If there was an Indiana Jones for whiskey, it would be Nora Ganley-Roper and Adam Polonski, the insane married couple behind Lost Lantern Whiskey. I say insane with the greatest possible respect. As a fellow crazy person, I respect the courage and wing nut confidence it took for them to launch their brand. Starting any business is making a bet with fate, but starting a whiskey business tempts fate with a greater prize than, say, starting a plumbing company. Starting a business like Lost Lantern Whiskey must’ve caused Fate to rub it’s hands together in Grinchian regard because the business plan was to take an eight month excursion across the United States in search of the best independent distilleries there are. They took note of methods, climate, landscape, and a hundred other points only the nerdiest of whiskey nerds would nerd.
The result of their efforts is a growing collection of incredible whiskies sourced from distilleries you’ve never heard of that, in the first sip, may cause you to swoon. They still travel to find these barrels and bottles. Their most recent trips took them to some of the Midwest’s most overlooked, local treasures like Cedar Ridge, Middle West, and Tom’s Foolery. So yeah, they may not crack a whip or rock a crumpled fedora like Harrison Ford but make no mistake, they are the Indiana Joneses of American Whiskey.
What whiskey first made you say fuck yeah?
Nora: I come from the wine world. I didn’t know a ton about whiskey. For a long time whiskey was too intense for my palette. But working at Aster, I got a deep immersion into [whiskey]. So it started with Scotch because I found Scotch was more delicate and could speak to my [laughing] wussy wine palette. I think it was Glendronach where it clicked and it opened that door for me. Then it was truyly off to the races from there.
Adam: For me it was Laphroaig 10. I’d had a number of Scotches before that and hadn’t really gotten it. It wasn’t until I had the straight-up peat bomb that I was like Oh, I see why people love this.
If you weren’t making whiskey, you’d probably be . . .
Nora: I would probably be working in start-ups. I love that early building, everything is falling apart and on fore at the same time. I like creating order out of chaos.
Adam: I hate doing that. I would probably still be writing about whiskey and telling these same stories in that way.
What’s a fucked up way you drink whiskey you probably wouldn’t tell anyone if you weren’t filling out this questionnaire?
Nora: is there a fucked up way to drink whiskey? If it’s delicious it’s a good way to drink whiskey. We drink a lot of high balls so we do whiskey soda or whiskey and ginger in the summer. This is the problem with me going first…
Adam: I like to put very special whiskey on the rocks. I also like heavily peated whisky on very hot summer days. Having that glass of Laphroaig or bolder peated whisky when it’s 95° out is refreshing.
What’s a fucked up way someone you know drinks whiskey that makes you want to throw them off a cliff, and seriously, Jesus Hashtag Christ, why, Darryll? Why?
Adam: A consumer I met at a tasting. We had little whiskey droppers for putting a little water in your whiskey. This person said “I would like to try that,” then used the dropper to squeeze whiskey into her mouth.
Nora: My dad, who is a great whiskey guy, but he takes our whiskey and puts it in his Christmas bourbon ball. He puts our single cask whiskey into his bourbon balls then makes us try them and see if we can figure out which one he used. The great thing is, we can tell.
What song will get you onto the floor no matter what?
Give a quote from a movie you obsess over:
Besides discovering great whiskey, what do you do right?
Adam: I’m really, really good at growing pumpkins in Stardew Valley.
Nora: Gardening. On weekends, my hands are dirty. I’m covered in something gross. And I grow mostly weird things you can’t get in the store like brown tomatoes and cucumelons. The gourdier the better.
Sum up the essence of great whiskey with a single word.
Adam: Stories.
Nora: Memories.
What moment during your process strikes you as perfect?
Adam: Our labels are always fully transparent about where everything comes from and tells the story of the whiskey. It’s really important that I get the distilleries to sign off on that. It’s not in our contract. We don’t have to send it to them and say hey we want to make sure you’re cool with this language, but we do because we think of everything we do as a collaboration. I want to make sure I’m telling their story as they see it themselves.
Nora: In our whiskey selection process, we both have to say yes to everything. But that counterbalance between our palettes and having to duke it out and make a real pitch for some whiskey–Lost Lantern wouldn’t be what it was if we didn’t bot have to say a resounding yes.
Name the single most underrated or overlooked distillery in your state.
Adam & Nora: Village Garage.
Name a whiskey you think people never heard of.
Adam: Flóki—an Icelandic whisky smoked with sheep dung.
Nora: Triple 8. On Nantucket. Really expensive American Single Malt and you can only get it at their tasting room.
What was your most embarrassing mistake at Lost Lantern?
Nora: While we were blending, I wasn’t paying attention to numbers and put more whiskey from one barrel than we had planned for. I pride myself on being very meticulous and that was…not…great. Fortunately after we let the whiskey integrate for a while it’s totally fine and ended up not being a disaster.
Adam: Most of mine are about talking to someone important and then forgetting their name.
What are you reading?
Adam: I just finished Embassy Town, by China Miélville.
Nora: I’ve been reading Laini Taylor
Who would you like to see answer these questions?
Adam: Stephen Paul, the founder of Whiskey Del Bac.
Nora: I’ll give you two—Dave Smith, St. George Spirits; Joel Sullivan, Mindin Mill.
