Chip Tate, in His New Role at Foley, Creates Ampersand, a Trio of Unusual Liquids

Chip Tate, who founded Texas-based Balcones Distilling in 2008 and took the craft world by storm with his unusual grain recipes and production techniques, was named master distiller for innovation at Foley Family Wines two years ago. The California-based wine company had branched into spirits with the acquisition of mothballed Nevada-based grain-to-glass distillery Bently Heritage Estate (later renamed Minden Mill) in May 2023, and there was a promise of more to come. Now that "more" is here—Tate has debuted Ampersand, an intriguing new trio of whiskies that melds his blending prowess with his love of cask finishes.

Ampersand’s three expressions are Malus, Vinea, and Opimus. Malus is a blend of 51% rye (sourced from Lawrenceburg, Indiana) and 49% calvados, an apple brandy native to Normandy, France, that is one of Tate’s favorite spirits. While he fully acknowledges that Malus isn’t a blended whiskey, it's something of a cousin. It’s also a cheeky take on barrel finishing. “When you age in a sherry barrel, of course, a lot of what you’re getting is from the wood, but sometimes there’s a bit of actual sherry in there as well,” he says. “With Malus, I went ahead and turned up the volume and blended in calvados, rather than just finishing [in calvados casks].” Unsurprisingly, the fruit is tremendous on the nose and the palate, both of which brim with all manner of apple—crisp, sauce, juice, and more—as well as loads of baking spice and a touch of Heath Bar.

With Vinea, Tate also spotlights a unique whiskey-based blend, as well as an intense cask finish. In the mid-2010s, Tate started a distillery project that ultimately never panned out; as part of that project, he traveled to France and selected top-tier cognac casks, brought them back to Texas, and filled them with grain spirit made from 100% corn to keep them from drying out.

While his intent wasn't to leave the spirit in those casks for any great length, they were ultimately forgotten; by the time Tate joined Foley, his out of sight, out of mind cognac casks were half-full of 9 year old grain spirit. “In the Texas heat, there’s a lot of barrel extraction, so these casks were intensely tannic,” he explains. “They were also wonderfully weird, and I thought about what I could do with them.” In blending the finished spirit with whiskey, he landed on rye (the same Lawrenceburg rye used in Malus); the final blend is 75% rye and 25% grain spirit that’s rich with notes of cinnamon spice, grape jelly, vanilla frosting, and barrel char.

The most straightforward of Ampersand’s first three expressions is Opimus, a 15 year old Kentucky bourbon finished in tokaji (Hungarian dessert wine) casks. Tate inherited the bourbon casks at the start of his Foley tenure in January 2024, and while he thought they were excellent, he also found the whiskey to be quite chewy and tannic. As a blender, that wasn’t a problem for Tate—his next question was what to finish and or blend this liquid with, to get those flavors into balance. “I thought some really deep ripe fruit would be a perfect counterpoint to the tannic edge that you can get on a 15 year old bourbon, and the tokaji’s bold, ripened fruit has a particularly luscious character that really comes through,” he says. The whiskey spent 10 months in tokaji casks, and it certainly packs a sumptuous, fruity punch, redolent with quince paste, Fig Newton, stewed plums, candied orange, fudgy caramel, and plenty of hot baking spice.

About 6,000 bottles of Malus ($59), 8,500 bottles of Vinea ($59), and 11,500 bottles of Opimus ($150) have been released. By design, most of Ampersand’s releases will mostly be one-offs, but of this trio, Malus will be permanent.

Ampersand is likely to remain separate from Minden Mill, as well, in the sense that there are no plans for Minden’s whiskeys to be used as the base components of the fledgling brand. For the curious whiskey drinker or the adventurous spirits lover, Ampersand represents an excellent avenue for exploration.