The northernmost stop on Kentucky's Bourbon Trail Craft Tour is finally selling its own locally produced whiskey.
New Riff opened five years ago, and after four years of aging, the distillery is finally offering its first bonded whiskey, meaning it was made in a single distillation by a single distillery.
Founder Ken Lewis aims to capitalize on being part of Kentucky's Craft Tour.
"The Bourbon Trail is an absolute tourism phenomenon," he says. "There's over a million people now that visit annually. It's growing in double digits, and the fact is that a lot of those folks are coming down the I-71/75 corridor so they're going through Cincinnati. We want to be a gateway city to the Bourbon Trail."
Lewis expects to draw 50,000 visitors annually.
"For the entire state of Kentucky, it's estimated it's a several hundred million dollar return on investment for tourism for Kentucky. It's a big deal."
Jake Stenger of Bellevue, Ky., was first in line at 9:30 Wednesday morning waiting for the noontime release. He's excited to have a trail stop close to home.
"The facility's definitely worked to be on the Bourbon Trail," he says. "I've been to a couple of them and it's state of the art."
Northern Kentucky has two stops on the Craft Bourbon Trail, New Riff Distillery and Boone County Distilling in Independence.
