Last week, I found myself doing something I hadn’t  done in a very long time: taking a pickleback shot with a group of strangers in Ballard. For the uninitiated—or those who didn’t frequent the bars in the 2010s—a pickleback shot is pretty much what it sounds like; a shot of whiskey followed by a shot of pickle brine. It’s an acquired taste, and as I’m known to eat pickles straight from the jar multiple times a week, the salty, tangy liquid is a welcome backer for what, in the past, has generally been a well-grade whiskey. At this event however, we were sipping on Session Blend Bourbon from Doc Swinson’s, a small-but-mighty whiskey brand based in Ferndale, Washington, and it did not require slamming back as quickly as possible. 

The table around me erupted in cheers as we clinked glasses and alternated sips of whiskey with an almost garlicy brine. It was the end of a dinner at the Ballard outpost of Radiator Whiskey, held in celebration of an ongoing partnership between the restaurant and Doc Swinson’s. 

I have never been a “whiskey person.” My go-to drink is a vodka martini, and looking back, I can say that my introduction to whiskey as a money-strapped college student didn’t leave me with a proclivity for the stuff. Over the past few years, however, I have grown to appreciate a classic Manhattan (extra cherries, please) and the complexities of  a well-blended bourbon. The weekend prior to the aforementioned dinner, I had the opportunity to visit Doc Swinson’s facility, and I didn’t hesitate over the two-hour drive to experience their newly opened Barrel Lab tasting room in Ferndale, Washington. Located just off the freeway, Doc Swinson’s has its roots in Distillers Way, a custom spirits house that has been developing private label, white label, and contract spirits projects for over a decade. 

Over the summer, Doc Swinson’s Whiskey opened the Barrel Lab: a tasting room at their facility in Ferndale, Washington.

Photo courtesy of Doc Swinson's

“We already had access to all these wonderful products and barrels from all over the world,” says Jesse Parker, the master blender behind Doc Swinson’s and one of the founders of Distillers Way. He compares Doc Swinson’s libations—more than a dozen carefully crafted bourbons and ryes—to a chef-prepared meal. The brand doesn’t actually distill its alcohol (that’s done elsewhere; Indiana, Tennessee), but once the whiskey is sent to Ferndale, that’s when Parker starts to play, experimenting with different blends and cask finishes to create unique flavors.

“The [spirits] are aged down in the south, then we bring them up here to finish,” notes Joe Mattson, Doc Swinson’s chief marketing officer. “We’re the only place in the whole country that has a similar climate to Scotland.” Which is, of course, known for producing some of the best whiskey in the world. In the simplest terms, the cool environment slows down the ageing process, giving the spirit more time to mature. Additionally, more moisture in the air means that water in the barrels evaporates at a slower rate, resulting in a slightly lower ABV and more flavor imparted from the barrel. 

Parker attended Western Washington University, and got involved with the local spirits community in the early 2010s, when he served as the head distiller at nearby BelleWood Distilling. “I started developing gins there,” Parker recalls, “and it got me a little notoriety in the industry, which was pretty small at the time. But being so young, it allowed me to get under the wing of a lot of people who have been doing this for a very long time. I was able to hone my skills and learn more about the processes.” 

In 2017, a couple years after Distillers Way was up and running, the team discovered a cache of rare bourbon barrels that sent them down discovery road. “That original, first bottling became a cult hit in the whiskey nerd world,” Parker says. “It was a blend of straight Kentucky bourbons that were 15 years old. There was no finish, nothing like that. When I blended the cask together, they just seemed to do extreme magic.”

The three whiskey varieties we used to create our own blends.

Photo by Rachel Gallaher

My fiancé and I deep in the serious work of blending. He preferred a bolder, boozier slant, while I favored a sweeter, smoother flavor.

Photo by Rachel Gallaher

Our creations, mid-blend. It’s funny how basic math skills disappear after a few whiskey tastes (thank goodness for calculators.)

Photo by Rachel Gallaher

After the popularity of that first batch, the team decided to embrace experimentation through blending and finishing, leaning into their tagline: Open Curiosity. “The way we’re positioning the brand is around the idea of curiosity,” says Mattson. “It’s a call to action and openness.” And that doesn’t just go for the brand—Doc Swinson’s hopes consumers will open their minds, whether at the bar or liquor store. Parker has created some unique bourbons using sherry, rum, cognac, and even tequila casks, eager to attract those who claim to hate the dark stuff. One offering, the brand’s limited-edition Samba, is a straight rye whiskey finished in rum and Brazilian amburana casks. It tastes like a snickerdoodle cookie and would make a very interesting swap (dare I say upgrade?) for the rum in tiramisu. 

Mattson and Parker admit that the brand has the privilege of time. Since they don’t rely on Doc Swinson’s to pay the bills (thanks to Distillers Way), they don’t have to crank out of certain number of bottles in a specified amount of time. This allows Parker to focus on fine tuning each batch, sometimes taking years to perfect a single blend. (At our dinner, he revealed that their Golden Hour—straight rye whiskey finished in port casks—took 164 tries to nail down.) Perhaps that’s part of why Doc Swinson’s has won more than 100 awards since its launch, including four Double Gold Awards at the 2024 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. 

Hanging out in the Barrel Lab on a chilly morning at the end of October, it was also evident that these guys just love this stuff and have a passion for sharing it with other people. During my visit, they put my fiancé and I to the test, letting us create our own mini blends using three selections from their Exploratory Cask series (La Mente, El Cuerpo, and L’Espirit). The samples we took home are still “aging,” but I look forward to cracking them open in a few months and seeing how we did. This spirit of connection—lots of chatter, laughter, and geeking out over our interests, whether those include whiskey or not,—is at the heart of the brand. 

“I think the magic of what Jesse and Doc Swinson’s is doing is harnessing this idea of blending. Using different woods from different countries, and combining Old World techniques with our new world whiskey,” Mattson says. “At this little place in Ferndale, we’re providing human connection through a celebration of blending ideas, traditions, and cultures.” 

That’s certainly a sentiment worth raising a glass for—with or without a chaser of pickle brine.