Just as it takes time for whiskey to mature, the same can be true for a city’s craft whiskey scene. New players emerge, old ones are acquired, and an identity takes shape that wasn’t there before.

In New York, some craft producers have latched on to rye both as a historically accurate style for the region and a useful base for cocktails.

Old Grains, New Habits

As the city’s cocktail consciousness expands, brands like Great Jones, Fort Hamilton, and Jaywalk are meeting the moment with affordable, flavor-driven whiskeys. They evoke the past while also meeting the present, investing not only in rye as a grain, but as a story as well.

With each, that story starts by communicating a clear New York identity. Great Jones takes its name from an East Village street near its downtown distillery and visitors center, and has worked with the Jean-Michel Basquiat estate to feature the New Yorker’s iconic work on its bottles. Fort Hamilton Distillery takes its name from a famous New York Army base in the southwest corner of Brooklyn. In March 2024, the New York Distilling Company (NYDC) rebranded its line of whiskeys under the Jaywalk label. The bottle has eight sides with a stop sign hidden underneath.

“We wanted to increase the factor as strongly and as relevantly as we could to identify boldly with New York and with our providence in Brooklyn,” co-founder Allen Katz says. In May, NYDC was purchased by Loch Lomond Group. “The interest on our part and our partners in Loch Lomond is creating a brand that speaks as strongly as possible, verbally and with visual cues, to the New York origins of Jaywalk Rye,” Katz says.

These brands convey a clear sense of the city in both name and label, but they give that identity added depth by pursuing historic grains and distilling practices local to the region. NYDC exclusively makes rye whiskey for this reason and has revived the Horton strain of heirloom rye in an effort to pursue flavors of the past.

Similarly, Fort Hamilton uses pre-Prohibition mash bills and techniques to imbue its whiskeys with a sense of history. Co-founder Alex Clark helped launch Widow Jane, one of the first craft producers in the city, leaving the brand in 2014. In the decade since, Widow Jane gained a national audience, culminating in an acquisition by Heaven Hill in 2022.

“We wanted to increase the factor as strongly and as relevantly as we could to identify boldly with New York and with our providence in Brooklyn.”

Clark, though, dreamed of creating a Monongahela-style rye, and as a Brit, he speaks with passion and authority on the history of whiskey distillation in New York. With Fort Hamilton, he has paired that research with a background in bartending, releasing a Double Barrel rye in 2019, and opening a tasting room in Brooklyn’s Industry City in 2021.

“The Double Barrel rye was us planting our flag in the sand and saying, ‘OK, bartenders, here we come. We’ve got something for you which is super tasty, which is in a bottle that you can use, that has local cachet, has local grain in it, and doesn’t break the bank,” Clark says. “These are all things that we’ve understood because of our history in the hospitality industry.”

The Manhattan Bridge

These whiskeys bear their New Yorkness, pay homage to the state’s distilling practice, and are designed with cocktails in mind. The challenge becomes landing on back bars and on menus with an understanding of the tenuous economic circumstances that many bars, especially those in New York, face. However, a natural starting point has emerged in the classic Manhattan.

In September 2024, Great Jones announced a bartending competition in collaboration with New York magazine, inviting drink makers to put “Manhattan back into the Manhattan.” (In 2025, Great Jones partnered with VinePair for a similar competition.) Great Jones is owned by Proximo Spirits and is the first legal whiskey distillery in Manhattan since Prohibition.

“A key part of our strategy is prioritizing the Manhattan cocktail as the signature serve of Manhattan’s only whiskey distillery, as well as reinforcing relevance through riffs on other classics,” Lander Otegui, CMO at Proximo, says. “It is a natural fit for a New York whiskey.”

For Katz, the Manhattan remains a point of emphasis as well, noting an interest in vermouth and variance in ratio. “Something familiar even by name can be made original in the hands of great bartenders and great bar teams,” he says. On Nov. 20, Brooklyn steakhouse Gage & Tollner posted a behind-the-scenes video creating its barrel-aged Brooklyn, a cousin to the Manhattan, with Jaywalk Rye featured prominently.

“I don’t know that we would proclaim we’re the New York rye,” Katz adds. “I would love for New York to be known as a landmark not only for distilling rye but for growing rye and its intentionality and usage in cocktails.”

In this regard, Clark is sensitive to price point, and understands that many bartenders will continue to opt for more affordable, Kentucky-made expressions like Rittenhouse and Old Overholt. But still, in some accounts, like the historic Fraunces Tavern in New York’s Financial District, a tourist or native city dweller can order a Manhattan made with Fort Hamilton rye.

“We wanted to capture the lighter side of the city that only shows up after a long day. You walk into a bodega, see a cat asleep on a cozy box of bread, and for a second the whole place feels softer.”

“Even if you’re not going to use it in your full-on cocktail program, it’s a great back bar bottle to be an upsell and have a great story behind it,” Clark says. “And the New York rye story is legit.”

Look further, and additional brands are pairing New York iconography with a focus on rye cocktails. Comedians Sam Morril and Mark Normand launched Bodega Cat rye whiskey in 2022, and though the liquid is currently made in Indiana, the attitude is distinctly New York. Morril is native to the city and a diehard Knicks fan. Beginning in November 2024, Bodega Cat picked up distribution throughout New York via RNDC.

“The whiskey isn’t from New York, the feeling is,” Morril says. “We wanted to capture the lighter side of the city that only shows up after a long day. You walk into a bodega, see a cat asleep on a cozy box of bread, and for a second the whole place feels softer.”

Morril includes the ingredients for a Manhattan on his rider and will make the drink for others in the green room. It’s that cause for occasion, be it at home or a bar, that many of these brands are tapping into, while simultaneously considering price and approachability. Great Jones rye is priced at $35, Fort Hamilton Double Barrel rye is $42, Bodega Cat straight rye is $47, and Jaywalk straight rye is $50.

“Our tact is to create social experiences and to recall that having a cocktail out or making a cocktail at home is fun,” Katz says. “There’s nitty gritty with how you get into that, but for us, in the original and rebranding of Jaywalk, we’ve had success and grown the brand over these last two years really focusing on a unique context for the Manhattan.”

The article The Race to Be New York’s Rye appeared first on VinePair.