185: Carefully Crafting Bourbon and Rye Whiskey with Pinhook

Putting a wine-maker's spin on blending bourbon and rye, Sean Joseph's utilizes his background as a Wine Sommelier to blend yearly vintages of Pinhook.  We discuss the Pinhook approach to blending and the work behind the horse racing-inspired branding.  It's clear that there is a lot more to this whiskey than colorful wax.  Have you tried Pinhook Whiskies before?  Let us know your thoughts by dropping us a line on social media. About Pinhook: The standard approach to American whiskey uses blending and a fixed proof to replicate an established flavor profile batch after batch. Breaking with this tradition, Pinhook treats each set of barrels as a new vintage, shaped by the natural variations in the ingredients and the elements. Working in small batches, we craft each vintage to express the best whiskey rather than the same whiskey, and set the proof to optimize the unique attributes of that group of barrels. To differentiate these expressions from each other and to help identify the same expression across multiple vintages, we have developed a visual language, inspired by jockeys' silks. Click Here to learn more about  what each component signifies. About Sean Josephs: Sean Josephs is a founder of Pinhook and the Master Blender, a role in which he directs Castle & Key in the distillation of Pinhook's custom mashbills and blends and proofs every Pinhook vintage. Sean's background is as an award-winning restaurateur, certified sommelier and nationally-acclaimed whiskey and cocktail expert. After cutting his teeth at Chanterelle and Per Se in New York City, Sean opened three American Whiskey bars and restaurants: Char No. 4 and Maysville in New York and Kenton's in New Orleans. The food and bar programs have been recognized by publications ranging from Esquire to the Wall Street Journal. Sean has appeared on the New York Times' wine and spirits tasting panel on several occasions, has authored articles on bourbon, and is frequently quoted as a whiskey and cocktail authority. Sean is a graduate of the Colorado College.