American Heritage Redux
My group of California friends at Leopold Bros distillery this week
I spent a good hour and a half going down the Reddit rabbit hole this afternoon, researching American heritage clothing brands, while on the hunt for some new casual wear that met my qualitative standards. Without naming names, I’m talking about the established denim, workwear, and T-shirt companies that have long been synonymous with American-made (or, at the very least, high quality) garments. We all know who they are, and we’ve all been burned by them over the last few years. The sizing has changed, the craftsmanship is not as good, the materials are more synthetic, and the production sites have gone from North and Central American-based to remote parts of Asia.
There are dozens and dozens of online reviews and rants on this subject, about how “things aren’t made the way they used to make them.” Even the most reliable American heritage clothiers are settling for cheaper materials and fast fashion quality.
That being said, having spent a couple of days at the Leopold Bros distillery in Denver this week, I can safely say that things are moving in the opposite direction there. Whereas plenty of other distillers are following the private equity model, cranking out slop in a fancy bottle, hoping to sell their brands for a billion dollars, Todd Leopold is actively plotting a full return to the “good old days.” Imagine if Levi-Strauss announced a plan to begin hand-sewing and stitching its denim in San Francisco again, just like they originally did in 1873. That’s pretty much what Todd is doing with the Three Chamber whiskies.
Unlike a modern column still that can crank out 1500 to 2000 barrels a day at the major Kentucky distilleries, the Three Chamber still can only create about one and a half barrels on a full day’s run. It’s mindbogglingly slow and inefficient, but the quality is just insane. Sort of like a hand-made pair of jeans, or a hand-stitched shirt, made by a master. We know now that George Dickel and Jack Daniels used a Three Chamber Still back in the day. Old Fitzgerald Bourbon was also Three Chamber-based at one point. However, after thirteen years of a dry America, the post-Prohibition push for more whiskey, as fast as possible, required serious scale. Americans needed their whiskey—FAST! Only a giant column still could get the job done.
It could be that Americans have a similar sentiment about quality when it comes to clothes, preferring a cheaper, quickly-delivered and more disposable alternative to long-lasting durability. I’m not one of them, but then again I’m not one of them when it comes to whiskey, either. Having tasted through the entire Leopold Bros Three Chamber catalog on Monday (peach brandy, pear brandy, 100% malted rye, 100% malted Bourbon, single malt, etc), all directly from the barrel, I can tell you without hesitation: both the effort and the quality are well worth the price of admission.
And I’m only talking about the distillation here!
When you learn about how the Leopold Bros distillery floor-malts its grains, adhering to centuries-old practices that create more complex and interesting flavors in the whiskies, you begin to realize just how much work goes into every bottle. I wish I could find that same level of quality and craftsmanship in my clothing these days, but I guess I’ll have to settle for the booze.
-David Driscoll