THE BIG IDEA BACK TO THE EARTH
THIS WHISKEY-WORLD arms race has accelerated in recent years, with brands taking big swings to make new bottles stand out. Most of the energy has focused on the aging end of things, using barrels made from nonstandard woods, for example, or creative cask finishes. Some distilleries have even blasted their whiskey with heavy-metal music or put it on board ships to sail the open ocean.
There is, however, a small but growing group of whiskey makers tinkering with the very start of the process, using heirloom grains rather than commodity products in the mash bill. These rare cultivars of rye, corn, and barley were developed decades or even centuries ago and have fallen largely out of
