Tennessee craft distilling darling Chattanooga Whiskey not too long ago dropped the sixth version of their Ending Sequence, a line that we admittedly haven’t saved up with effectively sufficient. Fortunately, this newest providing is a reprise of kinds of an earlier expression that we missed (the Islay Scotch Cask End), which sees peated expressions of Chattanooga’s distinctive Tennessee Excessive Malt home type completed in a trio of peaty Islay Scotch casks. Per the distillery:
For his or her sixth end, the distillers returned to some of the well-known whisky-making areas on this planet: Islay, Scotland. Famend for his or her wealthy, earthy, and smoky character, whiskies from this area make the most of barley malt that’s dried and smoked with peat moss native to the island – a regional custom courting again centuries.
Completed in three kinds of scotch whisky casks sourced from three totally different distilleries, every barrel kind contributes its personal distinctive, peaty character to the mix. “This ending idea was first launched as Batch 033 in our Experimental Single Batch Sequence. Regardless of its Scottish leanings, that authentic eight-barrel batch shortly grew to become a cult favourite amongst our diehard followers, and was even voted as the very best whiskey from Tennessee (Worldwide Wine & Spirit Competitors). For many who love smoky whiskeys, this one hit the mark.” – Grant McCracken, Founding Distiller
To focus on and improve the qualities of the ending barrels, their distillers introduced collectively a customized mix of three totally different peated whiskeys made with three distinctive peated malts sourced from three UK malthouses. Collectively, this full-throttled method to completed whiskey gathers smoky taste from each step of the method – expressing the multilayered contributions of every ingredient, mash invoice, and ending barrel.
Aged for over 5 years, together with six months within the ending casks, the mix of straight whiskeys was bottled at an assertive 111 proof, which permits the drinker so as to add water and peel aside the nuanced peat character drop-by-drop.
Peated whiskey, Tennessee-style. Let’s test it out.
I don’t typically touch upon colour, however this can be a lovely wanting whiskey with a deep, ruddy copper hue that just about glows within the glass. The aroma kicks off with baked crimson apple, maple candies, and marmalade all wrapped in a smoky embrace that begins just a little astringent with coal ash and chimney swimsuit earlier than softening because it opens to sweeter wooden smoke accented by an virtually sherried nuttiness and a little bit of previous furnishings. The palate is punchy with a giant rush of Chattanooga’s trademark excessive malt sweetness – buttery and honeyed with undertones of currants and cooked crimson fruits. It’s not lengthy, nonetheless, earlier than all that peat muscle tissue in with notes of campfire, creosote, and a little bit of savory BBQ smoke which sweetens to well-basted burnt ends on the midpalate. Issues dry out significantly on the end with lip-puckering notes of cigar ash, new leather-based, and a little bit of tart darkish cherry. An enchanting, if considerably erratic, American whiskey tailored for peatheads. However possibly solely peatheads.
111 proof.
B+ / $60
Chattanooga Whiskey Triple Islay Cask Completed Malt Whiskey
$60
