The Origin of Doc Swinson’s Whiskey
You may have heard stories like ours before.
A discovery. Stumbling into a passion project.
Doc Swinson’s origin happened in the wee hours to unwind after 15 hour days on the bottling line making products for others.
We were a secret side-project developed by our team at Distillers Way- a spirits house focused on creating house brands for the retail industry.
Master Blender Jesse Parker hard at work
Our secret side-project became Doc swinson’s.
While working on developing spirits for other brands, we found a small collection of whiskey barrels. We couldn’t help ourselves from tinkering with whiskey and ended up making something really cool.
“We bought some whiskey barrels and we thought it’d be fun to work in some brown liquid.
We saw a future in blending whiskey and the opportunity to blend whiskey. We also saw a future in finishing whiskey, and it all just kind of happened.”
We wanted to find a home for what we were making, our team decided to make a brand of our own to share the results under.
We quietly released the whiskey to a few locations in our home state, after all we didn’t really know if it would go anywhere.
Over time, it did go somewhere.
Doc’s barrel collection has grown and grown!
We slowly gained local popularity and reinvested in more barrels.
A future in blending excellent American bourbons opened up our world. Focusing ourselves on finishing casks from around the world was exciting.
We saw something really promising, a place for our off-standard flavor profiles in the American Whiskey industry.
We developed a vision to blend excellent whiskeys through age-old techniques found in the old world.
Our core team behind Doc’s- the 4 who took a chance to develop the brand!
The brand has shifted and moved, won top awards and all while we have maintained our core ethos:
“We set out to blend excellent whiskey and become known as a well respected blending house in America. bringing high quality, unique, and exciting flavors to American whiskey that have never really been seen before.”
Of course, we have moved from the back rooms and wee hours to spending the majority of our time on whiskey, a change that we’re all very happy with.
What is ‘blending’ and ‘finishing’ whiskey?
Blending and finishing whiskey is the process whiskey goes through after distillation and initial aging..
Comparable to a bartender mixing drinks, or a chef concocting a recipe from ingredients, blending is the art of creating new flavors from ingredients and process.
Steve Main, enjoying a dram of whiskey straight out of the barrel. Yum!
The “recipe'“ for blending/ finishing can include:
Time
Microclimates
Exposure to air
Barrel composition
Barrel size
What was in the barrel before (rum, sherry, port)
How many barrels you use
Intentionality
Attention to details
Respect for the process
And so much more!
an example of blending: “Triple Cask Bourbon”.
Triple Cask Bourbon- a great example of blended whiskey.
Triple cask has a rich and full flavor. This whiskey was our flagship when we decided to move towards whiskey as our primary job. It is a crowd-pleaser, a whiskey that intrigues seasoned veterans and non-whiskey drinkers alike.
We start with a selection of two different bourbons from the highest quality. These bourbons are then aged in new American White Oak barrels for at least 5 years. (note: This blend of two bourbons is also our namesake Bourbon “Blenders Cut”.)
After the initial aging, a portion of “Blenders Cut” is transferred into ex-Cognac, ex-Oloroso Sherry, and ex-Pedro Ximenez Sherry casks for further maturation.
But it doesn’t just sit there in the barrels. We tend to it much like a gardener tends to their crops. We wait, taste, test, tend.
Then the blend is tasted, tasted, and tasted again. Once the barrel is chosen for quality of flavor, the selection of three cask types are blended together and married in ex-Cognac foeders. This process is integral to the final whiskey. It meld complexity and adds texture.
Finally, it is ready to go into bottles for you!
Each time we may age in the barrels for more or less time, based on taste. We are using our recipes, our barrels from all over the world, and our palates to create new flavors that speak to us.
About our Master Blender
Jesse Parker tasting a barrel- a big part of the process in creation of the perfect whiskey.
Jesse Parker was a craft distiller before this, working with Brandies and gins at the age of 21. He had no formal training, no pedigree in the spirits industry but he has a drive like no other for the subject.
Getting thirsty for knowledge about flavors, Jesse almost left the industry to pursue another passion.
In the nick of time he was scooped up by a few individuals with a vision to build something new.
Distillers Way brought him on to develop products for other people. A willy wonka of booze some might say.
Through the opportunity to work with spirits masters from around the world Jesse gained a deeper understanding and appreciation of different types of spirits.
Coupling passion for flavors, the desire to be a chef, a deep curiosity for historical manufacturing, and many years of diving into old books and scholarly articles, Jesse slowly started forming the basis of what became Doc Swinson’s.
And Don’t forget, a team that backs him!
““We are free agents because we don’t have the constraints that GrandPappy put on our whiskey. The goal was to elevate the standard bourbon profile through blending techniques that would show the consumer they weren’t just drinking the same couple of profiles found in the bulk of the bourbons out there.
I would hear statements from people such as ‘most bourbon tastes like bourbon no matter from a different distillery.’ I wanted to be a driving force behind changing this perception.””
The grand vision is playing out as we create it in real time.
Doc’s whiskey has won 100 awards and counting!
Some may say we are stranger than most of our competitors.
We didn’t set out with a grand plan.
We carefully experimented, took some big risks, and found where we shone in the market.
Blending and finishing whiskey is the future for American spirits.
It drives curiosity, challenges old norms and creates new experiences for consumers.
We find this notion compelling.
To us, our story is meaningful to us because it’s a dedication to keep showing up and trying to create cutting edge American Whiskey.
Where did the name Doc Swinson’s come from?
That one is a subtle nod to the area that we all call home. One of the primary founders of Seattle was David Swinson Maynard. He was an American pioneer, doctor, and businessman born in 1808 and went by “Doc” locally.
Our labels are designed to effectively mimic a vintage RX prescription and we felt that paying a little homage to a man that was critical to the development of our local area.
“Doc” Maynard embodiment of the free spirit that guided our whiskey experimentation in the early days was fitting.
Just a little bit of extra trivia for ya!
Want to get your hands on a bottle of Doc’s?
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