Sagamore Spirit

On Baltimore's waterfront, where the Patapsco River meets the old shipping piers of the Baltimore Peninsula, Sagamore Spirit distills rye whiskey using limestone-filtered water drawn from a spring house built in 1909. The distillery has built its reputation on a single grain: rye, the spirit most closely tied to Maryland's pre-Prohibition whiskey history, revived here with a modern production process and a growing lineup of core and reserve expressions.

History & Heritage

Sagamore Spirit was founded in 2013 by Kevin Plank, the Under Armour founder, and business partner Bill McDermond, with the goal of reviving Maryland-style rye whiskey, a category that had largely disappeared after Prohibition. The distillery opened its Baltimore waterfront facility in 2017, in the Baltimore Peninsula neighborhood near I-95 and the Inner Harbor. Rye was chosen deliberately: before Prohibition, Maryland rye was considered a distinct style alongside Pennsylvania rye and Kentucky bourbon, and Sagamore built its identity around restoring that regional tradition rather than competing as another bourbon producer.

Ownership of Sagamore Spirit changed significantly in September 2023, when Illva Saronno Holding S.p.A., the Italian spirits company best known for Disaronno, acquired a majority stake in the distillery. As of July 2026, Sagamore Spirit is majority owned by Illva Saronno Holding S.p.A., with Kevin Plank retaining a minority stake. The distillery continues to operate under the Sagamore Spirit Distillery LLC entity in Baltimore.

For its early years, Sagamore Spirit relied in part on sourced rye whiskey while building out its own production capacity. That changed in May 2024, when the distillery launched Sagamore Small Batch Rye Whiskey and publicly described it as the brand's first 100% Maryland-made whiskey available worldwide, marking a full transition to in-house distillation for its flagship release.

The Whiskey

Sagamore Spirit's signature technique is blending two distinct rye mash bills, a high-rye recipe and a low-rye recipe, then combining the resulting whiskeys rather than distilling a single mash bill. Sagamore Small Batch Rye Whiskey, the Core Collection flagship, blends high-rye and low-rye whiskeys that are triple distilled and matured four to six years, blended in 20-barrel batches, hand-bottled, and non-chill filtered at 93 proof. The low-rye component draws on 100% non-GMO corn grown at Sagamore Farm.

Sagamore Spirit Double Oak Rye Whiskey takes a straight rye aged four to five years in high-char new American oak, then finishes it an additional 18 months in toasted wave-stave barrels, bottled at 96.6 proof. Sagamore Spirit Rye Whiskey Cask Strength blends straight high-rye and low-rye mash bills aged four to seven years, cut with a small addition of the distillery's limestone-filtered spring water, currently bottled at 112.2 proof. Limited reserve releases extend the range further: Sagamore Spirit 6 Year Old Reserve Series Sherry Finish takes four-year straight rye and finishes it 18 months in 132-gallon PX Sherry barrels, released at 106 proof with an age statement of 6+ years.

Sagamore Spirit has been recognized industry-wide for its rye program, including being named World's Best Rye Whiskey at the 2019 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, part of a body of more than 200 competition awards the distillery has accumulated across its releases.

Why It Matters

Sagamore Spirit occupies a specific niche: a rye-only distillery working to rebuild a whiskey style that Prohibition nearly erased. Its two-mash-bill blending approach, its own farm-grown grain, and its 1909 spring water source give the whiskey a defined regional identity rather than a generic craft-distillery story. The 2023 majority acquisition by Illva Saronno Holding S.p.A. brought international spirits industry backing to the brand while the distillery kept its Baltimore production and Maryland rye focus intact. For those who appreciate good whiskey and want to taste a genuine link to pre-Prohibition American rye, Sagamore Spirit's range, from the everyday Small Batch to the cask-strength and sherry-finished reserve pours, offers a rare side-by-side look at how a single grain can be shaped into distinct styles.

Visiting the Distillery

The Baltimore waterfront distillery is open five days a week (closed Monday and Tuesday) for guided tours lasting 45 minutes to one hour, ending in a tasting for guests 21 and older. Beyond the tour, visitors can book cocktail classes, shop the distillery store, or stop into Nineteen O' Nine, the on-site whiskey bar inside the Visitor Center that serves cocktails, flight trays, and Distillery Exclusive releases not available elsewhere.