Redemption’s New Master Blender Seeks to ‘Restore Rye Whiskey to Pre-Prohibition Glory’
Redemption Whiskey’s new Master Blender, Alan Kennedy (Photo: Redemption Whiskey)
Redemption Whiskey, a distillery that specializes in heavily rye-based whiskeys, announced in a press release published on Thursday that it has tapped Alan Kennedy for its new Master Blender position. Kennedy holds nearly two decades of experience.
The former Nashville native started his career as a classically-trained pastry chef before entering the wine and spirits industry. According to Kennedy, his formative years working as a pastry chef taught him the importance of blending art and science, which has served him in the distilling world.
After several years of training under different blenders, Kennedy was hired at Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company’s Town Branch Whiskey as Master Blender. He was one of the youngest Master Blenders working in Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail at the time. Kennedy’s aim as a Master Blender is to recreate memories with his spirits, and he offers a sensory-based approach to his work.
This is the exact approach he hopes to bring to his position at Redemption Whiskey.
“After learning about the first-of-its-kind Redemption Sur Lie innovation, it really changed my view on the possibilities of what rye whiskey could be,” said Kennedy in a news release. “The brand’s vision to restore rye whiskey to its pre-Prohibition glory by creating rye-forward whiskeys that showcase this exemplary grain is one I’m proud to shepherd, and I could not be more thrilled to join the Redemption Whiskey team as Master Blender.”
The technique Kennedy referred to is a practice that Redemption Whiskey adapted from a French winemaking process, where a wine sits on dead yeast cells called “lees” and ages there for added complexity. Certain wines like Muscadet from the Loire Valley are widely associated with the sur lie aging process and have a zesty, bready complexity, according to Wine Folly.
Redemption Whiskey’s process is similar in that it adds an acidic liquid strained off the mash called backset to the distilled whiskey before the aging process occurs in barrels.
More About Redemption Whiskey
Redemption Whiskey seeks to revitalize rye-based spirits and cites the historical significance of rye in its quest to do so. The brand’s core program hosts bottles of bourbon, rye and high rye bourbon that are inspired by pre-Prohibition recipes. Redemption Whiskey also released a wheated bourbon, which Whiskey Raiders has reviewed here.
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