J. Rieger & Co

Kansas City once shipped whiskey to the whole country by mail, then stopped for ninety-five years. J. Rieger & Co. is the company standing on both sides of that gap: an 1887 Kansas City whiskey house closed by federal Prohibition in 1919 and rebuilt in 2014 by a descendant of its founder, now distilling again in the city's Electric Park District.

History & Heritage

Jacob Rieger founded the company in 1887. He transferred operations to his son Alexander Rieger in 1900, and under Alexander the house grew into what the company describes as the largest mail-order whiskey business in the country, reaching customers with no local access to decent whiskey. Prohibition ended it in 1919, and the name sat unused for the better part of a century. In 2014 Andy Rieger, the great-great-great grandson of Jacob, and bartender Ryan Maybee reestablished the company. As of July 2026 it remains privately held as Jacob Rieger & Company, LLC. Andy Rieger and Ryan Maybee are the publicly identified cofounders and co-owners, and Lucy Rieger has also publicly described herself as a cofounder and business owner; no corporate acquisition has occurred, though the full equity split is not publicly disclosed. Andy Rieger serves as president and was elected to the American Craft Spirits Association board of directors in 2026.

The Whiskey

The facility at 2700 Guinotte Avenue runs 55,000 square feet, with more than 9,000 barrels aging in a rickhouse set beside active railroad tracks. The company credits the vibration of passing trains with influencing maturation, a claim it makes for itself rather than one settled by controlled study. House whiskeys use sweet mash fermentation, starting each batch with fresh grain, water and yeast, then a two-step distillation across a 27-foot column still and a custom 750-gallon copper pot still. Rieger Straight Bourbon is 56% corn, 30% rye and 14% malted barley, aged at least four years. The straight rye is 96% rye and 4% malted barley, also four years minimum, and became a year-round expression in February 2025. The bottled-in-bond bourbon carries six years in the Kansas City rickhouse. Kansas City Whiskey works differently: sourced straight bourbon, light corn and straight rye whiskeys, each aged at least four years, blended with a small measure of 15-year-old Oloroso sherry from the Williams & Humbert bodega in Jerez. Monogram Solera Reserve is fractionally blended through 50 to 100 year old Oloroso botas from that same bodega. Rieger Caffè Amaro is the house corn-spirit botanical amaro blended with single-origin cold brew from Thou Mayest Coffee Roasters in Kansas City and briefly rested in used whiskey barrels. The Midwestern Dry Gin, built on a wheat spirit base with juniper, licorice root, angelica root, coriander and orange peel, was developed with former Tanqueray master distiller Tom Nichol and runs through a 120-gallon copper pot still the distillery calls the Wee Still.

Why It Matters

The sherry is the argument. Blending sherry into whiskey was ordinary practice in pre-Prohibition American whiskey houses, and Rieger revived it, marketing the result as Kansas City Style. That is a producer-created category rather than a federal standard, and as of 2026 the company was still pursuing formal recognition under Missouri law. In 2017 it became the first U.S. distillery authorized to import sherry in bulk from Spain, which is what makes the practice repeatable at scale rather than a one-off finish. The judging has followed: Kansas City Whiskey took Best in Category for American Whiskey and Double Platinum at the 2023 ASCOT Awards and Gold at the 2023 San Francisco World Spirits Competition; Rieger Straight Bourbon took Best Craft Bourbon and Double Platinum at the 2025 ASCOT Awards; the bottled-in-bond bourbon earned Double Gold at the 2023 San Francisco World Spirits Competition; and Monogram was named a top-four finalist in the 2024 Spirited Awards global category for Best New Spirit or Cocktail Ingredient.

Visiting the Distillery

Hour-long guided tours include a tasting and are booked through the distillery's website. The building is ADA accessible, closed-toe shoes are required on the production floor, and visitors check in at the front desk at least 15 minutes before the scheduled start. Four hospitality spaces operate on site: the Monogram Lounge, the Tasting Room, The Hey! Hey Club, and the Electric Park Garden Bar.