Our Journey

In 2014, Daniel and Michelle opened J.D. William’s Whisky Bar in the Jordaan in Amsterdam because we loved whisky.  For ten years at J.D. William’s Whisky Bar, we built a devoted community of whisky and whisky cocktail lovers with both locals and visitors alike.  After countless moments of whisky tastings, we organically started brainstorming about a spirit “that tasted like this,” “had a color like that,” and was “finished in this type of barrel.”  Thus, the idea of J.D. William’s Rye was born.  

The drive and motivation to create a spirit was always there as Daniel’s grandfather’s family on his mother’s side were moonshiners during the prohibition era in the States.  And on his father’s side, still today his uncles dabble and make their own home spirits.  We were inspired by Daniel’s relatives’ pioneering spirit and in 2019 we started contract distilling a rye whisky with a distillery north of Amsterdam.  We filled 30 casks and our journey began.  

Although we closed J.D. William’s Whisky bar in the summer of 2024, we had already secured a location in Amsterdam Noord in the summer 2023.  Over the past year,  we have been diligently working to set up the distillery and to make it production-ready.  We already have the pot stills, fermenting tanks, mashtun and other distilling equipment in place.  We are just about to launch production, but that is where we need your help.  

At the core of J.D. William’s Distillery is a pioneering spirit, a desire to question the established status quo, and a fearlessness to try something new.  We want to inspire people of any age, gender or race to dream big. On a product level, J.D. William’s Distillery’s mission is to create an American-style rye whisky using natural, high-quality ingredients. The intention is to use traceable ingredients and to create flavors from natural products such as rye, barley, yeast, and wood.  We not only want to push the boundaries with flavor and execution, but we also want to minimize their impact on the planet and to create a circular economy during the production process.  

Essentially, the brand is an expression of where we have been, where we are now and where we want to go.