In the world of American whiskey there are many small ventures started by individuals with great passion, but not necessarily industry knowhow or time in chair. That is learned as the years go along, but for those coming out of the gate on a new venture having a pedigree already can make all the difference.
Such is the story of Silverthorn Reserve.
Silverthorn Reserve is a new, intensely focused whiskey undertaking by Drew Thorn. Drew comes to this venture on the coattails of a decade-long post as COO/CFO then CEO of Sagamore Spirit, the highly successful rye whiskey producer out of Maryland. Having gained his knowledge of what makes a good bottled brown spirit there, he now intentionally is focused on creating something small and unique.
Silverthorn is easily that indie-whiskey brand you want to know about, that one which delivers the highest quality expressions that showcase a true master blender’s art. It is not an undertaking which sprouted up overnight, but rather something Drew had envisioned for years prior as his retirement project.
Everything about Silverthorn has the highest degree of craft and precision going for it. Even the name is a careful consideration – when Drew’s son was just a few years old he began calling himself Silverthorn, combining parts of the maiden names of his parents (Silverman + Thorn). Having the family name on the business ensures personal accountability to the highest standards.
Silverthorn is all Drew, all the time – he led the design of the bottles/brand visual identity, determined the initial product line, sourced the whiskey, blended the product, and bottled it. Not a single step is something he doesn’t have his hands in.
As part of the Silverthorn story, Drew maintains an extremely cordial relationship with Sagamore. He is able to warehouse his creations in the distillery’s aging barns, and do his initial production work onsite, among other things.
Sourcing
Drew’s sourcing style is best described as geographically agnostic. While he currently brings in whiskeys from Georgia, Indiana, and Kentucky, he is open to any place really provided the quality of the liquid is solid. His sweet spot for the products he likes to work with is aged 10-15 years, though this is not a hard and fast rule.
Transparency is key to Silverthorn in its sourcing practices. Georgia whiskey, for example, was acquired from Bardstown Bourbon Company who, in turn, got it from the now defunct Ivy Mountain distillery. The Indiana whiskeys, meanwhile, include a high malt bourbon, and were sourced from Old Elk, a once independent whiskey brand with former MGP master distiller Greg Metze at the helm.
Production
When the barrels arrive in Maryland, Drew personally samples every single one and conducts sensory analysis. He maintains a comprehensive database containing detailed information on each barrel—its characteristics, flavor profile, proof, age, and quality assessment. This master dataset becomes the foundation for barrel selection during blending and helps identify exceptional barrels worthy of holding for single barrel releases or additional aging.
His blending technique begins in the lab with extensive experimentation. He creates numerous small-scale mock blends (approximately 100 milliliters each), testing different combinations until achieving the desired flavor profile. Once satisfied with a lab blend, he scales it up to a 750ml test to ensure the blend works properly and maintains its intended characteristics at a larger volume.
After finalizing the blend formula, he dumps all the selected barrels, combines them, then returns the blended whiskey back into the same barrels it came from. It then rests in these barrels for at least a month, sometimes more, until he feels it is ready for bottling.
When this time occurs, he moves the barrels over to another partner distillery – Old Line Spirits in Baltimore. After dumping and filtering the barrels (his filtration approach avoids chill filtration, instead using cellulose sock filters that catch char and sediment, while preserving the whiskey’s full flavor and mouthfeel) into the packaging tank, the whiskey rests for an additional 4-5 days. This allows the separate barrels (even though pre-blended) to fully integrate in the tank environment before bottling.
A Specialized Cask Finishing Process
Among the initial expressions brought to market by Silverthorn Reserve, one of particular note is a Port Finish Rye. What makes this variant stick out from anything else like it that Drew knows of is the result of ingenuity meeting the challenges of a conventional approach to cask finishing, which can have a host of issues from cask freshness to barrel authenticity to lack of quality for the product in the barrel before it was dumped for later finishing use.
Drew’s approach is the development and hand-fabrication of a unique barrel condition system using a stainless steel rod with an atomizing tip that inserts through the bung hole into the barrel. This system, powered by CO2, sprays port into a fine mist to coat the inside of the barrel. Forced into the barrel walls by the press of the CO2, it penetrates the wood grain to imbue that with the flavor characteristics one might expect out of a port finish. The barrel is then allowed to cure for a period before whiskey is added.
What results is control of a range of variables, including port selection, barrel wood quality, freshness of the fortified wine and precise quantity measurement of the introduced product to maintain flavor balance.
Product Line Up
Expressions in the Silverthorn line up are broken up as follows:
Blender’s Art Series
This series showcases the art of blending, combining whiskeys from different sources, ages, and mashbills to create distinctive flavor profiles. Current releases include:
- 10-Year Bourbon Blend: the most complex blend in the current portfolio, containing whiskeys from Georgia, Kentucky, and Indiana (14Y 4-grain bourbon from GA, with 10Y high-malt bourbon from IN and 10Y low-rye bourbon from KY).
- 10-Year Rye Blend: A blend of eight barrels that brings together 13Y high-rye, with 10Y high-rye, 10Y low-rye, and 1 barrel of 10Y high-rye double oak. All from Indiana.
- 10-Year Bourbon & Rye: A marriage of 13-year bourbon and two 10-year ryes.
Finisher’s Art Series
This series focuses on the art of building flavors through secondary maturation—cask finishing:
- Port Finish Rye: the current release, using Drew’s proprietary barrel conditioning process with 10-year-old tawny port as the final barrel influencing component. A straight rye blend.
Single Barrel Series
This series serves as a rotating showcase for exceptional individual barrels. When Drew discovers a barrel he loves as a standalone expression during his evaluation process, it becomes a candidate for the single barrel series rather than being blended:
- Single Barrel Rye: 13-Year rye at cask strength.
- Single Barrel Bourbon: 13-Year, 4-grain bourbon at cask strength.