Top 10 Distilleries in New York
New York is one of the most underrated whiskey states in America, and that fact is changing fast. Drive ninety minutes north of Manhattan into the Hudson Valley and you pass barley fields, apple orchards and stone barns now fitted with copper pot stills. Push further to the Finger Lakes and the distilleries sit among the same slopes that grow Riesling. Back in Brooklyn, former industrial buildings hum with fermentation. A 2007 farm-distillery law lit the fuse, and Empire Rye gave the state its own whiskey identity. These ten producers show what New York grain, water and ambition can make.
Kings County Distillery, Brooklyn
Founded in 2010 by Colin Spoelman and David Haskell, Kings County is the oldest operating whiskey distillery in New York City. It occupies the Paymaster Building inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a brick structure from the 1890s, and runs Scottish-made copper pot stills. The house style leans on organic New York corn and English and Scottish malted barley, producing a bourbon with a soft, fruity sweetness. Their Peated Bourbon and a bottled-in-bond expression have earned a serious following, and the distillery remains proudly small-batch despite national distribution.
Tuthilltown Spirits and Hudson Whiskey, Gardiner
Tuthilltown, established in 2003 in the Shawangunk foothills near Gardiner, was the first distillery to produce whiskey in New York State since Prohibition. Its Hudson Whiskey line — Baby Bourbon, Manhattan Rye, Four Grain — helped trigger the entire craft revival, aged in small barrels to accelerate the Hudson Valley's swinging seasonal maturation. The brand was acquired by William Grant and Sons, but production continues at the original gristmill site, where the waterwheel and historic outbuildings make it one of the most atmospheric stops in the valley.
Coppersea Distilling, West Park
Coppersea, on a farm in West Park overlooking the Hudson, is the purist's distillery. It practices floor malting on site, ferments in open-top wooden vessels, and uses direct-fired heritage-grain mashes — methods most distilleries abandoned a century ago. Its Excelsior Bourbon and green-malt rye are made from grain grown in the surrounding Hudson Valley counties. Coppersea is a founding member of the Empire Rye coalition and arguably its most uncompromising practitioner of historical technique.
Hillrock Estate Distillery, Ancram
Hillrock sits on a Georgian estate in Ancram, in Columbia County, and is one of very few field-to-glass operations growing, malting and distilling on the same property. It revived the solera ageing method for its flagship bourbon, blending older and younger whiskey in a continuous system, and produces a Double Cask Rye finished by the late master distiller Dave Pickerell. The hilltop setting, with views toward the Berkshires and Catskills, makes a visit feel closer to a Scottish estate than a craft startup.
Finger Lakes Distilling, Burdett
Perched above Seneca Lake near Burdett, Finger Lakes Distilling brings wine-country sensibility to whiskey. Its McKenzie label covers bourbon, rye and a single malt, with rye matured in casks that previously held local Riesling and sherry. The lake moderates the climate, and the surrounding vineyards supply both atmosphere and barrels. McKenzie Rye is a charter Empire Rye, and the lakeside tasting room makes it a natural pairing with a Finger Lakes wine tour.
New York Distilling Company, Brooklyn
Founded by Allen Katz and the Williams brothers of Brooklyn Brewery fame, New York Distilling Company in Williamsburg made its name with gin — Dorothy Parker and Perry's Tot — but its rye program is just as serious. Ragtime Rye, a charter Empire Rye, uses New York grain and a long fermentation. The adjacent cocktail bar, The Shanty, lets you drink the spirits steps from the stills, a rare urban distillery-and-bar combination.
Widow Jane Distillery, Red Hook
In the Red Hook neighbourhood of Brooklyn, Widow Jane built an identity around water drawn from the Rosendale limestone mines of Ulster County, the same mineral-rich stone that built parts of the Brooklyn Bridge. The distillery blends and ages bourbon and rye, and grows heirloom corn varieties through its Baby Jane and American Oak Aged programs. The dim, warehouse-style tasting room has become a fixture of Brooklyn's spirits scene.
Black Button Distilling, Rochester
Black Button, founded by Jason Barrett in Rochester in 2012, was among the first new distilleries in that city since Prohibition. It champions western New York grain, sourcing corn, wheat and rye from farms within a tight radius, and produces a bourbon, a four-grain straight bourbon and an Empire Rye. The name nods to Barrett's family button-manufacturing business, and the distillery has become an anchor of Rochester's revived food-and-drink district.
Taconic Distillery, Stanfordville
Set on the Rolling Hills farm in Stanfordville, in the Hudson Valley's Dutchess County, Taconic uses limestone-filtered well water from its own land. Its Dutchess Private Reserve bourbon and Founder's Rye have collected international medals, and the estate setting — ponds, barns and rolling pasture — makes it one of the more scenic farm distilleries in the region.
Great Jones Distilling Co, Manhattan
Great Jones, opened in 2021 on Great Jones Street in NoHo, is Manhattan's first legal whiskey distillery since Prohibition. Spread over a multi-storey building with stills, a restaurant and a tasting bar, it sources rye and corn from a farm in the Black Dirt region of Orange County and finishes its whiskey upstate. It represents the urban, hospitality-forward end of the New York spectrum, proof that the city itself can once again be a distilling address.
Empire Rye and the farm-distillery law
Two things transformed New York distilling. The first was the 2007 Farm Distillery Act, which created a low-cost licence for producers using a majority of New York grown ingredients, allowing on-site tasting rooms and bottle sales. It seeded dozens of small operations among the orchards and barley fields of the Hudson Valley and Finger Lakes. The second was Empire Rye, a producer-defined standard launched in 2015 by a group of New York distillers. To carry the name a whiskey must be made from a mash of at least 75 percent New York grown rye, distilled to no more than 80 percent alcohol, aged for at least two years in charred new oak, and produced entirely at a single New York distillery. It gave the state a whiskey identity of its own, the way bourbon belongs to Kentucky.
Planning a New York distillery trip
Think in three clusters. Brooklyn is the urban core, where Kings County, the New York Distilling Company and Widow Jane sit within a short subway or cab ride of one another. The Hudson Valley forms a scenic spine north of the city, with Tuthilltown in Gardiner, Coppersea in West Park, Taconic in Stanfordville and Hillrock near Ancram strung along the river roads. The Finger Lakes, around four hours upstate, pair distilleries such as Finger Lakes Distilling on Seneca Lake with the region's celebrated Riesling wineries. Tastings stack up quickly, so use the train to the valley, a designated driver or a tour operator on the rural routes, and eat well between stops.
Explore on the map
These ten only scratch the surface — Catskill Provisions with its honey-based rye, the cideries-turned-distillers of the apple country, and dozens of farm operations across the state await. Use the interactive map to chart a route through the Hudson Valley, the Finger Lakes and Brooklyn, or pin New York on the map and build a tasting trail of your own. Empire Rye glasses are waiting from Seneca Lake to the Navy Yard.