My whiskey review shelf is starting to heave under the weight of new bottles, so I figured it was time to get sippin’! (BTW, my FedEx delivery person still thinks I’m the world’s laziest alcoholic because I have to sign for a 21-plus delivery a couple times a week.) On to the reviews.
First off is the latest edition of one of my favorite distillery’s annual Founders releases. Chattanooga Whiskey started out like a lot of young distilleries by sourcing some really good aged stocks from MGP, the mega-distillery in Indiana. Their initial releases of Chattanooga Whiskey 1816 proved quite popular, but ownership chose not to take the easy road of continuing to buy their stock to bottle under their own brand name. Instead they experimented with their own recipes for bourbon, but with an unusually high malted rye content. The result was their flagship Chattanooga 91 and 111 Straight Bourbon Whiskeys. Along the way, they have created an entirely new subset of whiskey they call Tennessee High Malt.
However, they didn’t completely abandon that tasty MGP juice, saving an inventory in large wooden barrels in their solera room. The solera process is popular in many spirits, including whiskey, sherry, rum and brandy. Basically, new (aged) whiskey is added to the cask periodically to mingle with older stock that is used to blend to create new products. This process reminds me of a friend who used to work in a fast food restaurant who admonished me to never order the chili. “We don’t change the chili, dude! We just add to it every couple of days!” Point taken.
Straight bourbon regulations decree that the age statement on a bottle must represent the youngest whiskey in any blend, but there can be much older stock added to contribute character to the end product. Other producers have been known to play a little fast and loose with those rules, especially rum manufacturers that may declare that their product is 10, 15, even 23 years old, when in actuality there may only be a few molecules per liter of the oldest alcohol.
Chattanooga Whiskey is not one of those less scrupulous producers. They pay tribute to their past, present and future with their annual founder’s series, a blend of that original MGP stock, their current flagship products and some of their favorite experimental whiskeys throughout the years. The three soleras in the distillery represent the history and soul of their operation, and company founder Tim Piersant works with his talented distillery staff to pick a different combination from the three casks to showcase the best elements of each cask for their annual special release.
After tasting, I think their Founder’s 12th Anniversary Blend might be their best yet! This year’s blend is made up of 12 percent of the original 1816, 60 percent of the flagship Barrel 91, and 28 percent of their experimental series whiskeys that they store in what they call their infinity barrel.
The result is a super complex whiskey, as you’d expect from the combination of components. Flavors evolve in the glass and on the palate, starting with dark-chocolate malty notes before revealing nutty and sweet hints over the course of a long finish. Bottled at 100 proof, the blend offers a pleasant burn along with appealing orange and other citrus elements and tongue-drying tannins.
This might be a tougher whiskey to find when it goes on sale on Friday, April 23, since they bottled only about 10 barrels of the blend, but Nashville is one of the lucky markets that will receive an allocation for local spirits stores. Retailing at around $60 a bottle, it’s definitely worth the hunt!
I’ve written a few times in the past about Hard Truth Distilling, the Nashville, Ind.-based distillery that is similar to Chattanooga Whiskey in that they like to experiment with novel malt combinations along with a sweet mash process (as opposed to the more common sour mash). Their latest release is a collaboration with Mellencamp Whiskey founders Hud Mellencamp and Levi Collison. (Yes, Hud is the son of that famous Indiana rocker, and Mellencamp père actually painted the artwork that appears on the label of Mellencamp fils’ new Farmer’s Reserve.)
Working with Hard Truth master distiller Bryan Smith, the Mellencamp crew selected a blend of 45 barrels and eight barrels of Hard Truth’s Chocolate Malt Rye and Sweet Mash Bourbon to release as the latest special edition of their collaboration series. I’m a fan of both of the individual components, so I was expecting to like this blend as well.
Upon first sniff in the glass, I was intrigued, but something smelled a little unusual. My reaction after the initial sip was, “Whoa, what the heck is this?” Instead of the chocolate and spice that I expected, this whiskey was a tropical-cinnamon bomb.
Only then did I look at the rest of the distilling information to discover the answer to this mystery. After the rye and the bourbon were aged in traditional oak barrels and blended, they were rested on toasted amburana, a special wood from Brazil that has seen an explosion of popularity lately among finished whiskeys.
Amburana is known for contributing strong notes of cinnamon, marzipan, brown sugar and vanilla to finished whiskey. That all sounds delicious, but amburana can change the flavor and character of spirits fast and powerfully. Thus it requires a delicate touch to create something new during finishing without completely masking the base spirits.
I found this particular whiskey to be a little bit indelicate, too reminiscent of Fireball, but certainly more elevated than that challenge shot favorite. Farmer’s Reserve may not be for everyone, but if you’re looking for something new and interesting, and are perhaps better prepared for the surprise than I was, you might enjoy this. It retails at around $70 per bottle, and at least you’ll go in knowing about the ride you’re about to take.
Finally, I recently sampled a distillery-only exclusive from Ole Smoky Distillery, their new 80-proof Straight Bourbon Whiskey, which has been aged for at least four years on oak. Previously, I’ve reviewed Old Smoky’s sourced whiskey product, James Ownby Reserve Tennessee Straight Bourbon Whiskey, and I quite enjoyed it, no matter where Old Smoky purchased the juice from.
I’m not 100 percent certain, but I believe that the new Tennessee Straight Bourbon Whiskey was actually distilled in an Ole Smoky facility, so good for them! No matter how you feel about moonshine distilleries, you can't help but respect the success that Ole Smoky has enjoyed and how much they have contributed to the tourism economy of Tennessee. It’s good to see they are upping their craft by distilling and aging more than just flavored moonshines and whiskeys.
So how is the new Old Smoky Straight Bourbon Whiskey? In a word, it’s … fine. The stereotypical bourbon elements of caramel, oak and vanilla are definitely discernible on the nose and the tongue, but they fade pretty quickly as part of a short and sweet finish. This is definitely a perfectly acceptable example of a light whiskey, appropriate for mixing if not sniftering. If you’re at their distillery and want to give it a taste and take some home, I certainly won’t hold it against you. (Especially if Ole Smoky founder Joe Baker ends up running for governor, as has been rumored. I want to stay on that guy’s good side!)
