Ironclad Distillery The Monitor Blend High Wheat Bourbon Whiskey
Ironclad Distillery The Monitor Blend High Wheat Bourbon Whiskey Bottle (Image Courtesy of Ironcladdistillery.com)
Way back in the Civil War, the world witnessed a battle between two ships that were the first of their kind in the Americas: the Monitor and the Merrimack (christened before the war but called the Virginia at the time of battle).
In March 1862, the two ships - the Monitor of the Union and the Virginia of the Confederacy - faced off in the Battle of Hampton Roads, at the mouth of the James River in Southern Virginia. The ships fought for four hours, trading largely inaccurate but occasionally brutal blows, before a stalemate was declared and each ship retreated from the field.
Though neither ship would see the end of the Civil War, the battle was pivotal in boosting Northern morale after early Confederate victories. The battle took place just offshore from Newport News, Virginia, in sight of where Ironclad Distillery sits today.
When Stephen King (no, not that one) decided he wanted to found a distillery in Newport News, it would be the first in the city and among the first 20 in Virginia. He and his family, including distiller Owen King, visited the local historical sites seeking inspiration for the distillery’s name. They also had some time to kill while the city updated their codes to accommodate a distillery that would sit steps from City Hall, Circuit Court, and a handful of ostensibly important buildings.
In their visits with the historians, the Kings found what they were looking for in the story of the Ironclads and seeing the battle from their proposed site near the James River, and Ironclad Distillery was born.
In the process, they gained an appreciation for the Monitor, who sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras on New Year’s Eve 1862. The ship sat at the bottom of the coastline for over a century until crews found the wreck in 1973, with the turret raised in 2002. The Mariner’s Museum and Park in Newport News holds many of the ship’s recovered artifacts, and another inspiration hit - if the Kings were to create a distillery named after the Ironclads, a line of their whiskies should honor the one housed in their home town steps from where its most famous battle took place.
Owen, Stephen’s son and the head of all Ironclad’s experimentation and exploration of corn and grain, is clear that every product should have a mashbill for that product according to what the distillery wants that product to be. For the Monitor Blend, Owen incorporated wheat into the mashbill. Why wheat? All part of the Monitor’s history.
The Monitor may have seen its most famous action in Virginia and sank in North Carolina, but it was built in New York City’s Continental Ironworks in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The site is a mile or two north of today’s Brooklyn Navy Yard, where Kings County Distillery operates as the first legal distillery in New York City since Prohibition. Kings County and its co-founder Colin Spoelman were invaluable to Stephen and Owen as they designed what would become Ironclad Distillery, and the Kings modeled their new distillery heavily after Colin’s.
So, you have the Kings being trained and inspired at Kings County, in the borough where the Monitor was built and the age of the Ironclads began. It all has a sense of meant-to-be about it, doesn’t it? To bring it all together, a pre-Prohibition whiskey brand had existed in New York City that honored that heritage. It was a rye, not a bourbon (or even a wheated bourbon), but it was the final connection.
Its name? The Monitor Blend.
Thank you to Ironclad Distillery for providing this sample for review purposes without restriction.
Ironclad Distillery The Monitor Blend High Wheat Bourbon Whiskey: Specs
Classification: Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Origin: Ironclad Distillery
Mashbill: To Come
Proof: 86 (43% ABV)
Age: 2+ Years
Location: Newport News, Virginia
Ironclad Distillery The Monitor Blend High Wheat Bourbon Whiskey Price: $39.99
Ironclad Distillery The Monitor Blend High Wheat Bourbon Whiskey Review: Tasting Notes
Eye: Mott’s Apple Juice. Rocky rims and splotchy droplets.
Nose: Bright and lemony. Wheat and corn shine first, like sticking your face in the grain bin (no fermentation). Smells a bit above proof, closer to a 95º.
Palate: Wheater for sure as soon as it hits the tongue. Chocolate undertones are abundant. The grain is clear as it enters the palate (some might find this “young”, but I find it refreshing and clean). Whatever raw grain is there matures in the chew. Plenty of ruby red grapefruit zest. Mouthfeel is heavy, settling on the tongue but especially under it. Dutch cocoa and cherry build.
Finish: Medium-length, coating and just a touch oaky. Fruit-forward.
Overall: Some might think this “young” at first due to the clear grain, but I enjoyed that. Even if you don’t, give it a few seconds and the grains mature in the sip as the mouthfeel grows drastically with fruit and chocolate.
Final Rating: 6.4
10 | Insurpassable | Nothing Else Comes Close
9 | Incredible | Extraordinary
8 | Excellent | Exceptional
7 | Great | Well above average
6 | Very Good | Better than average
5 | Good | Good, solid, ordinary
4 | Has promise but needs work
1-3 | Let’s have a conversation
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