Pittsburgh’s Wigle Launches RTD Manhattan
The Manhattan was built on Pennsylvania rye, and for nearly a century it has been made without it. Wigle Whiskey today released its Manhattan Ready to Serve, a bottled version of the classic built on the whiskey style Western Pennsylvania invented and Prohibition nearly erased.
The Manhattan Ready to Serve is 34% ABV and is available for purchase at the Wigle Whiskey Distillery, Wigle Ross Park Mall Bottle Shop, and online for shipping within Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.
The Pittsburgh-based distillery is known for celebrating history, particularly the legacy of the Whiskey Rebellion in Western Pennsylvania. With this release, Wigle Whiskey adds a bottle to its portfolio that honors a beloved historic cocktail.
The Manhattan first appeared in print in 1882, when newspapers noted a new vogue for a mixture of whiskey, vermouth and bitters that was circulating under several names before Manhattan stuck. The whiskey in it was rye — and in that era, the rye Americans drank came from Western Pennsylvania.
Known as Monongahela rye, the style was created by Scots-Irish and Pennsylvania German farmers who distilled their grain because it was the only practical way to move it over the Alleghenies. It became the dominant whiskey in the country. By 1808, distillers in Allegheny County were producing the equivalent of half a barrel of whiskey for every American alive, and licensed stills across Western Pennsylvania peaked at roughly 4,000 in the 19th century. Prohibition ended it. Afterward, only a handful of stills remained in the entire country, and American whiskey’s center of gravity moved south to Kentucky.
The cocktail survived. The whiskey that built it did not.
“The Manhattan is the clearest evidence of what was lost — it’s a drink that was designed around a whiskey this region invented, and then spent a century being made with everything except it,” said Alex Moser, Chief Operating Officer at Wigle Whiskey. “We’re not inventing anything. We’re putting the original ingredient back, our rye whiskey.”
Wigle’s Manhattan is built with the distillery’s Pennsylvania rye and Little City Sweet Vermouth, a small-production vermouth made by hand on Seneca Lake from New York State wine and 53 botanicals. Wigle selected it for its weight and bitterness — qualities that let it stand alongside rye rather than be overwhelmed by it.
“The Manhattan has always been a drink that brings the best of different places together in the same glass. That’s what makes it great,” said Will Clark, founder of Little City Vermouth. “Wigle is restoring the Pennsylvania half of it. We bring the New York half—vermouth made from grapes grown in our state on our farm. The pieces—and places—come together to form a whole. We’re proud to be a part of it.”
The bottle requires no measuring or mixing. It is served over ice with a cherry garnish.
