10th Street Distillery

I arranged a whiskey tasting for the Meetup group that normally goes wine tasting. There are three options for tasting - small, medium and a larger tasting with food pairing combined with a tour of the distillery.We decided on the one with the tour. This place is located in Downtown San Jose, on 4th Street. There is parking outside and along the street. It's a quiet street and we went on a Sunday evening. It was our group of 6 and we were the only ones when we arrived. It was a 2 hour tasting and during that time a small group of members came by and sat at the bar. So not terribly busy on a Sunday evening.The ambiance is great, the tables and the bar have the distillery as the background behind glass and its very impressive.We were all greeted with a High Ball on arrival. Once we were half way through the drink, the owner started pouring the various whiskeys for the tasting. The tastings are all 1/2 oz and we were supposed to get 6 tastings but it ended up being around 10, it was a bit much for me. The owner is the one who pours and explains the various whiskeys and he is very knowledgeable and passionate. And, a lot of these are award-winning spirits. My impression, before I made the booking, was that the whiskeys would be poured as we walked through the distillery and stopped at various points. But the tour was after the tasting and it would have been better the other way. It's not a long tour and since it is a small place, the talk about the distillery could have been conducted during the tasting as as well. This tour came with food pairing but it's very small pieces of cheese or salami, merely to enhance the taste of the whiskey. You sipped the whiskey, took a bite of a small piece of cheese provided and then tried the spirit again to see the difference. Not like most food pairings. No outside food allowedThe staff that poured and talked about the whiskeys has a a lot of information about what other foods to pair it with etc. Their website could use some tweaking.

I made a reservation online for hubby's birthday since he loves whisky. We did the "Private Cocktail and Whisky Tasting" - $30/person.It included 4 tastings + a cocktail w/one of the whiskies. I had to push out the date a couple times and they were understanding and accommodating. We arrived a bit early to our reservation and were promptly seated at a table. Derek took care of us. We were poured the first whisky, given an explanation of the whisky we were tasting then were left alone to savor it and we took notes on the paper provided. I like this format then he'd bring us another one. The list had 4 tastings but we tried more than that :) For the cocktail at the end, we were given 3 options. I thought we would have a few more options to pick from. I picked a penicillin - it was sweet and gingery. It was good but maybe would've liked to have had another sweet option to pick from since the other 2 didn't appeal to me. I didn't fully see what the "private" part was of this tasting. It seemed like a regular tasting to me like a wine tasting where you sit and they bring you the wines one by one. If we were in a private room, I could see it being private but it wasn't. I liked where we sat though. When we arrived, a couple people were there and then left and then we were the only ones there for the rest of the tasting. So I guess it was kinda private at that point since it was just us and Derek. It would've been nice if perhaps there was ambiance music playing in the background - it was very quiet. Also maybe some snack offerings like pistachios or almonds to go with the tasting would be great since there was no food to purchase.

We went there Sunday at 3pm. It was not crowded and that's was nice. We did the flight plus a cocktail. We have seen them at the Highland Games and wanted to go since we are close. Their whiskey is top notch and quite a few offerings. The cocktails were delicious and made with the whiskey of your choice. I would highly recommend giving g them a try if you are a whiskey enthusiast.

Amazing experience. Virag and team know what they are doing. The whiskeys at 10th Street are top notch and the food pairings they offer make the tasting experience fantastic.

We finally got to visit 10th Street's distillery for a tasting, last fall. So this review is a bit old but I still highly recommend checking them out. I mean, it's a whiskey distillery right here in the Valley! It's great to sit and sip among the barrels, and hear from the staff about what they're up to. It doesn't hurt to know these are award-winning spirits, either :)There are both peated and unpeated varieties so you'll a terrible time trying to decide what exactly you like best. More tasting may be required.

It is a great place to do whisky tasting! Sooo good! We became members and are looking forward to seeing this Bay Area start-up grow!

My bad as I thought I'd reviewed 10th Street! In June my son-in-law and I stopped in to see and taste the local whiskey. It was closed for tasting, but one of the owners let us in, gave us tastings of every product, and even let us tour and taste the in-progress Peated Single Malt finished in Napa wine casks. The owner showed us engineering of the stills and air valves necessary for the volatile flammable precious whiskey.We ended up leaving with bottles of Single Malt and Peated Single Malt. I really liked the tasting from the wine cask and got a fifth of the Peated Single Malt Single Barrel Finished in the Wine Cask. In just a week it's a third gone so have to get up to San Jose again for more and to taste any new products!Being in an industrial warehouse, parking is easy just outside the SJ business areas.

Well crafted Whiskeys, on par with Scotland's best distilleries. I would like to see them "take off the blinders" and do a hyper-peated single malt.I am a new fan,this will be a regular part of my whiskey arsenal .

Wow! Excellent whisky and the employees were very knowledgeable and helpful! Never really bought whisky until I went here.

We did whisky tasting in a group. The whiskies are really good with noticeably different flavors. The owner explained each whisky very well. It ended with a tour of the distillery and really detailed fun explanation of the process.