Let’s celebrate with a toast and get lost in tonight.
What seems like a lifetime ago, you know in 2018 BC (before COVID-19), I was dolled up in my Friday-night finest slangin’ vodka sodas and G+Ts in the top nightclub on Granville street.
Bottles of Dom were flowin’ + people were making it rain in bottle service. Men with swagger in their step were strollin up to the bar, ordering a Virginia Black + coke with a side of your phone number, you know, because they thought they could, and it was the perfect pairing to their OVO attire.
But friends, times have changed. The industry has changed. Meeting people has changed.
Let’s save those discussions for another day though. Today, we’re focusing in on Virginia Black American Whiskey. It was launched in 2016 as a collaboration between Drake + Brent Hocking (creator of DeLeón Tequila) and received a significant amount of initial traction, but I haven’t heard much about it since.
For me this whiskey falls in the “Instagram Ready” category – while the bottle is beautiful, if this whiskey was a person, their profile would be Facetuned + filtered.
Take that for what it is because hell, I filter too. After all, Instagram isn’t reality, it’s the highlight real. And speaking of…
Some quick notes about “American Whiskey”:
1️⃣ While Bourbons and Ryes from the US cannot have any colouring or flavouring added to them, things labelled in general as “American Whiskey” CAN have caramel colouring added
2️⃣ Whiskey from the US does not have a minimum aging requirement to it, it just needs to touch oak. Even for one day. And it’s considered whiskey
3️⃣ That being said, for something to be a “Kentucky Bourbon” it must be aged for at least 1 year. Further, if it is labelled a “Straight” bourbon, it must be aged for a minimum of 2 years (+ if less than 4 years then it must have an age statement on the label). Because Virginia Black is not labelled from Kentucky, a Bourbon, or Straight, none of these requirements apply
Have you tried Virginia Black? Would you go on a second date? Thoughts?
