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John Douglass

@douglassjohn

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@drinkvillaalta

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by @douglassjohn

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2 years ago

by @douglassjohn

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a month ago

Couple years ago one of my favorite regulars asked me for a bar rec in LA. I was like yo: go to Mirate. A month or so later they return and ask what I’m excited about at our bar and I pull down some Oaxacan rums we had recently brought in. Those favorite regulars: we just had those with your friend at Mirate, they’re so great.

Couple months later, favorite regular asks: “so…could we do something like that?” And I gave him a list of reasons why I wouldn’t want to do it. It would have to be producer-forward and not about us. I’m not trying to sell to Diageo or whatever. Etc. etc. etc. Basically a list of reasons favorite regular would not want to do this with me and he says “yeah, cool, same here.” No objections, do you know how to make this happen? Sure.

So for the last couple years we send barrels to Oaxaca, to a little village 4+ hours from the city called San Cristobal Lachirioag. And the homies out there make rum and fill the barrels. We go down a few times, taste the progress, work with the family. Our best possible outcome is that Skurnik will import and distribute us and on first ask they say yes. Holy shit. This is getting real.

Last week in Oaxaca 3/4 of us who are partners in the rum project—it’s called Viila Alta—met up with some bar and distro humans to taste through 9 of our first barrels and we picked four to bottle, send to Skurnik, and bring to market.

Quarter 2 of this year: Villa Alta Rum will be available from Skurnik and their distro partners in CA, NY, IL, KY, GA, CO, TX. There will be four single barrel expressions: two new American oak casks at 14 months, one ex-bourbon at 14 months, and one French oak single cask at 11 months old. It’s from a base of Oaxacan aguardiente de caña made from fresh-pressed single-varietal sugar cane juice. It’s really fucking delicious and these four are just the first releases.

For private barrel inquiries, reach out. by @douglassjohn

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9 months ago