Housed in the former Rising Sun Distillery space near Interstate 25 and Colfax Avenue in central Denver, the new operation is sourcing barrels of whiskey produced by out-of-state distillers, continuing their aging in Colorado, and bottling them as dedicated Onyx & Amber releases or as boutique expressions on behalf of clients.
The venture is an extension of founder Ben Rosen’s Colorado Bourbon and Rye Collectors group, which he founded in 2017. He’s done more than 150 single-barrel selections with the group — primarily bourbon and rye, but also rum, tequila and armagnac — and finally decided to turn that hobby into a business.
“I learned a lot about what I like, what I don't like, what people like, what they don't like,” Rosen says, noting the trend in recent years for non-distilling producers buying barrels, as he’s doing, and leaning heavily on marketing and branding to steeply mark those whiskeys up. His is a more no-frills approach.
“For us, it was still about what's inside. And I think that got lost a little bit during Covid and a couple of years after,” Rosen says. “Our whole goal is to provide high-quality sourced whiskey that is made somewhere else and then is aged in its latter years here in Colorado. And getting that to people in the state and then eventually in the country to showcase what Colorado can do to already established sourced whiskey. All of that at a price that seems fair.”
He says the model for Onyx and Amber is to charge about $10 to $11 per year, adding that “twelve-year whiskey at $129 is hard to beat.” That was its first bottling — an eleven-year, eleven-month-old bourbon originally distilled in Indiana, bottled at 103.2 proof, and sold for $129.99. The company has also released a nine-and-a-half-year rye whiskey that’s been aging in Colorado since 2018. It came out of the barrel (and went into the bottle) at a potent 138.6 proof, or 69.3 percent ABV, and retails at $99.99.
“It's dark and charry and beautiful, and you drink it and it does not drink at that proof at all,” Rosen says. “I tasted it when it first got to Colorado in 2018. That's not what it tasted like, and I think iwe can bring some attention to the environment here and what it does while also [offering] a luxurious brand, but not with luxurious prices. Something that you're proud to put on your mantle that you want to display, but you don't have to pay $250 for.”
He’s currently sitting on about eighty barrels of different origins, sourced from his CBRC contacts in the barrel brokerage world, ranging from six-year bourbon up to eighteen-year American whiskey. As the barrels come in and the team tastes through them, they sort the barrels into different groups. “One of them is saying, ‘Hey, this is already really good, so this is probably gonna be ready within a year.’ Another bucket is, ‘Yeah, this is really good, but we wanna let it keep going.’ And then obviously we have a bucket of, ‘Hey this isn’t tasting great right now,’ because that's obviously gonna happen,” he says.
There are two ways that he’s offering whiskeys right now, separate programs that Onyx & Amber offers to individuals, companies, liquor stores and barrel-pick groups. The first is to do individual barrel selections at the distillery, inviting potential buyers in to pull barrel samples and taste through them. If they find the right barrel, Rosen will get it bottled up and ready for them in a month or so. The other, more involved option is a custom-blending program, where a company or liquor store representative will come in, taste through a few different elements, such as rye, bourbon and American whiskey of different ages and mashbills.
“So you're gonna want 50 percent of this, 20 percent of this, so on and so forth," Rosen explains. "We mix it, taste it — the customer says, ‘We want to add this,’ ‘We want to take [this] away’ — and eventually we get to the end where, if you're a private equity firm or a real estate company and you want Christmas gifts at the end of the year, or closing gifts for people when they buy homes, you've got your own custom blend that nobody else has. Then we'll bottle that up. They’ll have to take a minimum 72 bottles, but we'll bottle that up for them and it's a blend that nobody else has.”
Onyx & Amber has taken up residence in the former Rising Sun Distillery location.
Courtesy Onyx & Amber
“You'll see our bottles pop up from time to time, maybe at Argonaut or Mile High or things like that. But for the most part, anything that we put out that isn't sold as a complete barrel to a store, you can just buy off of our website,” Rosen says.
For now, the space at 1330 Zuni Street is open for tastings by appointment, which can be set up via the website or Instagram. But in the future, he expects to have dedicated times that he’s open to the public.
“Our goal right now is to get the tasting room and everything set up to the public by the first Broncos game of 2025. This area is packed on a Bronco Sunday,” Rosen says. “I think it'll become a place for people to come and sit and really enjoy some really good whiskey that doesn't carry that crazy price tag. That's really the goal for us. Judge us by what's on the inside. Of course, we want to create a pretty package, but whether it's a seven-year or a twelve-year, if it hit the bottle, it means it’s good.”
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