PITTSBURGH — It's well documented that Fred Minnick loves whiskey, and now it's documented that he loves a Western Pennsylvania one too.
The expert tasted some 700 whiskeys of all sorts in 2021, and revealed his Top 100 on Wednesday via YouTube. Coming in at No. 50 is Liberty Pole Spirits Peated Rye, which is made and bottled in Washington, Pennsylvania.
Minnick said he was "so giddy" about the small distillery that "beat a lot of big-time whiskeys" because it "did something that no one has had done before and that was absolutely add the nuance of peat without losing the character of the rye. And that is one of the most exciting things I have seen in American whiskey in a long, long time." He encouraged viewers, "If you can find it, get it," but acknowledged that little was made.
