Fiddler Whiskey (ASW Distillery)

Fiddler is the flagship label of American whiskey from ASW Distillery in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded by Jim Chasteen and Charlie Thompson, former roommates at The University of Georgia, ASW is Georgia’s largest distillery and easily its most decorated.

Bonded in a mutual love of whiskey, Jim and Charlie launched American Spirit Whiskey in 2011, a bottling distilled to their specifications in Charleston, South Carolina. Following their inaugural brand’s success, the duo built ASW Distillery in Atlanta’s Armour Yard district and officially opened its doors in 2016.

ASW is helmed by Master Distiller Justin Manglitz, himself an alum of The University of Georgia. Justin honed his passion as a distiller during his college days and the opening of an independently run homebrewer’s supply store. In what can only be described as kismet, Manglitz has a family connection to the ASW enterprise (his older sister grew up with Jim Chasteen), though he had never met Jim and Charlie until he was recommended to steer the distillery’s efforts.

Fiddler began as an opportunity to showcase ASW’s whiskey-blending acumen while their own distillates matured, achieved by selecting exceptional new make and then “fiddling” with variables such as char and toast levels, finishes, and batch sizes.

Even now, as the distillery releases spirits made on its own Vendome copper pot stills, Fiddler remains one of ASW’s marquee lineups, sometimes incorporating ASW distillate into its bottlings. Notably, ASW has released Atlanta’s first straight bourbon under the Fiddler Soloist label, over ninety years after Prohibition’s repeal and well after the legal establishment of the whiskey term “straight” in 1909.