The straight rye bottling is the first expansion from the fledgling distiller. (photo courtesy of the brand)

Fire is a terrible enemy for distillers.

You’ll likely recall the spectacular fire at Jim Beam, last July. The New York Times story featured the grim headline “Jim Beam Warehouse Fire Destroys 45,000 Barrels,” which is a lot of hooch and a lot of dollars lost—somewhere between $122 million and $162 million. Beam was an early whiskey love, and so I shed a tear—especially when I heard that the only thing they could do, the best thing, was to let it burn out and thereby diminish the environmental impact.

Chicken Cock whiskey, a once-ubiquitous American label, made it through Prohibition (by shifting production to Canada), and flourished for a while, but a fire at the distillery just after World War II put it out of business.

Last autumn, though, like some boozy chicken-phoenix, the Chicken Cock brand rose again, reanimated by entrepreneur Matti Anttila, founder of the Grain & Barrel Spirits company, based in Charleston, S.C. They launched with a bold Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey ($60), a potent 90 proof in a classic style, with an oaky vanilla nose and a distant note of buttery fruit pie on the palate. Delicious, with an amusing Prohibition-style bottle, it’s made in Bardstown, KY.

This spring brought a new expression, Straight Rye Whiskey ($70), which I finally got my hands on. Right out of the glass, it’s pleasantly soft, redolent of cinnamon and white pepper, its kick balanced by a notable creaminess. It may have been the bottle shape, but I imagined the style to be reminiscent of 20s whiskey, when of course rye was dominant. The new bottling, 95 percent rye, was made in partnership with the Bardstown Bourbon Company as part of its collaborative distilling program.

There’s evidence that places the brand’s origins back to 1856—Mr. Jack Daniel himself was born in 1849—and that it was the house hooch at the The Cotton Club, the premier speakeasy of Prohibition days. All of this is almost reason enough to add a bottle to your cart—conversation fodder is a draw—but the real reason to seek these bottles out is that they represent the best of the new wave. The bourbon was available in about half the states at the start of the year, but distribution has been expanding rapidly; give chase!