HRN Community Sessions
2013 MCC Preview: Finger Lakes Distillery
Meet Brian McKenzie of Finger Lakes Distillery on a special program in anticipation of the 2013 Manhattan Cocktail Classic. The Finger Lakes Distilling story begins in 2007, when Brian McKenzie of Elmira, N.Y., met Thomas Earl McKenzie of Monroeville, Ala., at a craft distiller's conference. The two men aren't related, but they did discover they shared a passion for high-quality, distilled spirits. Brian, a former bank vice-president, had experience in finance and was interested in starting his own business. Thomas Earl's background included wine-making, brewing, farming and consulting for distilleries. It was a fateful meeting - and a great match of talents to start a new distillery. Today, they are well on their way to realizing a dream of working with good friends and family to create products they can offer with pride. This program was sponsored by Rt 11 Potato Chips
"The idea was to create a distillery in a growing wine region, so we're seeing a ton of tourists come through the area to taste the wines and several of those people are also spirits drinkers so we're trying to cater to that market." [01:00]
--Brian McKenzie of Finger Lakes Distillery on HeritageRadioNetwork.org