiskey.

>> Susan Schwartz: It was, it was meant to be.

>> Speaker C: It was kismet. It was meant to be.

>> Susan Schwartz: One last thing that I wanted to ask you was, as an

artist, hopefully you get a, uh, fulfillment from

creating something and that can fulfill the need.

It may not be visual, but it's definitely pleasing

people. That's for sure.

>> Speaker C: Yeah. Well, thank you for saying that. There's so

many interests, there's so many things to do in

life. Right. And I think it's really fun to draw

parallels and have the opportunity to experiment.

Um, I don't make art anymore. I'm a little bit of

an all or nothing kind of person, so I don't paint

anymore. At least I don't right now. But I

definitely believe that Whiskey is an art. I, um,

really believe that. I think that what Brian and

his team do is artistic. Every day it's a little

bit of magic, a little bit of science and a little

bit of art all mixed together. And that is so

exciting. And creating something and delivering it

to the public and I get to talk about it every

day. I mean it's. I love what we do. So I don't

miss, miss painting because I get to be creative

in other ways. You know, we have this beautiful

architectural building here. It was really fun

being involved in the team to design the tasting

room. So I certainly have my creative outlet that

I'm able to use. And you know, it all makes us who

we are. Right. I wouldn't be the same person that

I am if I didn't go to art school and didn't have

that ability. Right.

>> Susan Schwartz: And how lovely it is that you are the next

generation to take over. I assume that's the goal,

is to keep it a family business.

>> Speaker C: It is the goal to keep a family business

wholeheartedly. Um, my father retired two years

ago. We have an unbelievable leadership team. You

know, like a lot of startups, he kind of wore a

bunch of hats. We all wore lots of hats in the

early days. And as we've grown and as we've, we've

grown our business, we have now we have 62 full

time employees and over 90 part time when you

include like modeling staff and whatnot. So we've

grown tremendously. We've taken Ken's

responsibilities and we've divided them into a

number of different, a couple of different people.

So I'm m proud to be the president of the company.

Uh, we have another female CEO. Her name is

Hannah. I might have mentioned her to you before.

We have a lot of women in leadership here and

that's always something that I love to talk about

because it's an upward battle here in the bourbon

industry. It's changing. There are a lot more

women in the industry than even 10 years ago when

I first came and got involved. But um, we

particularly have a lot of women on staff. And

that wasn't intentional, I'll be honest. We put

the right people in the right seats. Our director

of hospitality, our chief sales officer. And we

looked around and we said, oh my gosh, 2/3 of this

company is female. This is amazing. So that's

something that we're proud of too.

>> Susan Schwartz: Fantastic. Not only liquid, but a lot of other

things too. So what is the future? Are you going

to be making something Like a big splash with

something new. Are you going to continue doing

what you do?

>> Susan Schwartz: What's a little bit of the future?

>> Speaker C: Uh, the industry, as we all know, probably

everybody listening to this podcast, the industry,

the landscape's changing dramatically right now.

Our main goal is to remain independent. It's

harder and harder to do that. To be family owned

and independent is capital intensive. And so we're

holding on tight. That's our goal. Um, we believe

that makes our whiskey taste better. So I wouldn't

say that we have a lot of growth plans. We do plan

to expand more within Europe and internationally.

That's certainly not been our focus for the first

10 years. So now that's something on our horizon

as the category of American whiskey is growing

internationally. You know, we're also trying to

figure out what the apex of our aging is. Right.

So as a young distillery, last year we released an

eight year old bourbon. Um, that's part of our

core offerings at this point. And we have in our

whiskey club released some 10 year old whiskey.

But we still don't know how far our whiskey's

gonna go. We think it's delicious now and still

really vivacious and young. So we're gonna taste

it at 12 years, we're gonna taste it at 15. You

know, that's, that's going to be an exciting point

on the horizon when we feel like it's hit its best

point so that we still don't know when it will be

yet. Just to continue really focusing on the

culture here internally and makes people feel

taken care of and seen and heard and continue to

want to come to work here every day, to work in a

great place.

>> Susan Schwartz: Well, it sounds like it is. And, um, everyone out

there, uh, in the uk, you definitely can get it

here, which is exciting.

>> Speaker C: Yes. I would be remiss not to point out that the

Whiskey Exchange voted our bourbon, our bottled

and bond bourbon, as the whiskey of the year this

year for 2025 too. Had to put a plug in there.

>> Susan Schwartz: Yes. Congratulations on that. That's a big deal.

>> Speaker C: Thank you.

>> Susan Schwartz: Um, that's really great. And they will find links

to it at the Whiskey Exchange and then everywhere

else and to your website. And thank you so much

for going through the history and having a chat

here.

>> Speaker C: A real pleasure. Please come back, come see us.

Uh, Susan here in Newport again and I hope to be

able to come over and enjoy, uh, a dram with you

in London at some point soon.

>> Susan Schwartz: Yes, definitely. We can't wait to have you here.

So thanks again.

>> Speaker C: Thanks.

>> Susan Schwartz: I so want to thank Molly for joining me on the

program. Now let's raise a glass to the region

where beer culture runs deep and bourbon is a way

of life. With breweries, distilleries and a

culinary scene overflowing with award winning

restaurants and one of a kind flavors, the Cincy

region is a feast for the senses. Of course, our

Cocktail of the Week is a new riff on an old

cocktail. Our cocktail of the week is the new

fashioned. An old fashioned, but the new Rif way.

First, make your rich Demerara syrup. So in a

large pot, mix 12 ounces of water and 24 ounces of

demerara sugar together. On low heat. Use a spoon

to slowly stir it as the mixture heats up and heat

through until the sugar dissolves, never allowing

the mixture to come to a boil.

>> Susan Schwartz: Or you might have caramel.

>> Susan Schwartz: You can then store it in an airtight container in

the fridge for up to one month. Now that you have

that, add all of the following ingredients to a

mixing glass. Two ounces of Nu Rif bottled in Bond

bourbon, three dashes of Angostura bitters and

three dashes of Orange bitters and then a quarter

ounce of the rich Demerara syrup you just made.

Add ice and then stir, stir, stir. When chilled,

strain over a large rock in a rocks glass or a

coupe, then garnish with an orange peel. You'll

find this recipe in all the Cocktails of the

week@alushlifemanual uh.com. As you see, the

scentsy region is like no no other destination.

Two states, one stay and endless experiences. Here

you'll find stunning architecture, vibrant

neighborhoods and streets alive with murals and

music. You'll taste why their beer, bourbon and

culinary scenes are making headlines and you'll

feel the energy of festivals and riverfront

celebrations that bring it all together. It's

history, flavor and creativity all flowing into

one one unforgettable trip. Discover

more@visitcincy.com if you live for lush life,

then make sure you head out to the bars you love

and order a drink. And lush life is always and

will be forever. Produced by Evoterra and Simpler

Media Productions which leads me to say the wise

words of Oscar Wilde, all things in moderation,

including moderation. And always drink

responsible. This is our last episode before the

holidays, so stay safe and have fun.

>> Susan Schwartz: Until next time. Bottoms up.