What we’re drinking: Tenmile Revolutionary Series, a line of whiskies that honors the Semiquincentennial, aka the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States
Where it’s from: Based in Wassaic, NY, Tenmile crafts single malt whisky (yes, that’s how they spell it), gin and vodka with grains primarily sourced from a 30-mile local radius. Master Distiller Shane Fraser previously served the same role at Wolfburn Distillery, the most northerly malt whisky distillery in Scotland. Tenmile’s excellent American Single Malts usually go under the moniker of Little Rest.
Why we’re drinking these: Because we’re celebrating America’s birthday and Tenmile, which crafts one of our favorite American Single Malts, is going to an extreme level of honoring our country’s 250 years. When all is said and done, the Revolutionary Series will encompass 57 bottles. These expressions coincide with the 55 battles of the Revolutionary War, plus two extra bottles honoring “unique pivotal figures” (George Washington and West Point). The labels on each bottle detail aspects of the battles or the people they’re highlighting.
How This Scottish Master Distiller Is Thriving in Upstate New York
Tenmile’s Little Rest is a NYS take on a classic Speyside whisky“This is preposterous,” admits owner and distillery GM Joel LeVangia. “But it’s an interesting thing, and it’s a good way for us to introduce ourselves to people.”
So how can you have 57 different whiskies? You can tie each bottle’s flavor profile to the battle or person being commemorated. “In the Battle of Kingston, the British burned Kingston,” LaVangia says. “So we’re going to do something peated, and we don’t normally do peated single malts. We bought some [used] barrels from Laphroiag and Ardbeg.” That one comes out in August.
As of now, one bottle in the series was released in 2024, four bottles came out last year and 12 are set for 2026, with a new release coming each month of the year. From there, the remaining expressions will be sold at undetermined times starting in 2027. That’s a lot of whisky, so let’s dive into a few bottles that have already been released (and two of which are already sold out).
How they taste: These American Single Malts all come in at 46% ABV.
- Battle of Brooklyn: Aged four years in small, 25-gallon barrels, this release is very light in color but full of malt, lemon zest, cherry, vanilla and brown sugar notes.
- Battle of White Plains: Hailing from even smaller 15-gallon bourbon casks filled in 2020, this is the closest to Little Rest bottles, with big notes of vanilla, citrus (apple/lemon), brown sugar and a hint of milk chocolate.
- Battle of Groton Heights: A “re-creation of a particular barrel mix that [Fraser] put together to potentially be the First Edition,” this expression has a little more malt, vanilla, gingersnap and chocolate notes and less fruit, though there is a bit of cherry.
- Battle of Stony Point: A five-year-old ASM aged in French oak (ex–pinot noir) and American oak (ex–bourbon), the fruit notes are more prevalent here with hints of apple and a little nuttiness.
Fun fact: The gifting tube you get if you order the series comes with two hand-cut whisky glasses and a commemorative carabiner symbolizing The Great Chain, the iron chain that stretched along the Hudson River from West Point to Constitution Island in 1778 to prevent British ships from sailing upriver and cutting off New England.
Where to buy: If you buy it as a pack, the 12-bottle Semiquin Revolutionary Series costs $625. This is a very limited edition collectible release — only 500 Semiquin tubes will be created, and only 600 of each “battle bottle” will be made. You can find some of the bottles individually on the Tenmile website for $85 each (some are already sold out).
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