Clay Risen Author

Chip Tate is an acknowledged leader in the craft distilling industry, having received more than 150 national and international awards, including US Craft Distillery of the Year and Global Distillery of the Year from the Wizards of Whisky International Competition in 2012. In recognition of his contributions to the development of the craft spirits industry, Whisky Magazine awarded him their inaugural Craft Whiskey Distillery of the Year Icon award in 2012, a category which he won again in 2014. In 2013, The Spirits Business named him a Grand Master of World Whisky. In 2014, at the prestigious World Whisky Awards in London, he won the Best Overall American Whisky category. At the end of 2014, Chip embarked in a new strategic and creative direction, establishing Tate & Company Distillery and Chip Tate Craft Copperworks in Waco, Texas.

Clay Risen, the deputy op-ed editor at The New York Times, is the author of Single Malt: A Guide to the Whiskies of Scotland (October, 2018) and the spirits bestseller American Whiskey, Bourbon & Rye: A Guide to the Nation’s Favorite Spirit. Now in its sixth printing with more than 100,000 copies sold, his groundbreaking guide has quickly become the bible on American whiskey and placed Risen at the top of authorities on the history, business, and diversity of U.S. spirits. Risen has given numerous talks, appeared on television, and served as a judge on multiple spirit award committees. Risen has written widely about spirits for newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, Forbes, The Atlantic, and the Washington Post. He is the author of several popular American histories, including A Nation on Fire: America in the Wake of the King Assassination, The Bill of the Century: The Epic Battle for the Civil Rights Act, and the forthcoming The Crowded Hour: Teddy Roosevelt, the Rough Riders and the Dawn of the American Century. He grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and two young children.

Carlo DeVito is a notable publisher, editor, winemaker, and author of over a dozen books, including Mrs. Lee's Rose Garden and Inventing Scrooge. His books have been reviewed in The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, and other national newspapers. As an editor and publisher, Carlo has acquired, edited, and published such authors as Stephen Hawking, Malachy McCourt, John Edgar Wideman, Stanley Crouch, Dee Brown, Dan Rather, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Eleanor Clift, Susie Bright, Jane Goodall, Philip Caputo, Julia Alvarez, Budd Schulberg, Haynes Johnson, Dr. Howard Shapiro, Bo Dietl, Thomas Hoving, Peter Kaminisky, and Penelope Hobhouse. Carlo and his wife own the highly acclaimed Hudson-Chatha Winery in Ghent, NY.