The distillers at Chattanooga Whiskey Co. don’t want to rush perfection, but neither do they want to wait two years to party.
So tomorrow, Nov. 18, at the Tennessee Stillhouse on Market Street, they’ll release a limited-edition run of unaged, 100-proof white whiskey. Chattanooga Whiskey 100 is the first whiskey legally distilled in Hamilton County since local prohibition laws were put into effect in 1915. They were repealed in 2013 following a statewide political effort by Piersant and former partner Joe Ledbetter to return whiskey production to Chattanooga. Until then, Chattanooga Whiskey had been made in Indiana.
Besides receiving one of the first 100 bottles being produced, visitors can expect a tour of the micro-distillery, food and live music by bands with several members who also work at the Tennessee Stillhouse. Co-founder Tim Piersant will deliver a toast, and head distiller Grant McCracken will talk a little bit about whiskey. The first 100 bottles will be signed by Piersant and McCracken.
There are only 100 bottles of Chattanooga Whiskey 100 available and only 100 passes into the party.
Piersant says Chattanooga Whiskey is known for traditional bourbon whiskey, so releasing an unaged variety hadn’t been in the original plans. But with the locally made, aged whiskey not expected for release for another two years, company officials decided to develop a limited-edition version to commemorate the significance of 2015 for their company and the city.
“The anniversary [of local prohibition laws] is in 2015, and we opened the micro-distillary in 2015,” he says.
The design of the packaging for the new product is based on the company’s “Whiskey to the People” mural and campaign when the company was spearheading efforts to repeal the local ban on distilling.
If not all 100 party tickets sell out, remaining bottles of Chattanooga Whiskey 100 will be sold at the Tennessee Stillhouse retail stores, while supplies last.
Wesley Mayes is a junior at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.