World Whiskies Award Winner
Our Copper Buffalo took top honors in the American Style Whiskey Category—less than a year after launch. Discover what made it stand out.
Colorado Does Something to Whiskey That Nowhere Else Can
At seven years in Colorado, whiskey drinks well above its age. Richer. Deeper. More viscous. Seven years is seven years—but what Colorado's barometric pressure and bone-dry mountain air do in that time? That's what makes the difference.
THE ORIGIN
It Started with a Question
What would happen if you took whiskey that was already good—really good—and let Colorado's climate work on it for a few years? Not distill it here. Just age it here. Let the barometric pressure swings and the dry mountain air do their thing.
So we bought some barrels. We waited. We tasted. Four years later, we cracked them open and realized: Colorado does something to whiskey that nowhere else can. That discovery became Onyx & Amber.
But the story starts earlier—ten years earlier, with a bourbon group called Colorado Bourbon & Rye Collectors. Over a decade, we conducted 150+ single-barrel selections and raised over half a million dollars for charity. We tasted hundreds of barrels. We learned what we loved. And somewhere along the way, we noticed two things missing: a truly exceptional high-end Colorado whiskey, and the barrel selection experience we'd fallen in love with—the one that disappeared after COVID. We built Onyx & Amber to bring both back.
THE MAGIC
The Science of Colorado Aging
Colorado weather shifts fast. Snow at 7 AM, 55 degrees by 2 PM. Those barometric pressure swings force whiskey in and out of the barrel wood far more often than in Kentucky or Indiana—more interaction, more flavor extraction.
The dryness does something else. Water escapes the barrel. Ethanol stays. What's left is a higher concentration of everything that matters: vanilla, caramel, depth.
At seven years in Colorado, whiskey drinks like it's been aging for twelve.
THE EXPERIENCE
No Script.
No Clock.
No Pressure.
Most distilleries will pour you three pre-selected samples and ask you to pick one. Quick. Scripted. Move along.
That's not what happens at Onyx & Amber.
In Denver, you walk into our warehouse and start tasting from barrels of various ages and time spent developing in Colorado. As many as you want. We tell you everything: the distillery, the mash bill, when it arrived, what Colorado's been doing to it.
No rush. No sales pitch. Just an honest conversation about whiskey.
When you find the one that stops you mid-sip—the one that makes you think "oh, this is it"—that's your barrel. We'll customize and bottle it for you, your group, or your store.
In Louisville (opening spring 2026), we offer a more intimate barrel selection experience—curated samples from exceptional barrels, the same transparency and depth, just in a different setting. Same philosophy. Same hospitality. More focused selections.
Two locations. Two experiences. One commitment: give you the time and information to discover what you love.
NO RERUNS
What You're Tasting Now Existed Once
We buy small. Eight to twenty barrels at a time. Every batch is shaped by which barrels we found, when they arrived in Colorado, what the weather did to them, how long we let them sit.
That means every release tastes different from the last one. On purpose.
The 12-year MGP we bottled last spring? Gone. It won't taste like that again—the barrels, the climate, the years in the warehouse, none of it lines up the same way twice.
If you see something you want, don't wait. It's a one-time expression.
Current releases are online now. Tomorrow's releases? Those are still aging in the warehouse—and they'll be completely different.
Visit our distillery for barrel tastings, selections, and hand fill your own bottle of Onyx & Amber whiskey
Distillery
1330 Zuni Street, Unit J
Denver, CO 80204