Dessa and RockFilter Distillery team up for ‘Time & Distance’ bourbon whiskey

Bourbon probably isn’t the first thing you associate with Minnesota. Prince. Snow. Really nice people who say “you betcha.” But bourbon? This ain’t Kentucky.

And yet, if you believe the adage that “water makes the whiskey,” maybe it is Kentucky. Or, at least, it is if you consider that the water that goes into making RockFilter Distillery’s whiskey comes from a natural Karst limestone aquifer–which shares the same geology found in Kentucky–it’s close enough.

The Spring Grove, Minnesota-located distillery is all about keeping things local, however, and aside from its pedigree (founder Christian Myrah descends from Spring Grove’s settlers) and community-minded approach to distilling, it’s even keeping its co-branding local.

To wit, RockFilter’s newest distilled creation is Dessa’s Time & Distance Organic Bourbon Whiskey, a collaboration with Minnesota musician and author Dessa–its Sept. 18 release timed with the publication of her new book, My Own Devices.

Dessa, a singer and rapper who’s long been part of the Minneapolis-based hip-hop collective Doomtree, has been working in secret with RockFilter on Time & Distance for more than a year. Her book is a collection of essays based on conversations she’s had with people she’s met on the road as a touring musician, and the name of the bourbon comes from a passage in My Own Devices.

“I’ve often joked that time, distance, and whiskey are the standard interventions for a broken heart,” said Dessa in an email interview. “The book, in part, tells the story of a heartbreak that resisted the normal course of treatment.”

The 88-proof Time & Distance is being produced in a very limited edition: 395 750ml bottles ($69.99 suggested retail), and 240 375ml bottles ($39.99 suggested retail), 60 of which will be available for sale in the RockFilter Cocktail Room in Spring Grove. The rest will be available only in select to-be-announced Minnesota locations (or by mail order where allowed by law).

Dessa describes Time & Distance as “flavorful, but still easy drinking,” a profile that she and the RockFilter team came to after blind taste tests and “clandestine cocktailing.” So, just how does Dessa enjoy her bourbon?

“On ice or in a great cocktail,” she said. “Ginger beer and St. Germain are always favorite mixers.”

Header photo courtesy RockFilter Distillery

UPDATE: Here are the (Minnesota) locations RockFilter announced are carrying Dessa’s Time & Distance (subject to availability):

• ANDY’S CROSSROAD LIQUOR
• ANDY’S MARKETPLACE
• FRANCE 44 WINES & SPIRITS HASKELL’S
• HASKELL’S PLYMOUTH
• HUM’S LIQUOR STORE
• HY-VEE WINE & SPIRITS Winona
• HY-VEE WINE & SPIRITS Rochester
• KOWALSKI’S UPTOWN MARKET
• LIQUOR BARN
• MIDTOWN WINE & SPIRITS
• NORTH LOOP WINE & SPIRITS
• ORCHESTRA HALL
• SOLO VINO
• STINSON WINE & SPIRITS
• SURDYK’S LIQUOR
• THOMAS LIQUORS
• ZIPP’S LIQUORS