I enjoy visiting the distilleries in northern Kentucky, as they provide a great opportunity to dine at some of my favorite restaurants just a short trip across the river in Cincinnati. Sotto is a beautifully decorated Italian restaurant that is locally owned and fantastic. Across the street, Nada offers a delightful upscale Mexican dining experience. For high-end luxury dining, The Capital Grill is an excellent choice. Additionally, there are many other dining options typical of larger cities. Just south of the Ohio River, which marks the border between Kentucky and Ohio, you’ll find several quality distilleries, with New Riff Distilling being one of our favorites.
Ken Lewis has dedicated his entire professional career to quality spirits as the owner of Party Source, one of the largest retail liquor stores in the country, located in Newport. When bourbon began its remarkable rise in popularity a decade ago, he decided to enter the industry despite having no experience in spirit production. His branding emerged with the slogan “A New Riff on an Old Tradition” when they opened their doors in 2014.
Due to legal restrictions preventing the same individual from owning both a distillery and a retail liquor store, Ken was required to sell Party Source. It is now owned by his staff, making it one of the largest employee-owned retail liquor stores in the U.S. Conveniently, the distillery and Visitors Center share a parking lot with Party Source in Newport, featuring impressive modern architecture.
The distillery is situated above the Ohio River Alluvial Aquifer, which supplies the vital water needed for distilling. Fortunately for New Riff, this area of the aquifer has the highest concentration of dissolved limestone, ideal for bourbon production. The water flows at an almost perfect 58 degrees, making it suitable for condensing the distillate. They pump around 500 gallons of water per minute year-round from the well located just outside their front door.
We took the bonded tour with Grover, an outstanding tour guide full of personality. The tour highlights every step of the milling, cooking, fermenting, and distilling processes. Notably, most of their bourbons are bottled-in-bond, which is uncommon in today’s market.
However, aging and bottling occur at their West Newport campus, so those aspects are not included in the tour. I particularly enjoyed the six barrels set up along the route, each containing a different spirit ready for tasting. Each time I spotted the next barrel in the distance, I felt a rush of excitement and anticipation, akin to Pavlov’s dogs.
Our tour concluded at their impressive third-floor bar, aptly named The Aquifer, which features their complete collection of bourbon, rye, and gin labels.
They also offer a Barrel Proof Tour twice a month at their West Newport Whiskey Campus, where you can taste whiskey straight from the barrel and explore the historic architecture of their bottling line. WHSKY NRD is a new monthly experience that takes tasting to a new level, adding behind-the-scenes stories focused on New Riff and the art of whiskey making.
The Hits: A Guided Tasting Experience is a special 30-minute tasting experience that is offered every Saturday afternoon. A New Riff Brand Ambassador will guide you through four different expressions including their flagship bottled-in-bond bourbon and ryes, ending with two other specialty pours.
Finally, the Blend experience allows you to spend two hours tasting various barrels and creating your own blend to take home. This event is held once a month and can be challenging to book due to its popularity.
New Riff is closed on Mondays but open every other day of the week.
Mark Meade is the author of The Bourbon Journey, a travel guide that highlights our iconic bourbon distilleries and the experience of bourbon tourism. This column serves as a natural extension of the book. All rights reserved. For questions or comments, contact the author at [email protected].
