Catoctin Creek’s Unusual New Rye Uses Leftover Barrels To Support The Industry

Under the weight of COVID-19, restaurants and bars are suffering huge financial hardship—in a matter of months, they have pivoted from purchasing pricey private barrels to worrying about where rent money will come from.

Through the release of a unique new rye whisky, the award-winning Catoctin Creek Distillery is aiding the spirits community; buying back custom barrels from restaurants and bars struggling to keep businesses afloat.

“Restaurants and their staff operate on slender margins, and there is real fear that many will not survive this pandemic,” says Becky Harris, chief distiller. “When some establishments were unable to complete purchases of their private barrels, we decided to accept returns of those cases.”

From these returns, the Purcellville, Virginia-based distillery has created an experimental new rye whisky.

Dubbed #AllInThisTogether, the new bottling is born from a standard Virginia 100% rye whisky. It’s then divided and aged in a number of different barrels, from American Chardonnay oak cask, an apple brandy cask and an American imperial stout cask from Virginia’s Stable Craft brewery. 

“After tasting samples, and some experiments, I decided to combine the whiskies into a single special release with which we could give something back to the people who have helped us build our company over the past ten years,” describes Harris.

The spirits are mixed together, rebarreled, and bottled as a new expression: the infinity barrel. What result is a complex, spicy, fruity rye.  

100% of all profits from these bottles will go to charities supporting out-of-work and struggling restaurants, bars and their staff: the USBG’s bartender emergency assistance program; Ayuda DMV, which provides social services and language access services to low-income immigrant; the Restaurant Worker’s Community Fund; Southern Smoke, a crisis relief organization for people in the food and beverage industry.

“We wanted to find partners who could help us get assistance to the people who are the heart and soul of all these restaurants, who are often undocumented, juggling multiple jobs, may be struggling with health effects from the virus themselves,  and uncertain whether their workplaces will ever open again,” explains Harris.

Founded in 2009 by Becky and Scott Harris, the brand has been selling custom blends and experimental barrels to restaurants and bars through the barrel select program. Coronavirus has grinded the program to halt. With no customers to wine and dine, restaurants and bars are in dire need of funds.

This isn’t an easy thing to do in the least—“watching the effects of this public health emergency on our partners was heartbreaking,” says Harris.

It’s become the norm for distilleries to pivot over to supporting those in need in the crisis, via hand sanitizer creation and donation: small brands like Finger Lakes Distillery to global giants like Bacardi are turning their facilities into hand sanitizer operations.

Catoctin Creek is using this project as an opportunity to help their industry network, and bring drinkers something exciting to sip while we collectively weather the storm. 

“One of the biggest unexpected pleasures of starting our business in the spirits industry was the opportunity to form relationships with the bartenders, chefs, and servers in the hospitality industry,” says Harris. “These partnerships are the life’s blood of an emerging brand as you work to introduce yourself and your products in new markets.”

To sidestep TTB label approval, the brand is using an already-approved label for barrel selects. Bottles are available at the distillery or or online. Sales begin June 1st.