Sagamore Spirit has released two new rye whiskeys that were fully distilled at the company’s Baltimore headquarters, marking the culmination of a yearslong effort to wean itself from a contract distilling arrangement forged in Sagamore’s early years.

The distillery unveiled Sagamore Small Batch rye whiskey, a new flagship product, as well as the 7-year-aged Bottled in Bond at a release party held Nov. 9 at its Baltimore Peninsula headquarters.

Though fully distilled in Maryland, the whiskey still contains some ingredients sourced from out of state. Between 50% and 60% of the rye grain that Sagamore uses is harvested in-state, including at Sagamore Farm in Baltimore County, which also grows all the corn used in the company’s whiskey. The rest comes from a grain broker working with farms in the Midwest, Pennsylvania and New York.

The weekend event was “meant to celebrate the brand’s successful efforts to produce 100% Maryland-made whiskey,” according to a news release. For Sagamore, that means rye whiskey distilled in Baltimore rather than in the Midwest, where MGP of Indiana made whiskey for the company before construction on the Baltimore Peninsula distillery was completed in 2017.

Sagamore began aging rye in its own barrels as soon as the Baltimore distillery opened seven years ago, said Ryan Norwood, the company’s vice president of operations, and distillers have been slowly reducing the amount of outside whiskey in Sagamore’s bottles over the years.

Producing a fully Maryland-made bottle has long been a goal for the 11-year-old company, founded by Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank with a mission of restoring prominence to rye whiskey, a combination of rye, corn and other grain that was a staple of Maryland’s alcohol industry before the Prohibition era. The state was home to 44 distilleries pre-Prohibition, according to Sagamore’s research, including at least 13 in Baltimore.

Sagamore — now majority-owned by Illva Saronno Holding, an Italian company known for its Disaronno amaretto — celebrated the new releases Saturday with live music, hors d’oeuvres and free samples of the Maryland-distilled whiskey at a party open to the public.

The new Small Batch rye whiskey will be a permanent addition to the company’s core product line, which also includes a Cask Strength rye whiskey and a Double Oak rye. It will be sold globally, while Bottled in Bond will be a limited-time regional release.

It’s unlikely Sagamore will ever rely entirely on Maryland farms to produce all the grain it needs to make whiskey, Norwood said. That’s because diversifying the source of those crops cuts down on the risk that a bad harvest, extreme weather or some other disaster could wipe out supply.

“You don’t ever really want all of your raw ingredients coming from the same area,” he said. “You want to diversify that a bit and make sure you’re protected.”

Still, Norwood added, Sagamore will likely increase the percentage of Maryland-grown grain it uses in future years. The distillery also uses spring water from Sagamore Farm to proof down its whiskey and ages some batches of whiskey in barrels made from oak trees grown across the state.

Sagamore Small Batch spells the end for Penny’s Proof, an annual small-batch release from the distillery showcasing the gradual maturation of its all-Maryland whiskey. While Penny’s Proof offered whiskey aficionados a sample of Maryland-distilled rye as it aged, with tastings every year, that process is now complete.

“This is the culmination of everything we’ve been talking about,” Norwood said. “This is what we’ve been telling people we were going to do.”

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