The Distillery of Trendy Artwork is a extremely attention-grabbing operation in Chamblee, Ga., simply northeast of downtown Atlanta contained in the I-285 loop. The comparatively small distillery produces solely about 2,000 barrels per yr, each for itself and as a contract distiller for a number of different small manufacturers. However what it is producing is already actually, actually good after solely a few years of expertise.
I first tasted by way of a few of their merchandise late final yr throughout a digital session with founder Seth Watson. The corporate hadn’t locked down Center Tennessee distribution at the moment, so I didn’t wish to get Bites readers’ hopes up. However now I’m blissful to say that Tennessee Crown has been locked down as their distributor, representing the whole DoMA product line.
So the place does that identify come from? Seth got here to the spirits enterprise by way of leisure manufacturing, and artwork has lengthy been an necessary a part of his life. When he determined to open a distillery, he selected to do it in a multipurpose facility that features an artwork gallery that sells works from native artists with out charging a fee, a cocktail lounge and a rentable occasion house.
Barrels age alongside artwork at DoMA
That is all along with housing a pot nonetheless and a column nonetheless used to create seven spirits for DoMA together with a number of different recipes for contract prospects. Younger distilleries virtually have to return out of the gate with a vodka in order that they have one thing to promote instantly. Head distiller Matt Greif developed an inexpensive Atlanta Vodka, distilled from a French wheat base. Inoffensive and cheap, it will get the job finished. It’s additionally the bottom of a peach-flavored vodka, which is just a little on-the-nose for a Georgia distillery, however I did respect that the fruit flavors from the peach easy syrup had been extra delicate than I anticipated and never cloying just like the peach schnapps that often makes me flash again to horrific “Intercourse on the Seashore” cocktails throughout my misspent 20s. Moreover, DoMA presents a Peach Amaro, which is a pleasant mixture of fruit, sweetness and bitter notes to be loved neat or because the bittering agent of a black Manhattan. (Extra on that one later.)
Rather more attention-grabbing is DoMA’s Nouveau Gin, an award-winning 96-proof gin made with 11 botanicals, together with coriander, juniper, orris root, angelica root, lemon and orange peel, cassia cinnamon, Szechuan peppercorn and chamomile. I discovered this to be a pleasant gin — and apparently the judges at Tales of the Cocktail’s spirits competitors agreed with me, naming it Gin of the 12 months. The San Francisco Spirits Competitors additionally awarded a Double Gold to Nouveau Gin this yr.
A standard London dry gin, this product had a pleasant tongue-coating mouthfeel, and Watson suggested consuming it with lemon as an alternative of lime in a G&T so the acid can brighten the flavors. He was appropriate!
The distillery’s fifth product is a novel corn whiskey, an ignored class within the bourbon-centric setting of right this moment, however an attention-grabbing addition to the product line. Made utilizing 100% native white corn, this 102-proof whiskey presents savory notes to steadiness the sweetness of the corn. I discovered the floral notes of the nostril to be surprisingly delicate and pleasant.
After all, virtually each distillery is judged by their bourbon and rye whiskeys, and the Distillery of Trendy Artwork has been ready for greater than two years for the magic of oak barrels so as to add coloration and taste to their preliminary distilling runs. It was well worth the wait, as a result of for nonetheless comparatively younger merchandise, DoMA’s rye and straight bourbon whiskey already present nice promise.
The bourbon is bottled at 90 proof, though Watson hopes to supply a 100-proof bottled-in-bond model as soon as the spirit has reached the minimal 4 years in oak for that designation. The present product ought to retail at round $50 per bottle, however that is meant to be a day by day drinker. As Watson tells me, “You are alleged to drink it — don’t stare at it!”
As soon as I finished staring (apparently), I found attention-grabbing tannins and candy tea notes that I fairly loved. However the actual hit was DoMA’s rye whiskey.
Distiller Greif truly wrote his thesis on rye whiskey, so it’s close to and expensive to his coronary heart. As an alternative of utilizing malted rye from the Midwest or the plains of Canada, Grief and Watson supply their grain from the Abruzzo area of Italy. European rye is understood for its creamy mouthfeel and darkish chocolate aromas, and this explicit whiskey positively delivers on each these accounts.
Mild on the palate, the rye has developed a pleasant little bit of coloration after solely three years within the barrel, and the oaky and vanilla flavors extracted from the wooden play properly with the nutty character of the grain. Watson instructed making a fast Black Manhattan with the rye and his peach amaro, and blended at a 3-to-1 ratio, it was a straightforward and pleasant cocktail. Perhaps add a couple of dashes of Angostura and orange bitters and name it a day. (Or extra in all probability, an evening.)
Now that DoMA is formally distributed in Center Tennessee, it’s best to begin to see it popping up in additional shops and on cocktail menus. I’m impressed with their first few chapters, and I’m wanting ahead to no matter is subsequent!
