Most people familiar with the Sullivan County hamlet of Roscoe, just off picturesque Route 17, know it as a seasonal hub for fly fishing. From April1 through October 15, the visiting anglers working the confluence of the Beaver Kill and the Willowemoc Creek often outnumber the 541 year-round residents.
However, it is becoming know for for something a lot more warming than wading in frigid streams. Its newest claim to fame is what comes from the
Prohibition Distillery, which is turning out small-batch craft vodka, gin and bourbon under the label Bootlegger 21 New York.
The micro-distillery, which opened on 2009, is finding its products gaining traction in a variety of high-end restaurants and bars in New York and New Jersey, at MetLife Stadium where the Giants and Jets play, and at the famed Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan.
One of its most popular spirits is Bootlegger 21 Vodka, slow filtered for 24 hours through 800 pounds of activated charcoal, resulting in a very smooth product.
Prohibition makes just 10,000 cases of spirits a year, so it also has the tag of being rather exclusive, although not particularly expensive as boutique brands go.
"We are a $30 bottle of vodka, but we are in many of the world’s top martinis,” said Brian Facquet, founder and chief executive, in an in terview with
Jewish Link of New Jersey. “The world has changed. People are moving away from mass-produced spirits, as part of those joining the farm-to-table movement. Chefs want to know their producers and where their products come from.”
Prohibition utilizes only New York-grown corn and other ingredients and uses a local milling source. For its juniper-forward gin, botanicals are steeped in 120 proof (60% abv) neutral spirit entirely from 100 corn for 24 hours to produce then maceration. It then is distilled in a 300-gallon pot still to remove all of the color and bind the flavors. It eventually is whittled down to 47% abv, or 94 proof for bottling.
Prohibition is located at 10 Union Street in the hamlet, about a two-hour drive southwest of Albany. Tasting room phone: 607-498-4511.
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Go here to visit the Capital Region Brew Trail
• Go here to visit Dowd's New York Wines Notebook
• Go here to visit Notes On Napkins
