Westland Is Kicking Butt - Particularly In Recent Single Cask Nation Releases.

Westland single barrel selections vatted to create the
Single Cask Nation Third Jubilee Festival Bottling

Westland, a five year old distillery in Seattle, is producing interesting single-malts that aren't trying to imitate the Scots. Instead, they're taking cues from the American Craft beer movement, using intriguing malts and yeasts from craft brewing.  A creative vatting of the range of flavors they are working with lately deserved to be the third of the adventurous bottlings the Jewish Whisky Company selects for their annual Whisky Jewbilee.

American whiskey production tends to focus on corn and rye.  Malt whisky is more often associated with Scotch, Irish, Japanese, and the new malts emerging in places like Scandinavia, England, Wales, Brittany, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the like.  But American Craft distillers are making single malts too, such as Balcones' Texas Single Malt, St. George Single Malt, Sons of Liberty Uprising, Stranahans, McCarthy's Oregon Single Malt, Lost Spirits, and Hudson, among others.  An interesting aspect of the American single malt movement is that a number of them show signs of emerging from the Craft beer movement.  Some, like Charbay, Corsair Rasputin, Sons of Liberty seasonals, and Pine Barrens (among others) are explicitly hopped, having been distilled from finished beer.  That's not the case here - but signs of evolution out of craft beer brewing are all over Westland's stuff.  They have an interesting story about using complex mash bills which involve a lot of different malts, the kind usually used in craft beer, such as Washington Select Pale Malt, Munich Malt.  Pale Chocolate Malt, Brown Malt, and also Peated Malt.  They further amp the flavor in the mash by using Belgian Saison brewer's yeast - a variety normally used in craft beer.  They claim the yeast produces a lot of esters and creamy flavor compounds.  I was initially skeptical about this claim. However, my early tastings of their standard expressions showed me that the whisky was rich, sweet, dark and musky in a way I really enjoyed.   Given that Westland is choosing to bottle their stuff young, typically 2 to 3 years old, I view this as a minor miracle.  It makes me inclined to believe the story about mash bill and yeast.  How else to explain the richness and apparent maturity in such a young malt?  This stuff is mostly too young to be legally called "whisky" in Scotland, but it drinks a lot like the real deal - and has its own set of flavors which are worth exploring.  

Part of the Anchor Distilling's portfolio - a sweet distribution platform - Westland joins excellent whisky peers like Nikka, BenRiach, Kavalan, GlenDronach, Glenrothes, Glenglassaugh, and Anchor's own Old Potrero.  The urban downtown distillery features a very Scottish looking setup with two substantial pot stills from Vendome for wash and spirit two part distillation (with column tops, although the plates are only used on the spirit still) and a beefy gorgeous spirit safe,  There's clearly some money behind the outfit.

Nima Ansari, spirit buyer at Astor Place Liquors in NYC tweeted this photo of Westland's stills & spirit safe.

Plus, see a great set of photos of Westland here: http://thesunbreak.com/2013/10/03/westland-distillery-takes-single-malt-whiskey-to-a-new-level/

I had my first taste of Westland at the June 2014 Whisky Jewbilee in New York, poured by Matt Hoffman, the master distiller and co-founder of Westland. A big bearded man who looks like a lumber jack, he comes off as warm and very knowledgeable with much to say about his production philosophy.. . A few months later, I got to taste some amazing Westland sherried and peated malt whisky barrel samples poured by Single Cask Nation's Josh Hatton with whiskey enthusiast Ari Susskind's crew last fall (later bottled by SCN and reviewed below). So when I heard that Hoffman was leading a master class this year (June 2015) and presenting the third Whiskey Jewbilee bottling, I signed right up. The first two festival bottlings, a 15 year old Heaven Hill single cask Bourbon, at barrel proof; and a custom vatting of rye whiskies and LDI Light whiskies, selected and blended by David Perkins of High West, had quickly attracted a cult following.  

(above: the first and second Jewbilee festival bottlings.  The first, left, a rich and intense Heaven Hill 15 yo single cask, had a young Jewish man sitting on a NY building stoop on the label.  The second, right, was a vatting of LDI rye and light whiskies by David Perkins of High West, has a label depicting the same young man, this time sharing a pour with a beautiful woman.  The bottle they are drinking is the first festival bottling depicted in miniature on the label).  The depiction of the previous bottle labels is now a "thing".

Matt started off by explaining about the Westland production story (the cool rainy Scotland-like climate in Seattle; their use of two large pot stills, full sized barrels; carefully selected woods, the many malts, the yeast, etc...) Then we dove into 6 different selections starting with the base OB expression and then through the single cask components of the Third Jewbilee Festival bottling.

OB Westland Single Malt - 2010 distillation 46% abv.

http://westlanddistillery.com/whiskey/american-single-malt
Barley grown locally: Washington Select Pale Malt
Munich Malt, Extra Special Malt, Pale Chocolate Malt, Brown Malt, Belgian Saison yeast.  #3 char air cured barrels by Independent Stave and 24 month maturation.  

Dusky malty and sweet on the nose with cocoa and malt, cocoa and milk chocolate. The palate starts malty and honeyed, like malted milk balls. On the expansion things move to candied citrus fruit and rind.  The turn is moderately oaky and pretty well balanced.  The finish is moderately long, with char and herbal notes.  There is some of the brashness of youth, but there's a whole lot going on and most all of it is good.
**** 84

Left to right: Westland casks 539, 193, 90, and 189

Next we hit the single barrel selections used in the vatting to come. I didn't note their alcohol by volume percentages, but these are all barrel proof - around 62% abv for all of them. These were tasted at the event, so I'm not giving formal tasting notes or scores - but they were outstanding. Each of them were delicious and would crack ***** 90 point (+) territory. The following brief notes were taken at the tasting.

Cask 539 New American Oak Peated

(left in the photo above) 

Amber color

Peated malt. 2 years old.
Nose: bacon or smoked ham. Smoke. Nutty sweet meats.
Sweet elegant opening. Honey candied meat. Smoke.  Addictive.  Delicious.

Cask 90 New American Oak - 6 Malt Mash

(second from the right in the photo above)
Amber with red glints.

Nose Buttery oak. Cream. Untanned skin. Pork fat (procutto) panne cotta.
Palate: intensely fruity (lychee, chardonnay, banana, apricot), creamy, blond leather, soft mouth feel. Clove heat. Finish is lightly fruited, oak tannin,  Water amps the sweet.  

Cask 189 62.6% abv. 39 months old ex bourbon 

(right, in the photo above)

Pale gold.
Nose Sawn oak, fruity, vanilla, malt.
 Palate: honey, herbs, white fudge, and citrus.  Substantial intensity and long finish.

(Note. This barrel is also being bottled as a Single Cask Nation selection:)

http://singlecasknation.com/collections/nation-bottlings/products/westland-3-wild-turkey-boubon-barrel

Cask 193 pale malt ex bourbon

Same batch as cask 189. Even lighter. Crisp floral honey clover candied citrus oak.

The beautiful lady has returned on the third bottling, happily bearing the previous two bottlings, depicted in miniature, in her hands. 

She is greeting the man from the first two labels.  He is bringing flowers and behind his back a wedding ring and crossed fingers indicating his secret intention to propose marriage.

Then Matt's tasting advanced to the the vatting for the Jewbilee festival bottling itself.  Along the way, Matt described his motivation for the vatting as a marriage story.  He was inspired by the narrative progression of a romance leading to marriage on the bottle labels and chose to marry together peated and unpeated, and new oak and ex-bourbon barrels of Westland to make a marriage of a bunch of Westland's different flavor signatures.    

The redish color is from new oak maturation.

Whisky Jewbilee Third Festival bottling: Westland single malt vatting.  59% abv.  150 bottles.

Color: dark gold with reddish tints.
Nose sawn oak, honey and vanilla.  Then red fruits, mineral and cedar pencils, distant roses, flax seed oil, phenolic notes of young whiskey, animal skins, wood smoke, and smoked meats,
Palate:  sharp and hot and big with young grassy sweetness up front.  Then rich toffee, cocoa, vanilla, musky rich malt with cocoa notes, candied citrus, and also hefty syrupy richness.  The expansion admixes dusky notes of animals with a pointy spiky young oak that I associate with young craft whiskey.  The turn brings char and herbal bitters like an Amaro.  Oak tannins and bitter on the finish which is long but a little dark.  With a teaspoon of water and a good 15-30 minutes of air time some magic happens.  It becomes more open, sunny, honeyed, and rich.  Head to head blind, I'd be hard pressed to differentiate the palate from this one from a lightly peated Highland Scotch, sherry cask matured, and at full cask strength.  Yet, there's something about the oak in the nose that communicates that this is an American Craft spirit.  This is very good stuff, knocking on the door of extraordinary.  I might have preferred some of the components on their own to the vatting together, but there is a lot of complexity here.  This is a significant achievement.

**** 89

Single Cask Nation has other bottlings of Westland too - including a previously released cask strength sherried and peated 2 year old:

Single Cask Nation Westland 2 year old 60% (current edition)  Sherried and peated.

Color: rich medium amber with some coppery tints.  This looks a lot like Bourbon in the glass.  But the nose instantly gives this away: it's a darkly peated malt whisky.  The nose is honeyed and loaded with warm bbq smoke, animal skins, prunes, black raisins, balsamic vinegar then a big load of some very active first fill ex-Olorosso sherry barrel.  The palate is explosive at cask strength - beware.  This is a Churchill ring cigar of a whiskey.  It comes on sweet and malty and dark purple fruity and leathery and rich and then gets aggressively oaky fast.  The turn is a char attack - but char with depth of flavor.  You can taste the red line behind the char here. Caramel and toffee notes in a fierce battle grip with all kinds of dark licorice and black herbal flavors.  Sherry sweetness plays above the very intense and iterated wood.  This is an unbalanced whiskey.  The finish is bitter.  This gives this whiskey a very dark aspect.  It has a spiky quality to the interaction between the young whiskey's hot body and sweet attack, and the smoldering earthy smoke and oak char.  It's strong meat and a lot people will find this a young brash young whiskey a little bit out of control with flavoring aspects (peat, sherry, and oak) that were applied pedal to the metal.  But some will applaud and I'm one of them.  This whiskey is big, insanely rich, and incredibly fully flavored.  It has some of the roughness of youth but, by virtue of tons of rich complexity baked into the flavor up front from the way it's malted, a sinful, pudding like mouth feel and big tannin effect, it exceeds thrillingly.  A big Black Christmas pudding of a dram with extra cloves and nutmeg.  An 85% cacao dark chocolate bar with nibs paired with a slightly oversteeped but very high quality black tea.  This isn't for every day.  But it certainly fits a certain mood: (i.e. wanting a big smoke encounter like having a massive dark leaf cigar).  It is a HUGE sweet, young brash smoke bomb dessert feast that takes a long time to open.  And it's a two year old single malt whiskey.  It definitely pushes the boundaries of complexity of flavor in a young whiskey.  I mean, this kind of thing isn't rare in the worlds of Rhum Agricole, Tequila, or Mezcal.  But it is in the world of malt whiskey.  It mostly suffers sins more commonly seen in old whiskey: (i.e. borderline over oaked). Yet, it's so young that in the UK it can't be defined as whisky at all until it's at least three years old.  So, that this very young whiskey plays so big and sweet and dark is a mammoth achievement.  This stuff is an adventure.  How do you score it?  Who the hell cares?  (I'm going to dock it for being so dark and tannic, but that shouldn't discourage those of you who know you have to have it.  This stuff is among the peaks of the American craft whiskey movement at the moment in my opinion.  It'll all be gone in a heartbeat, of course, but it's more testimony that the Jewish Whisky Company really knows what the hell they're doing.

**** 89

Single Cask Nation bottlings have a very cool bottle closure with a glass stopper.

In conclusion,  Check out Single Cask Nation.  Great palates are making great cask selections.  And Westland is an American craft distiller making young single malts with a surprising and impressive degree of complexity and refinement.  The future of American malt tastes pretty good.

Source disclosure statement:  I bought all bottles reviewed here and paid for all events described, including my own membership in Single Cask Nation.  I'm a consumer of all this stuff purely as a whisky enthusiast and a fan.

Smoky Beast's barrel of Smooth Ambler Single Barrel Rye Shoots The Moon.

There has been a lot of excitement lately about a pretty special private barrel pick of Smooth Amber Old Scout Rye selected by Steve Zeller aka the "Smoky Beast".  Smooth Ambler's Old Scout Single Barrel Rye is typically 7 years old, cask strength, and very good; John Little's nice cherry picks of MGP/LDI's rye barrels.  There was some consternation recently when Smooth Ambler announced that the Single Barrel rye expression were going to disappear off the standard line-up and become a gift-shop exclusive.  That sad news implied that the honey barrels of mature rye in MGP/LDI's rickhouses were becoming scarce.  Hardly surprising:  part of the drum beat of scarcity afflicting high-end American whiskey all over the place these days.  
My connection with the story began in the dimming days of last autumn, October 17th, 2014 when Steve Zeller,  messaged me:

Steven Zeller:  i need your help on an urgent whiskey related matter

Joshua Gershon Feldman:  What's up?

Steven Zeller:  you wouldn't be free to come up to our place for a few minutes after work today would you?  Blind tasting, american. will be the most consequential tasting of my young whiskey career. don't want to spoil it any more than that

Joshua Gershon Feldman:  ...dum dum dum DOHM!

I had been to blind tastings at Steve's before.  Some had involved some of the finest Bourbons possible.  One involved the peatiest whiskies on the planet.  (Finale post of that blind here).

I had no idea what I was going to be tasting - other than it was American.  But Steve was excited and that made me excited.  I was assuming very high end Bourbon.  When I arrived, I was facing this:

The blind flight of 5 with the blank tasting notes.

My job was to rank them.  I did so by writing out tasting notes and then numbering them in order of preference from #1 to #5.  I'll list my blind tasting notes (faithfully transcribed) below the reveal listed immediate below each note: 

1. Color: Amber
Nose: buttery nose (ND OC, IWH). Nougat wax vanilla w/touch of bitter herbal (rot).  Palate: Honey, juicyfruit, yellow florals, light citrus. 100 proof BiB. High corn Bourbon. #5 Reveal:  Michter's 10 yo Rye (2014)  I thought that this was a dusty high-corn Bourbon like Old Charter 7 or IW Harper.  I was completely wrong: it was a rye.  I ranked this one last.  Michter's Rye 10 experienced a big change in 2014 compared to previous years, going from a dark and very mature tasting rye to a much lighter profile, presumably because it stopped being old rye purchased on the bulk market when their contract distillate began hitting 10 years old.  Their contract distillate is apparently Brown-Forman (dsp-ky-354) - thus the same stuff as Rittenhouse Rye from a few years ago - but aged 10 years.  The comedy is that not only did I not recognize this as rye at all, but that I thought it was a low rye Bourbon mash bill!  The perils of tasting blind...

2. Color: Dark Amber red.  Nose: Rancio, herbs, big (high proof) dark KY tobacco peach compote bark. Lush  Palate: Huge lush honeyed herbal malty ivy, licorice (black) caramel cilantro rancio High proof (=- 57% (old Medley Rye). Intense. Bold. Long finish – honey herbal. #1 Reveal:  Smooth Ambler Single Barrel Rye - Barrel 990 (the winner) Yes, I thought this was an Old Medley rye - like Rathskeller or LeNell's or one of the big old Willett's ryes.  Blind, I thought that was a $1,000+ bottle of American classic rye.

3. Color:  Coppery dark amber. Nose:  oak varnish, herbs.  Palate: Big 55-60% high rye bourbon. Candied orange peel \blonde VA tobacco. Peach/citrus stewed fruit.  Four Roses vibe #3 Reveal:  Smooth Ambler Single Barrel Rye (a different barrel, not selected)

4. Color:  Copper penny.  Nose:  Oak sandalwood nougat, honey, citrus, leather, dust, vegetable oil.  Palate:  50-55% high rye bourbon. Candied citrus, blond VA tobacco, honey, vanilla BT (Buffalo Trace) vibe – ER17. Big bold assertive tobacco spice leather rich rancio bitter.  #2 Reveal:  Thomas H. Handy Rye 2012The biggest shocker for me.  Thomas H. Handy rye is among my favorite ryes; a benchmark for me.  Here I didn't even recognize it as a rye.  To my credit, I recognized the distillery (Buffalo Trace), and that it was from the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection.  But I thought it was probably the most different member of that group possible: the Eagle Rare 17.  Yes, I'm making my humiliation public.  This was the real kicker of the group.  I had ranked my favorite rye SECOND after Zeller's barrel pick.  This was utterly shocking to me.  Friends who have drammed with me recently know that I have been putting some century old Old Hermitage pro-Pro rye up against Handy 2012 in tastings.  I do that because Handy is a benchmark for me.  Such are the perils of tasting blind.

5. Color: Copper.  Nose: Peanut, rancio, honey, light tanned leather, vegetable oil, floral vanilla, sawn oak.  Palate: Vanilla! Honey. Rancio. Ivy herbs. Mint. High rye Bourbon. #4. Reveal: another unselected barrel of Smooth Ambler Single Barrel Rye
When the smoke cleared I had only correctly identified one of them as a rye at all.  I had incorrectly thought the rest were Bourbons.  Pretty humiliating.  But I knew which ones I liked best - and in that I was dead on correct.

The big reveal.

The rest is history.  Steve picked barrel #990, which yielded a whopping 56 bottles.  The massive amount of evaporation suggests storage in a very hot part of the warehouse.  This would explain the massive amount of wood extraction and rich flavors.  Steve generously gave out samples to a selection of very interesting people who showed pictures of their hoards.  Steve picked the most outrageous ones, figuring they must have a story.  Their notes have appeared on his blog all week.  They are good reading.  Steve's voice, in particular, is often laugh out loud funny.  
http://smokybeast.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-angel-barrel-part-1.html http://smokybeast.blogspot.com/2015/07/angelbarrel2.html http://smokybeast.blogspot.com/2015/07/angelbarrel3.html http://smokybeast.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-angel-barrel-part-4-guest-review.html and my favorite: http://smokybeast.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-angel-barrel-part-5-guest-review-by.html



I recently had another sip.  Here are my official (sighted) tasting notes and score:

Smooth Ambler Old Scout Rye Single Barrel - Smoky Beast Barrel #1 - 8yo 64.1% abv.

Look at that color...

Color: dark reddish amber - a stunning color.

Nose:  Big, forward, dark and rich loaded with swirling kaleidoscope of aromas:  honey, sap, citrus, sandalwood, blond tobacco, balsamic, ivy, licorice, aloe, flax oil, vanilla, char, and oak.
Palate:  Richly sweet and powerful on opening with dark cooked honey, raisin, and citrus compote, then vanilla, the sap of herbs cut vegetation.  The expansion is all about black licorice root - woody, herbal, sweet, and richly "black".  The expansion also adds some delicious cognac-like rancio (a rich nutty flavor of noble rot usually associated with madeira, sherry, and Cognac).  Then, as the mid-palate begins to turn towards the finish, a big dose of acid - like balsamic vinegar or pickle juice which turns to char, and then sweet oak.  The finish goes on and on with plenty of char, herbal bitters, more black licorice and all manner of darkness.

Adding a drop of water - automatic at this big proof amplifies the sweetness and thickens the mouth feel.  This stuff feels big, bitter, dark, rich, and old.  A magic trick of faux maturity from an amazing honey barrel.

*****  93

Bottom line: the best rye I've ever tasted out of MGP/LDI and probably the best 21st century rye yet.  This particular honey barrel, which tastes so rich are dark and mature at only 8 years old, is one of those astounding examples which make you question what you know about maturation.  If a rye can be this good at 8 years old, maybe there's a way to repeat it?  I hope so.  But I'm not holding my breath.  Congrats, Steve (and also Anthony Colasacco of Pour, Mt. Kisco who went in on the barrel with Steve).

Full disclosure:  the blind tasting and follow up tasting was from pours provided by Steve - as a host in his home.  I do own a single bottle of this whiskey - which I purchased.  I would have owned more if I had been allowed to purchase more.

Steve Zeller is a happy man with this honey barrel.

Blind tasting notes.  Read it and weep.

Limestone Branch, Yellowstone Bourbon's Resurrection, and Craft Whiskey's Evolution to the Mainstream

A pair of 1970s Yellowstone 6 year old 86 proof minis
for the Italian market. Distilled at Glenmore Distillery.

Everyone agrees that change must be coming to Craft whiskey, but what form will it take?  Craft whiskey in the USA is full of effusive creativity: wild mash bills, whiskey sold underaged (or just white), and localvore flavor variations.  Infused and flavored whiskeys are on the table, and so is volatility and the potential for change.  Whiskey geeks love to discuss what's going to happen to Craft.  "The good ones will succeed, maybe with some mature stuff eventually, while the crappy ones will go belly up" ... is how a lot of these discussions go.  But the recent lesson of top Craft distillery Balcones - with the creative force and brand creator Chip Tate unseated from the company and a group of investors proceeding to develop Balcones' distillery as a larger scale more corporate entity while Chip goes off to start a new distillery suggests a different path of evolution for Craft whiskey; one pretty familiar in the Craft Beer arena: corporatization.  Is this really happening?

Well, another example of the movement from Craft to corporate in American whiskey is the interesting case of Limestone Branch which is turning 180 degrees from white dog Craft to classic Bourbon via a merger - news of which broke on December 2nd 2014 via Chuck Cowdery's Blog that liquor brand producer/marketer Luxco was buying a 50% stake in the small Lebanon, Kentucky craft distiller.  Luxco is a company that has bought brands and then bottles bulk sourced liquors labeled with those brand names.  Their best known products include straight alcohol brand Everclear and, in the whiskey end of things, Rebel Yell (once the light bodied wheated mash bill Southern market exclusive specialty product of Stitzel-Weller), and Ezra Brooks.  They also have the venerable brand "Yellowstone" which once was one of the bigger selling Bourbons in the pre-glut era; one with a very long history that stretches well back into the 19th century.  Yellowstone is still sold now with juice Luxco sources bulk - at a low price and quality level.  But from 1935-1991, though, Yellowstone was made at the Glenmore Distillery (where Kentucky Tavern was made too) and had a sterling reputation. Glenmore stopped distilling in 1993 (but still operates as a bottler and a rickhouse).

Partnering with Limestone branch is a big step for Luxco.  It marks their entry into Bourbon distilling.  It's also presages an ambition rebranding effort.  Luxco is going to try to have resurrect a fallen brand back into something special.  The partnership marks a big change for Limestone Branch too.  They have been making variations on sugarjack and this marks their entry into Bourbon distilling too.

Chuck reported:

After Prohibition, Yellowstone moved to a new location in Shively, south of Louisville. It was solely under the Dant family's control but Beam family members were employed there as distillers. In 1944, the brand and distillery were sold to Glenmore. It was a massive facility that made bourbon until 1991. In 1993, after Glenmore was sold to what became Diageo, Yellowstone was sold to Luxco where it became an unpalatable bottom-shelf brand made by one or more unnamed Kentucky distilleries.

A column still, additional pot still, automated bottling line, and barrel house will be added at Limestone Branch, which plans to begin distilling the original recipe for Yellowstone (their uncle had a copy) in early 2015.

http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com/2014/12/luxco-limestone-branch-partnership-will.html

Cowdery has provided more of the back story of Yellowstone in previous posts on his blog back in 2009, by the way.  It's a story that goes back to the roots of the industrial revolution in Bourbon distilling in the 19th century and includes some of the biggest names in Bourbon.  Period.

"The Yellowstone whiskey brand was created by the wholesale firm of Taylor & Williams shortly after the national park was established in 1872. Taylor was D. H. Taylor, who started the firm in Louisville about 1865. J. T. Williams joined the company in 1877. They were wholesalers and bought whiskey from various distilleries.
Sometime in the 1880s they contracted with J. B. Dant to make Yellowstone bourbon for them. Dant had a (then) new distillery in Nelson County, Kentucky, at Gethsemane Station. It was called Cold Springs Distillery.  In about 1903, Taylor & Williams merged with the Cold Springs Distillery. Dant became president and the distillery was renamed Yellowstone, as that brand had become very successful."

http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com/2009/12/history-of-yellowstone-part-one-of-two.html

Ad for "Taylor & Williams, Inc.'s Yellowstone - first years of the 20th century
http://www.kentucky.com/2014/12/07/3581223/limestone-branch-partners-with.html

"After prohibition, J. B. Dant and his sons built a new distillery in the Louisville suburb of Shively to make the revived Yellowstone bourbon. Various Beams and Dants were involved in that operation too. Another Louisville-based whiskey maker, Glenmore, bought Yellowstone, brand and distillery, in 1944.

Yellowstone was a significant brand in its heyday, but as a mass or popular price brand, it suffered brutal share losses during bourbon’s sharp decline in the 1970s."

http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com/2009/12/history-of-yellowstone-part-two-of-two.html

1948 Magazine Ad for Yellowstone Bourbon
Glenmore - the Louisville era

Dants and Beams made Yellowstone both before and after Prohibition.  You don't get more blue blood in Bourbon history than the names "Dant" and "Beam".  And Yellowstone was a leading and classic distillery and brand.  (Tasting notes below).  That name "Beam" is the thread that binds this history to Limestone Branch.

Meanwhile, Limestone Branch, a new young Craft distilling operation has been, up until now, all about making moonshine and sugar jack - a lot of it flavored.  This is iconoclastic stuff - very much not in keeping with the nature of a classic like Yellowstone.  But, yet, at Limestone Branch there are Beams making whiskey.  Chuck Cowdery, who reported as early as 2012 found a lot to like:

The brothers Beam make everything themselves with help from their father, who worked at Cummins-Collins in Athertonville, among other distilleries. They grew some of their own corn on the distillery grounds. They make a very clean spirit, with good flavor, and little harshness or burn. They're double-distilling. Their doubler is a 150-gallon handmade copper Hoga.

http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com/2012/05/limestone-branch-distillery-lebanon.html

We don't just have to take Cowdery's word for it that they are doing good work.  Eric Burke (@arok) who did a detailed distillery visit recently with pictures of the charantais-type still and tasting notes of one of the flavored sugar shines they sell on his blog Boubonguy.com:

This is a tasty liqueur. Tastes exactly like a baked apple pie that has been allowed to cool. Even the mouthfeel is correct since the liquid in an apple pie gets nicely thick and syrupy.

http://www.bourbonguy.com/blog/2014/10/14/a-visit-to-limestone-branch-distillery

Stephen Beam and the line-up -
 from an article announcing the merger in the Lexingon Herald-Leader:
http://www.kentucky.com/2014/12/07/3581223/limestone-branch-partners-with.html

The focus on moonshine and sugar jack (i.e. white rum) at Limestone Branch a nod to the illicit local hill traditions and a play at the new trends in flavored whiskies.   It's classic "Craft whiskey" in the new distillery vein which is all about youth and added flavors and playful mash bills.  Here it's moonshine white dog with an interesting mash bill (here it's half moonshine sugarjack, and half white corn whiskey).

White dog in Craft is partly about the survival of small distilleries that need cash flow and need to sell unaged whiskies first when they start distilling.  Part of it is related to local traditions and the localvore market - thus Limestone Branch's big seller "Moonpie Moonshine" - where the flavors are as illicit and ironically downscale as the American South itself.  There's probably a reason that the Moonpie marshmallow cookie sandwich logo graces the Limestone Branch distillery and that it's the very first product listed on the company's web site:

http://limestonebranch.com/moonpie-moonshine

As Eric Burke reported:

As you pull into the parking lot, the first thing you see on the side of the building is a large Moon Pie sign. One of the products they produce is a Moon Pie flavored moonshine that, my wife tells me, is scarily close to the real thing in flavor.

http://www.bourbonguy.com/blog/2014/10/14/a-visit-to-limestone-branch-distillery 

The Moon Pie is junk food - but it's quintessentially Southern junk food.  The production of a sweet white unaged moonshine version of this is the epitome of one aspect of American Craft distilling that's analogous to junk food - and it drives some purists apoplectic.  But it's clearly a theme for Limestone Branch, which sells a bunch of flavored moonshines:  Apple Cinnamon Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Blackberry, Cherry, Strawberry.  Heck, there's even a barrel aged one - Precinct No. 6
http://limestonebranch.com/spirits.html

Lisa Roper Wicker, who crafted the Moonpie Moonshine flavor adaptation,
here mixes up the Pumpkin Pie Shine flavors.

From TripAdvisor where Limestone Branch is listed as the #1 attraction in Lebanon, KY:  

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g39577-d2716718-Reviews-Limestone_Branch_Distillery-Lebanon_Kentucky.html

So, how is an effusive Craft distiller like Limestone Branch going to digest the change in becoming the resurrection of Yellowstone for Luxco?  That's the question.  There have been threads on various fora about the prospects.  Squire's comment on Straight Bourbon captures the tone:

"I'm pulling for them as well, this is the kind of partnership I can support. A new whisky based on the original Yellowstone recipe won't be the same of course but it is a great idea."

 http://www.straightbourbon.com/forums/showthread.php?23182-Luxco-Limestone-Branch-partnership-and-Yellowstone-brand-revival

So, granted that Limestone Branch's recreation will be a new thing.  What did the old thing taste like?

Yellowstone 6 43% abv.  1970s dusty Italian market export.

Color: pale amber

Nose: Sandalwood oak, vanilla, salted caramel, butter, light solvent, and jelly candies.

Palate:  Candy up front - sugar dusted fruity flavored hard candy and more of those jelly candies.  Then, on the expansion, toffee, sweet cream, citrus, and lightly tanned leather.  At the turn, leather and char take over with some nice tannin spice and a ton of vanilla on the finish.  Nice vividness and intensity of flavor.  Floral and sweet.  But the finish is only medium long.  Also, not a huge body.  But it's a very pleasing set of flavors.  I'd like to try this in a higher proof expression, but I can understand why this was a popular leading Bourbon.  It's very tasty and accessible.  It's also a classic Bourbon flavor profile you don't see any more:  fruity candy.  It's something special that's gone.

****

Limestone Branch is going to have to take a hard turn from its effusive shines back to tradition to get this right.  I'll be watching with interest.  Is this a bellwether event in the evolution of Craft?  Time will tell.  

The Illuminating and Unsung Batch Evolution of Balcones Texas Single Malt

Creative wood finishes affect color. Ex-bourbon, left, is copper.  Q.Robur, center, is red. And Q. Alba, right, is golden amber.

Balcones Texas Single Malt Whisky has been racking up awards and accolades left and right since its introduction in July of 2011.  A partial list includes:

• Double Gold (best single malt & best whisk(e)y) at the 2011 New York World Wine & Spirits, 
• Double Gold again at the 2012 San Francisco World Wine & Spirits, 
• Chairman's Trophy at the 2012 Ultimate Beverage Challenge, 
• Best in Category at the 2012 American Distilling Institute Awards, and 
• Silver at the Wizards of Whisky Awards in London.  

But the one that really impressed me; the one that counted WAY more to me than all those namby-pamby industry awards was the award given by actual top flight whisky bloggers Neil Ridley and Joel Harrison of one of my favorite whisky blogs: caskstrength.blogspot.com.  In 2012, in their 6th annual "Best In Glass" awards, they put Texas Single Malt up against the finalists of their broad survey - a group including some of the best from top names like Macallan, Johnny Walker, Glenmorangie, Cutty Sark, Nikka, Kilchoman, and Teelings - as judged by a panel of 11 of the top blenders, journalists, and major buyers; all people who really know their stuff.  The Texas Single Malt beat them all.  They conclude:  "A mighty whisky..."  The accolades don't stop with the awards either.  The blogosphere has reached unusual consensus.  Texas Single Malt has been widely lauded in numerous whisky blogs around the world - in posts dating from 2011 to the current day. It has a creamy vanilla sweetness that leads into a rich malty caramel quality and a powerful charred oaky hit at the tail that positions this malt somewhere between a bourbon's new charred oak flavor and a Scottish malt's delicate sweetness.  The robust flavors, helped by generous proof, and rich charred oak help communicate the American - and Western - provenance.  The rich caramel malt flavors and vanilla sweetness put you squarely in malt territory.  It's, frankly, delicious.  

Six different expressions of Balcones Texas Single Malt reviewed.

(warning - major whisky geekery ahead...)

However, there has been absolute silence concerning the issue of batch variation in this landmark craft distilling product - of which there has been a substantial degree.  This is particularly surprising considering that Texas Single Malt hasn't been experiencing conventional batch variation so much as a dramatic and deliberate batch EVOLUTION - with significant changes in bottling proof and wood management.  Here's what I'm talking about.  The following table lists different batches by batch number, % alcohol by volume, and the type of wood used in the initial small barrel and subsequent large barrel maturation.  

Batch % abv      Wood-5 gal barrels   Wood-60 gal. barrels
SM11-2 51.0% abv Yard aged white oak  Yard aged white oak

SM12-4 50.5% abv Yard aged white oak  Yard aged white oak

SM12-6 52.0% abv Yard aged white oak  Ex-bourbon

SM12-7 53.0% abv Yard aged white oak  Yard aged white oak

Cask 2417  Yard aged white oak  E. European (Q.Robur)

SM12-8 53.0% abv Yard aged white oak  E. European

SM13-3 53.0% abv Yard aged white oak  Yard aged white oak)

Let me explain in greater detail.  Texas Single Malt is initially aged in 20 Liter (roughly 5 gallon) bespoke barrels made of Balcones' Master Distiller Chip Tate's carefully prepared yard aged white oak seasoned for 2-3 years in Missouri where it can freeze over the winter.  After a period of initial maturation, the small barrels are dumped into larger 200 liter (53 gallon) or 225 liter (60 gallon) barrels for batch marrying and final maturation.  These second or "finishing" barrels are made of various different woods.  The majority of batches use the same Quercus Alba - custom yard aged American white oak as the small barrels.  However some batches used custom yard aged Eastern European oak, Quercus Robur - which added spice and gave the whiskies a red color.  At least one other batch used 53 gallon ex-bourbon barrels from Wild Turkey for the finishing / marrying maturation period.  Furthermore the proof climbed from 50.5% abv (101 proof) to the current 53% (106 proof).  The tale of the shifting proof can be seen in the printing on the case boxes - such as this one spotted in the loading area of Park Avenue Liquors in NYC:  What's that down at the bottom?  Take a closer look:  

Yes - apparently batch 12-3 was 105.8 proof and batch 12-7 had increased that to 106 proof.  Chip confirms that the 92 proof on the printing was never made - just an idea that fell by the wayside when palate testing dictated a stronger proof.

This diversity of proofs and wood management represents a searching for optimization in the expression.  Let me be clear: all of these versions of Texas Single Malt are quite similar to each other.  There is a real unity to the various batches in this expression, despite this tinkering with various parameters which may be why this topic has escaped mention until now.  Furthermore, the period of experimentation is now over.  The results are in and Chip and company have decided on a final and permanent configuration - as represented by a change in the labeling since batch SM12-9 as you will see below.  Despite the great similarity of these batches, however, the wood finishes add a detectable aromatic overtone to the distillate.  The experimentation in finishes is real and apparent to the palate and nose, particularly once you know what to look for.  What follows is a set of tasting notes and a concluding argument about what this represents in the wider context of American Craft Distilling.

1) Batch 12-4: 50.5% abv. All yard aged American oak:

Batch 12-4 labels: 'yard-aged American oak.' 50.5% abv hand written

Color: Light amber with coppery glints.

Nose: honeyed citrus, vanilla florals, burned spun sugar, charred oak.

Caramelized powdered sugar, big creamy sweet vanilla, and a ton of tangy citrus explode on the palate's opening.  The mid palate blooms with rich malt, tons of bourbon-like charred oak with plenty of sandalwood filigree, and a melding of the sugars and citrus tang.  The turn to the finish is gentle with fading muted malts, and an easy toffee fade. The finish itself is gentle and even easier.  It drops you off softly and leaves you with a kiss of caramel in your mouth. 

*****

I found this particular array of flavors extremely seductive and after I tasted the subsequent varieties I decided this was my favorite and I put away a couple.  They didn't last.  Recently I cracked the last one for a VIP visitor:  Michael Kravitz, blogger of Diving For Pearls who wrote about it in his post describing our meeting.  

2) Batch 12-6 52% abv. Yard aged oak with an Ex bourbon barrel finish:

Batch 12-6 ups the proof to 52% and adds Ex bourbon barrel to the finish.

Color: Medium amber with golden glints:

The nose is noticeably drier with an earthy loamy musty quality - almost of young leather.  There are old papers and musty funk in the nose - in the place of the more exhuberant sugary sweet cream and char of the 12-4's nose.

The palate is drier too, with more oak spice in the expansion and more spicy burn in the finish.  It's a very relative the thing.  The opening is still richly sweet with plenty of vanilla sugars.  But the citrus is muted under the leathery loamy musty quality and the oak notes - already prominent - are amped up further.   This is my least favorite batch.  The barrels used formerly held Wild Turkey bourbon.

****

3) Batch 12-7 53% abv. - all yard aged American white oak.

Color: Light golden amber.

Nose: Gentle vanilla cream with floral esters. A regal and Scotch-like gentle citrus tang melds with the floral vanilla and musk and oak. The confluence of floral sweet, jammy citrus and oak perfume.

The palate entry is intensely sweet with powdered confectioner's sugar with an effusive explosion of vanilla and camellia floral notes. The mid palate expansion has a glow of spirit heat with white pepper and the emergence of gentle oak tannin. Butter toffee Maillard reaction caramel notes join with the fading sugars and emerging oak spice on the turn to the finish. The finish is malty sweet with tannin squeak and herbal bitter. Just lovely. It's a clear malt whisky with the intense powder sweet entry so characteristic of Balcones and a big big flavor amplitude with aggressive wood spice and citrus notes that read a bit of bourbon. Very much like the 12-4 - but takes it a bit further with higher proof and a leaner, sharper, and more elegant (if a tad less lush) presentation.

*****

Balcones Brand Ambassador Winston Churchill Edwards explained to me that from 12-7 onwards, the proof was standardized at 53% abv.

4) Experimental cask 2417, proof not stated, Quercus Robur Eastern European oak maturation.  Aged in an Eastern European oak wood with a unique flavor profile, Quercus Robur, for 6 months and for about 8 months to a year in American White Oak.  This was one of the experimental casks that Chip brought to New York in Spring and Summer of 2012 and I had the opportunity to try and to take a sample.   It shows the evolution in Chip's thinking - that led to the Quercus Robur finished Texas Single Malt batch 12-8 that follows.   Color: rich reddish amber

Nose: Vanilla pods, sandalwood, solvent, a wisp of meaty parma ham, some soft apricot/citrus cognac-like citrus. A very refined and complex nose that tends towards a floral version of a bourbon presentation rather than a classic malt nose.

Quercus Rober European oak adds reddish color

Palate: Rich confectioner's sugar sweet on entry with floral vanilla and vanilla butter cream icing trending into a rich apricot citrus fruit compote at the end of the entry. The mid-palate arrives with a potent expansion bringing a major palate shift to filigreed oak sandalwood perfume and cinnamon-like heat from oak spiciness. The finish is lingering with the slow burn of the Quercus Robur's heat, oak tannin, and a bit of herbal bitter like hops. Big and sweet, with enormous flavor amplitude, but a refined and complex flavor mix with some major shifts and complexities as it moves across the palate. It's wasn't finished at time time I took the sample I'm re-tasting tonight, but already it's one of the finest American craft spirits I've ever tasted.

*****

5) Batch 12-8 53% abv - with an Eastern European Oak (Q. Robur) finish:

Color: rich reddish amber, a near twin to the cask 2417 - perhaps a tad less red and more amber.

Nose: richer and broader than the 2417, but the rancio pointed cognac-like citrus aspect that is the distinct aroma signature of Q. Robur's addition is clearly in evidence.

The palate has the vanilla florals, toffee caramel, and rich charred oak of "regular" Texas Single Malt - but now there is a thread of the citrus rancio flavor like a fine cognac and the fierce cinnamon clove heat  of the exotic oak.  It's a rich flavor experience - very very good and quite different from the white oak Texas Single Malt varieties primarily because of the spicy heat.  It's the "Spice Tree" variety.  FYI - Oliver Klimek of Dramming recently reviewed this batch and writes a rich and evocative set of tasting notes that really outclasses mine:

"Nose: Dark caramel, resiny pine wood, fried banana, candied lemon, vanilla, cloves and nutmeg, hints of eucalyptus.Palate: Nutty fudge, burnt sugar, chestnut honey, just hints of lemon zest and banana, a rich mix of wood spices .
Finish: Medium long, spicy and slightly sweet.
Overall: Quite an unusual flavour profile here with strong emphasis on wood (in a good way)"

http://www.dramming.com/2013/08/28/balcones-texas-single-malt-batch-sm-8-12/

But then, despite his description of the Finish as "Medium long, spicy and slightly sweet" concludes, somewhat confusingly " It’s a very nice whisky overall, apart from the slightly shortish finish." and gives it an 84.

[On twitter the morning after this posted Oliver Klimek explained  "Medium long" is shortish compared to long which I consider standard. I expect a long finish, it's important for me. So "medium long" is too short to be really enjoyable."  This explains it to my satisfaction.  The finish on all the Texas Single Malts is gentle - which I enjoy, personally.  I'm certainly not going to quibble with Klimek's score.  I wager 84 is the among the highest that toughie has ever given for an American craft whisky...]

I found this elegantly cognac-like and richly spicy variety of Texas Single Malt elegant, delicious, and seductive.  It's a very different dram that the sunny, open, lush and juicy 12-4 - and really gives it run for its money in my opinion.

*****

6) Batch 13-3 53% abv - all yard aged American oak.  

This new batch is represents the end of the evolution with the new label that no longer has a space for notes on the wood management and the printed (no longer hand written) 53% abv. statement on the front label.  This is a testament to the finality with which 53% is now the proof of Texas Single Malt and Yard Aged White Oak is the wood of choice for both phases of maturation.  Henceforth only the batch number and date will be recorded.

[The morning after this posted Dustin Slater @redbeartx tweeted pics of his bottled of batch SM12-10 bottled 12-13-12 which has the updated labels with no space for the wood finish on the rear label and the 53% printed, not written, on the front label.  So batch SM12-10 (and possibly 12-9) NOT 13-3, is actually the batch that "represents the end of the evolution".  Thanks, Dustin.]

[Winston Churchill Edwards, Balcones BA @BalconesWinston, further added:  "The proof was standardized at 12-8. In print at 12-9."]

The notes on 13-3 are nearly identical to those for 12-7.  Tasting them side to side there is hardly anything to distinguish them by.  The nose has added a bit of waxy estery quality - just a hint.  The sugars of the opening are intensified over 12-4 - probably by the additional 5 proof - yielding a leaner more lithe and elegant presentation.  There are aspects of high end rum weaving in among the rich malt and bourbon flavors in the form of turbinado sugars with the maillard reaction browning of oxidizing cane.  Creamy vanilla, toffee, citrus, baking spices, rich oak - we're hitting all the flavor elements that made batch 12-4 a stand out but with added intensity, elegance, and drive.  Batch 13-3, like 12-7 before it, take the flavor signature of Texas Single malt to a new level.  Again.  Big and brown, Batch 13-3 takes it a tad further in the finish.  The browned sugars and butter start trending into an almost cocoa flavor among the burnt spun sugars.

Ultimately though - so what?  So, Chip monkeyed around with the Texas Single Malt a bit in 2012 and nobody noticed.  Why am I making a fuss here?  I discussed this issue with the Balcones Brand Ambassador Winston Churchill Edwards, who acted distinctly like he'd rather I didn't bother writing this story.  He was more interested in emphasizing the common elements - the unity - of the brand.

The American Craft whisky movement is alternately reviled and celebrated. When it's being reviled the usual complaints go something like this:  "Craft distillers are rank beginners who don't know what they are doing. You don't just go up against the centuries of hard won experience of traditional distillers and suddenly do it better".  When it's being celebrated there is talk of creativity and thinking outside the box.  In the critical press and blogosphere there is plenty of acknowledgement that a lot of craft whiskies frankly just don't taste that amazing - even if they are conceptually interesting or are exploring important new ground.

Balcones Texas Malt is an exception.  Not only is it delicious, but this process of tinkering is a testament to Chip pushing to improve a product that is already very good.  It shows a level of perfectionism and craftsmanship that belies the negative stereotypes of American Craft Distilling.  This really isn't much of a surprise.  Good whisky is seldom an accident.  Hard work are care are required. The kind of thought, care and relentless experimentation that made Texas Malt good to begin with has driven Chip to make it even better now.  The fact that Batch 13-3, the one that ushers in permanent labels, tastes the best is more evidence that Chip Tate has deliberately crafted this improvement on purpose.

Chuck Cowdery's column in the Whiskey Advocate's Fall 2013 issue (page 33) ends with a paragraph that reads:

"All this is not to say that there are no American-made single malts.  There are several, like the ones from Balcones (Texas), McCarthy's (Oregon), and Wasmund's (Virginia). [and I would add Stranahan's (Colorado) and Tuthilltown Hudson (New York)].  They're all aged but nobody wants to talk about how long.  They're rarely compared to scotch, which may be the point.  These distillers show it is possible to make a successful malt whiskey within the American regulatory framework."

Balcones Texas Single Malt is a NAS product. Chip doesn't say how old it is, but given the time line of the distillery it must be well younger than 4 years and may be younger than 2.

But that misses the point here.  Texas Single Malt is uniquely American.  It has a flavor signature like no other malt whisky - and it's a darned good one.  It's one that has won me over, personally (not that I've stopped drinking and exploring the world of Scotch malt whiskies - not by a long shot.  But it has become one of my regular drams for sure).  And it's a flavor signature that has won over a whole ton of whisky award people, critics, buyers, and bloggers too.  This isn't just a matter of "localvore" market making or novelty.  It's a testament to the effort that Chip Tate has put in honing his single malt - effort that is visible in the evolution through the batches of 2011-2012. That's why I find this series of batches so fascinating and that's why I've taken you on this long road.  Texas Single Malt is a standout malt - and it has been relentlessly honed and crafted.  In my opinion that fact alone redeems the American craft whisky movement.

If you have information about other batches not mentioned in this post - please comment in with batch numbers, abv % (unless it's 12-7 or after, in which case it's known to be standardized at 53%), and the woods listed on the label.  I'm aware that I'm presenting a partial list.  Thanks so much.  FYI - I have also previously tasted batch SM11-7 and wrote some brief tasting notes in my post about Whisky Live 2012.  I don't have the proof - but it was clearly a white oak version in the low 50s.

Provenance statement:  (Samples of cask 1217 and batch 12-7 poured for me by Chip Tate of Balcones during a private interview.  All other samples taken from full bottles I purchased from local stores.)