...standing outside the Distillery.
...a barrel outside the Distillery.
...on the production floor. (Templeton Rye's comeback went big-time real fast, so they eventually went into partnership with a distillery in Indiana, where the majority of the work is done now- but they do specialty spirits and some of the work here at Templeton still. They don't have the space to do the mass production the demand calls for these days- but the Templeton Distillery is where it all started.)
...bottling the glorious liquid!
...getting the labels on there!
...trusty volunteers hand labeling each bottle with the batch number and the date it was bottled. Then boxing them up for shipment!
Don't know much about Iowa's shady Prohibition history? If you look carefully at the center panel of the headstone where the name of the local Catholic Priest is written, you might notice some screws. That's because the center of this headstone is hollow- and was used during Prohibition as a pick up/drop off point for illicit booze. (Templeton Rye has long cultivated a reputation as Al Capone's favorite hooch- and sure enough, local lore has it that he came to a nearby farm to check out the operation, back in the day.)
All in all, it was pretty damn cool. Iowa doesn't have a lot of distilleries- but Templeton Rye is a high quality whiskey and an operation that seems intent on always honoring and remembering its Iowa roots. If you're not a fan of whiskey and you stumble across a bottle of this stuff in a store and if you've got cash in your pocket, snag a bottle and try some. If you don't develop a taste for the stuff, then you'll know somebody else who'll take it off your hands- because everybody loves, 'the good stuff.'
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