Black Dirt Bourbon

About Black Dirt

"I went to Cornell as a fruit science major because I was really into apples growing up," says Jason Grizzanti, the master distiller at Black Dirt Distillery. As a child, Grizzanti's family owned and operated a small winery in upstate New York and he became enamored with fruits. After he graduated college, Grizzanti — at the age of 23 — applied for a $50,000 grant to start New York State's first fruit micro-distillery. The state obliged and Grizzanti was soon producing a thousand gallons of eau-de-vie annually. When the state of New York amended its laws to accommodate craft distilleries, Grizzanti jumped at the opportunity.

Black Dirt Distillery takes its name from the dark, fertile soil left by an ancient glacial lake that once covered thousands of acres of upstate New York. Prior to the 19th century, farmers generally avoided the land because the soil — although rich in nutrients — was poorly drained and often flooded. After a drainage canal was built in 1835, farmers began harvesting highly-prized Black Dirt onions on the land. Perfectly suited for growing fresh, sweet corn, Black Dirt has never been used for bourbon production until now.