Last year, I was curious about this new place Hillrock Estate in upstate New York, near the Massachusetts border. At first “site” unseen, I expected another craft place churning out white dog to pay the bankers off. But then, not so fast: The owner, Jeff Baker, was the banker, and a very interesting guy indeed.

I made the trip there and was shocked. Amazingly shocked. First, he hired one of the best, Dave Pickerell, to consult and be Master Distiller. Dave was Master Distiller at Maker’s Mark and was behind many of the awesome special gold and black wax variations, I believe in the ’80s. Dave has not just made this his Frankenstein’s monster, but a bunch of monsters — cool Pixar monsters, like monsters with the looks of super models.

With more freedom, Hillrock came out with a really good seeded Solaria-aged, sherry cask-finished Bourbon and now a single malt that is one of the most original and perfectly matched for a good cigar as I’ve had. Not the best single malt, but very enjoyable. I’ve sort of fallen for the place, having been there.

Tim Welly runs the place, having a nice background in fine California vineyards, and it shows, as the place has a very winery-like feel. He deserves much credit as the day to day guy doing most of the work. Onsite storage units are filled with experiments and future barrels intended for bottling, or not. Each release has a few hundred bottles and are released almost exclusively to a few restaurants and stores in New York.

These things are typically impossible for most all craft places without a financially independent and successful owner that seems to have literally “bought in;” adding his, Dave and Tim’s passion, it all works real well.

They raise much of the grain on the estate farm that surrounds the property and Jeff’s home. They do their own floor malting, which can be smoked as well. The bottle itself is the coolest new bottle I’ve seen in several years — it oozes class, which may itself sway some, but I’ve blind-tasted this one with many people and the contents are a good match for the bottle.

They originally weren’t doing an unaged Whiskey, but Pickerell has a major relationship with the reconstructed George Washington Mount Vernon Estate Distillery. In the late 1700s, Washington was the nation’s largest distiller, which was located at Mt. Vernon. Pickerell and a bunch of other Master Distillers helped to reconstruct what Washington had there onsite.

Once rebuilt, Mt. Vernon started producing an aged and unaged Rye with tiny production and huge demand. The Whiskey is so essential for Mt. Vernon fund raising, that they did a deal with Hillrock to produce more of Washington’s Recipe of unaged rye, blending Hillrock juice with some Mt. Vernon. The bad news is the stuff is only available onsite and at a few stores and restaurants in New York. Enjoy if you can.