Last week, Great Jones, Manhattan’s only legal whiskey distillery, announced in an Instagram post that it was closing its downtown visitor center five years after it opened. This news arrived amidst a fairly weak market for whiskey overall, as drinks companies have reported lower sales, drops in profit, and weak market forecasts, with some even deciding to pause production at their distilleries both here and abroad.
Great Jones is owned by drinks giant Proximo Spirits, the company that also controls major brands like Bushmills and Jose Cuervo. It opened in 2021 on Broadway in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, just north of Houston Street, and had been making whiskey on a very small scale over the past five years under the direction of head distiller Celina Perez. The whiskey that is actually in the bottles, which are still available according to the Instagram post, is actually distilled and aged in upstate New York at Black Dirt, a craft distillery that Proximo acquired in 2018. The building that the distillery occupied also featured a bar, restaurant, and tasting room, and hosted various whiskey experiences and parties over the years.
Great Jones developed a portfolio that consisted of straight bourbon, wheated bourbon, and Empire Rye, a designation that means the whiskey is produced entirely in New York from a mashbill which includes a minimum of 75 percent rye grain grown in the state. In addition to these, the lineup also included a bourbon finished in Wölffer Estate’s Cabernet Franc wine barrels, a peated scotch cask-matured bourbon, and a couple of whiskeys released in partnership with the estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
The announcement might not come as a surprise to those following the whiskey industry. Great Jones had not yet made much of an impact upon the greater American whiskey world outside of New York, and even there it had a relatively small footprint. And, as mentioned before, companies are currently scaling back due to what some are describing as a whiskey glut during a rough patch for the spirits industry overall. According to a WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) notice filed with the state posted on October 2, Great Jones was permanently laying off 26 employees as of December 7, with the reason listed as “economic.”
We reached out to the distillery’s parent company, Proximo, and head distiller Celina Perez for comment about the closure, and got the following statement back from the company: “Great Jones Distilling Co. has decided to close the Great Jones Distilling Co. Visitor Center until further notice. The decision followed a thorough review of the current beverage industry trends, market conditions, and overall company business strategy. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has been a part of the Great Jones community. Great Jones Whiskey and Black Dirt Distillery products will be available for purchase online and in select retailers.”
Authors
Jonah Flicker
