The Rest of the Syndicate Shelf: Founders Bourbon, Black Brim Gin, and a Rye Vodka

We built a cocktail around Syndicate's Hudson Region 845 bourbon and wrote about it a while back. Since then more of their bottles have found their way onto the shelf, so here is the rest of the range.

The Distillery

Syndicate Distillers was founded by Albert Savarese, previously the owner of Still the One Distillery in Port Chester, Westchester County.

The company works across two states. While the New York facility is being built out, the Kentucky line is made from Kentucky-grown corn, rye and malted barley, distilled in the Owensboro region of Western Kentucky. The New York bourbons, including Hudson Region 845, use New York grain.

Founders Series Bourbon

The Founders Series traditional mash bill is 70% corn, 21% rye, 9% malted barley. It is bottled as a single barrel at 90 proof, and there is also a barrel strength release at 110 proof, 55% ABV.

Those numbers are worth reading rather than skimming.

70% corn is only modestly above the legal 51% minimum for bourbon, which means this is not a corn-dominant, sweetness-forward style.

21% rye is high. Standard bourbon rye content sits around 10 to 15%. Anything above 20% is generally called high-rye, and it changes the whole profile: more black pepper, more baking spice, a drier finish, less of the round caramel sweetness people associate with the category.

9% malted barley is the enzyme package. Malted grain contains the enzymes that convert starch to fermentable sugar, and every bourbon needs some. Nine percent is a normal working amount.

Put together, this is a spicy, structured bourbon rather than a sweet one.

Single Barrel, and Why It Matters

Single barrel means every bottle in a given release came from one cask, with no blending across barrels.

This is the opposite approach to what most large producers do. Batching many barrels together evens out the variation, which is how a national brand tastes the same every year. A single barrel keeps the variation instead. Two barrels filled on the same day from the same mash, aged in different parts of the same warehouse, come out noticeably different.

That is the trade. You lose consistency and you gain specificity.

The Barrel Strength

The 110 proof release is a blend of whiskies aged at least five years, bottled without proofing down.

At 55% it is intense but not punishing, and this is roughly the sweet spot where barrel strength bourbon still reads as balanced rather than hot. A high-rye mash bill at full proof puts the pepper right at the front.

The Vodka and the Gin

Syndicate's vodka, NY ROCKs, is distilled from New York rye.

Rye is an unusual vodka base. Most vodka is made from wheat, corn or potato, all of which are chosen partly because they distill toward neutrality easily. Rye does not disappear as completely. Even distilled to vodka strength, it leaves a faint peppery, grainy character behind, which is exactly what the producer means by "a delicate hint of peppery sweetness." If you have only had wheat vodka, a rye one tastes like it has an opinion.

Their gin is Black Brim, and it is more traditional than the rest of the range suggests.

It starts from a grain neutral, gluten-free spirit distilled six times, then balanced with American botanicals. The style is drawn from classic London dry gin: a maceration process and a deliberately simple botanical blend, with juniper leading rather than hiding.

Maceration is worth distinguishing from the alternative. Macerating means the botanicals steep in the spirit and are distilled with it, which extracts hard and gives a fuller, oilier, more assertive result. Vapor infusion, the method behind Hendrick's Carter-Head still, passes alcohol vapor through botanicals instead and gives something much lighter. Black Brim takes the heavier road on purpose.

It took a silver medal at the 2024 Bartender Spirits Awards, where the judges called it juniper forward and well crafted, with notes of bubblegum and a long finish.

How to Drink Them

The 90 proof Founders is a cocktail bourbon. The high rye holds its shape against vermouth or citrus, so it makes a good Manhattan.

The 110 proof is a sipping bottle. Neat, then water to taste.

The vodka is best cold and simple, where the rye character has room to show.

Black Brim is built for cocktails and holds up in them, which is what a juniper-forward, macerated gin is for. A gin and tonic works, and so does anything where you want the juniper audible rather than polite.

Try It at Juraku

Syndicate bottles are on the bar at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side. Single barrel releases run out, so check the current menu or ask the bar what is open.