Dale DeGroff's Ragtime Barrel

Allen Katz made the whiskey, Dale DeGroff selected the barrel, 170 people get to drink it.

There’s something about autographed bottles of booze that makes me… well, not want to open them. It’s the collector in me, I suppose. I don’t have too many signed bottles, but the ones I have are sealed and will remain so indefinitely — especially that bottle of Heaven’s Door signed (so the brand’s publicist tells me, at least) by Bob Dylan himself. He signed the box, not the bottle, so theoretically I could drink the damn thing, but I respectfully decline to do so.

Last week I got a bottle of Ozark Mountain Daredevils’ Ozark Dry Gin (haven’t heard of it? Get the skinny right -> HERE <-) signed by two of the founding band members (in addition to making a top-notch gin, the Ozarks are a top-notch country rock band with several sizable hits over their 50-year career). The first bottle I had was almost empty, and with my no-drinking-signed-bottles policy firmly in place and the gin not available outside Missouri, I was pretty screwed. Fortunately, the Ozarks understand the whole collectors’ thing, and promptly offered to send me ANOTHER, unsigned bottle which I could actually, you know, drink. Needless to say, I gratefully accepted their offer.

Which leads me to the latest Ragtime Rye single barrel bottling, selected by the legendary Dale DeGroff himself — with each bottle containing his signature and a little doodle as well. Whether or not you know Ragtime Rye, or the NY Distilling Co. which makes it, or their head distiller Allen Katz, or even Dale DeGroff, you should read my piece about it in Alcohol Professor (link is -> HERE <-). It’s a testament not only to NYDC but to the entire Empire Rye movement (stay tuned for more on that in future days/weeks). In fact, I bought one of the 170 bottles myself. But did I drink it? Well… let’s just say not yet.

Anywhoozle, click the link and read the article — and then, if I’m being persuasive enough, pick up a bottle. Or two, one to save and one to drink.