Far North Roknar Rye

Minnesota Great Grandpa Gustaf and his wife Anna Christine arrived in Minnesota from Sweden 100 years ago. They built the farm in the harshest of climates because the soil is among the most fertile on earth and the prairie reminded them of home. Our job is to craft spirits that live up to their legacy. The northernmost distillery in the contiguous United States, Minnesota’s Far North Spirits is one of a handful of authentic field-to-glass estate producers of small-batch, craft-distilled spirits. Inspired by a heritage of independence, hardihood and agricultural abundance, founding partners Michael Swanson and Cheri Reese fled the corporate world to Michael’s fourth-generation family farm. Here, they hand select, plant and harvest all non-GMO grains. They also mill, mash, ferment, distill and bottle all spirits entirely from start to finish. Aged one year in 15-gallon charred oak barrels and finished in Cognac casks, Roknar marries aromas of brown sugar and cinnamon with vanilla bean, roasted almonds and freshly sawn oak. These scents are precisely restated as flavors on a butter-smooth palate, with additional notes of smoked ham and balsa wood. Finishing with a hint of soft-baked pretzels, Roknar lingers cheerfully with a warming note of star anise. The exhilarating goal at Far North Spirits is to make Minnesota a leader in the production of rye grain and world-class rye whiskey. A true field-to-glass whiskey from the Nordic reaches of that state, Roknar \ROCK-ner\ is the soft-spoken freshman athlete already too good for the varsity. Born of non-GMO AC Hazlet Winter Rye and Minnesota 13 Heirloom Corn planted and harvested by head distiller Michael Swanson, Roknar is milled, fermented and distilled in very small batches. Each batch is proofed upon bottling to give the whiskey the proof it deserves. The Scandinavian name Roknar means Warrior from the gods in ancient Norse. While the legendary Viking Ragnar Lodbrok may or may not have actually existed, his reputation throughout Europe as a hero and true bad-ass seems to endure nonetheless.