A-LIST WHISKEY
Big. Bold. Beautiful. How Distillery 291 is reigniting our eternal passion for whiskey By Mi chae l J . Pa l l e r i no
M ichael Myers was walking with his two young sons when the first plane hit the World Trade Center’s North Tower. Living in New York, only a few blocks from the Towers, he had submerged himself into shooting fashion and beauty shots for some of the world’s leading brands. Allure . Forbes . Tiffany & Co. Estée Lauder. But on the morning of Sept. 11, in the mayhem and hysteria that followed, he and his family were unable to return to their apartment that day. In time, Myers would relocate to his parents-in- law’s home in Colorado Springs, commuting between the two cities and continuing the childhood passion that led him there. Growing up on the family farm in Alpharetta, Georgia, 27 miles or so from Atlanta, Myers fell in love with photography. Capturing portraits of the family’s cows and horses grazing the 70-acre spread, he knew what he wanted to do. The passion started after his mother bought him a camera at 15. But after years of the back and forth, Myers needed to make a choice: photography or his family. On a
evoked his love of the Wild West and the rural family farms of his hometown Georgia. “I envisioned that iconic vision of a cowboy walking into a bar, asking for a whis- key, and the bartender slamming the bottle down. The whiskey was made in a countryside defined by rolling hills, horses—all made by people in the woods. I figured if they could do it, I could do it.” And 291 Colorado Whiskey. Just like that. Boot- strapped from the beginning and never having made a beer, wine, or whiskey, he started looking around for stills. After being quoted $50,000 for a 50-gallon pot from Vendome, the Cadillac of still manufacturers, he decided to get creative. Reaching back to his photogra- phy roots, Myers built the original still from copper pho- togravure plates he once used to create enduring photo- graphic scenes. On Sept. 11, 2011—10 years after his life and the lives of so many others had changed—he pulled the first whiskey off of that still. To date, every single drop of 291 has passed through that original still. Today, nestled in the stunning foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Distillery
291 sits in the shadow of Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs. And just for nostalgia, it sits below Stagecoach Road, bounded by the historic mining towns of Cripple Creek and Victor on the other side of the pass. There since January 2021, the 12,000-square-foot (it’s growing to 26,000 square feet this spring) distillery produces 100 gallons a day, and close to 2,400 gallons a month. “It was all a huge risk. I didn’t even know if I was going to be good at it. While our big, bold, beautiful Colorado whiskey gets their attention, our 291 story is what solidifies the bond. The passion and energy with which we built the brand and how it flows through our team in each interaction with our community is unmatched in our industry. When you drink our whiskey, you’re in a family. 291 Family is a brand identity that represents pride in our product, process, and in how we make people feel.” As our motto goes, “Ride it like you stole it, drink it like you own it.”
@distillery291
flight back from a Vanity Fair shoot, he read a New York Times article about Stephen Goss, creator of Hendricks Gin and Sailor Jerry Rum. A new passion took hold. “I had been looking for something to pour my creative energy and passion into.” Myers set out to cre- ate a flagship whiskey that
“ The whiskey was made in a countryside defined by rolling hills, horses—all made by people in the woods. I figured if they could do it, I could do it. ” Images courtesy of Michael Myers and 291 Colorado Whiskey
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