William H. Macy Would Like to Pour You Some of His Woody Creek Rye

A few things you learn within minutes of video chatting with actor William H. Macy: he prefers to be called Bill, he’s extremely articulate, he's inquisitive, especially about the art in your home, and he’s positively and utterly enamored with rye.

That wasn’t always his preferential spirit, though it was his first exposure to whiskey. “My parents drank rye,” he recalls. “They kept it under the kitchen sink, for some reason, and they’d take a shot of it, followed by a shot of water. It looked more medicinal than fun.” Macy first dabbled in bourbon, perhaps a byproduct of his Southern roots after growing up near Atlanta, but then had “a pretty ubiquitous love affair with scotch,” after spending time in London, trying all the single malts.

But time and again he returned to rye. “I have a nationalist fervor about rye. It’s America’s whiskey,” Macy says. “I love bourbon, but rye is what George Washington made to raise money.” Macy can wax poetic about whiskey—and alcohol distillation as a whole—indefinitely. “What’s romantic [about making whiskey] is that the process hasn’t changed in 5,000 years,” he says. “That makes me weak in the knees.”

Decamping to Colorado

And, by virtue of geographical happenstance, Macy now finds himself entrenched in what he reveres as an investor and “spokesdude” for Woody Creek Distillers, a craft distiller nestled in a 300-person town a few miles north of Aspen, Colorado. “A few years back, we bought Felicity’s childhood home,” Macy says, referring to his spouse, actress Felicity Huffman, who grew up in the sleepy mountain enclave.

Woody Creek has been home to more than a few Tinseltown faces. While Macy never crossed paths with its most infamous denizen, gonzo journalism’s founder Hunter S. Thompson, Huffman has childhood memories of needing to be quickly ushered indoors when Thompson, a then-neighbor, would drunkenly shoot at a television set. “I hear Hunter went through a lot of TVs,” Macy deadpans.

Huffman’s childhood home happened to be next to Mark Kleckner, co-founder and operating partner of Woody Creek Distillers, founded in 2012. Kleckner, a former engineer turned distiller, asked to use Macy and Huffman’s fields to plant potatoes for Woody Creek's potato vodka. After dropping off several bottles as a thank you, Macy and Kleckner struck up a friendship, and a few years later, Macy joined the company’s fold.

In the ensuing years, Macy’s been quite busy pressing the flesh of fans and industry folks, introducing the distillery’s ware to the masses. “I joke that I wish the actor’s strike had continued,” Kleckner says, “because Bill would be looking for work and he would make the perfect tour guide for the distillery.”

How Macy Blindly Selected His Reserve Rye

When Kleckner thought about a reserve collector series release, he wanted to tap into the older barrels among the 5,000 aging in his rickhouse. And he wanted Macy to select it. “I’d never done a blind tasting,” Macy admits with a chuckle, “So, like I’ve done for my entire career, I faked it from top to bottom. I wouldn’t let anyone look at what I was writing down because I didn’t know what to write. I said things like ‘Reminds me of my first wife.’ I’m not as convinced about my palate as Mark is.”

After blind tasting through eight options—a few were Woody Creek’s 100% rye mashbill, others were the distillery’s bourbon (70% corn, 15% rye, and 15% barley), and a few barrels with a wheated mashbill; all barrels were 10 years old—Macy’s favorite was a barrel that was 80% rye and 20% malted barley. “I felt vindicated when a few of the other tasters also picked that barrel,” Macy grins.

With only four barrels of this mashbill, the businessman in Kleckner was concerned about having enough volume to push, so he suggested running some other options by Macy; the actor again selected the same barrel. Kleckner proofed the batch from 120 down to 100—“it really sings at this proof,” he says—and knew it would be limited to less than a thousand bottles but rolled with it anyway.

The resulting Woody Creek William H. Macy Reserve straight rye is 10 years old, bottled in bond, and retails for $199. With the backbone of the core rye product, the malted barley adds a bit of nuttiness that works well with the liquid.

"Make What You Want to Drink"

Macy’s keen to ensure his involvement in Woody Creek Distillers isn’t simplified as yet another celebrity-owned whiskey brand. “I think because I’m an actor, and now an advocate for Woody Creek, there’s a suspicion as to why I’m doing this,” he surmises. When out for meet-and-greet tastings, Macy says the response he often gets is one of surprise. “People will say ‘this is actually good!’ That’s like ‘Hey, I saw your movie. You were actually good.’ You want to go ‘Thank you. And f*** you,’” he says.

“I have a lot of skin in this game,” Macy continues. “These are my pals and my neighbors. This is a 100% Colorado venture, and I consider Colorado home. I stand behind this [bottle and distillery], and the ballsiest way I can think of doing that is asking people to show me their favorite ryes, then giving them a taste of mine. Game, set, match.”

In an enduring bid to court bartenders and distributors, Macy and Kleckner consistently employ that technique of blinding their offerings against the tasters’ beloved pours. “I’ve never not sold an account after that,” says Kleckner.

Likewise, Macy recounts being in Las Vegas for an event, meeting fans. “In full candor, people came to meet Frank Gallagher,” Macy says, referring to his “Shameless” character, “but when they started drinking our products, they were immediately saying what’s great about our pours, describing all the complexities.”

Ultimately, Macy says, Kleckner and the rest of the Woody Creek Distillers staff are “making what we want to drink ourselves. We’re not trying to make a bazillion dollars; we’re not trying to cut corners to make a lower price point product.” Kleckner is acutely interested in Macy’s ability to convert rye drinkers. “I’d love our legacy to be 100% straight ryes. I’d love to see the Billy Macy series continue with a 100% rye,” Kleckner says.