Hey, look, That Boutique-y Dave is on the MoM blog to talk all about That Boutique-y Whisky’s new selection of American whiskeys. PLUS some bonus brandy. And a Dutch rye whisky. What a haul!
We are proud to present our newest collection of American whiskeys — a robust selection of craft spirits that celebrates the rich history and diverse whiskey styles of United States distillers.
From the deep roots of American whiskey-making to the innovative, cutting-edge distilling techniques of today, our collection pays respect to the incredible diversity of flavours achieved through their varied mashbills, and methods.
We have bourbon whiskeys from Texas, Kentucky and New York, rye whiskeys from Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Colorado, and American single malt whiskies from Washington and New Mexico.
That Boutique-y baseball cards
When discussing label ideas for this collection, we floated a number of ideas around; ‘The land of the free’, ‘The American Dream’, and ‘America has no culture’ were some of the titles on our ideas dump.
How we ended up with a collection of baseball cards, I can’t quite remember, but it was definitely something to do with their ‘World Series’ that only features US and Canadian teams. We also realised we had nine US distilleries, and that there were nine positions on the baseball diamond.
We looked at baseball card collections, and loved some of the vintage-style cards. We spoke to our whiskey distilleries, and they sent us photos of their ‘player’ and we spoke to artist Emily Chappell who completed the brief.
That Boutique-y Whisky has gone to the States!
Bonus brandy, rye, rum, and Scotch
And then we had a fabulous sample of rye whisky from the Netherlands…
With rye whisky being the prevalent spirit of pre-prohibition America, we decided that we should include it in this series, and so the Millstone Rye became our ‘Designated Hitter!’
So our labels, which look amazing all lined up alongside each other, feature the distiller/founder from each of the distilleries in the form of a vintage baseball card. The card collection has all been validated with the information box at the top of each of the labels. You’ll notice the Millstone label has been torn in half – as this card was not validated as a collectable baseball card. (We’ve also bottled each of these whiskies at natural cask strength too (the NCS is within the validation box).
That Boutique-y Brandy Company has also been at it again, expanding the portfolio further with five American brandies, although we can’t call them all brandy, over here. Two distilleries; one in Kentucky, and one in Colorado, distilling grape, apple and peach wines, and cask maturing them. They are fruit brandies in the US, but over here they’re cask matured fruit spirits, ho-hum. However, we know you’re going to love them!
You can find the entire collection, as well as some new That Boutique-y Rum (Caroni, anyone?) and a selection of delicious new Scotch whiskies on this dedicated US series page.
The Collection
Bourbon Whiskey #2 Batch 1, 3 Year Old Kentucky Bourbon
Bottled at natural cask strength, 59.8% ABV, 315 bottles, RRP £59.95
A 3 Year Old (straight) bourbon from an undisclosed Kentucky distillery, that has had a chequered history. With the USA’s prohibition, I think just about all American distilleries can claim a chequered history, possibly a little tenuous too with the long gaps between production, and change of distilling premises and equipment. We’ve seen it in Scotch whisky too.
This Kentucky bourbon is made with a high rye mash bill; 70% corn, 21% rye, and 9% malted barley. Like most bourbon distilleries, the ‘sour mash’ process is used, three-day ferments are standard at this large independent bourbon distillery.
Nose: Gingerbread and allspice, with hints of mint too. Butterscotch, caramel, and hints of coffee follow.
Palate: Buttered popcorn, vanilla and caramel. Gingerbread and baking spices. A hint of mint chocolate too.
Finish: Medium length, with lingering warming spices.
Copperworks Batch 2, 3 Year Old Single Malt Whiskey
Bottled at natural cask strength, 62.7% ABV, 250 bottles, RRP £79.95
Copperworks are thought leaders in cementing American Single Malt as a category in the USA. The American Distilling Institute named them Craft Distillery of the Year in 2018.
When the founders came together to start their distillery, they wanted to make whiskey, but not the whiskey everyone else was making. The climate in Seattle and Washington state lend to maturation conditions favourable to malt, and different than that of Kentucky or Tennessee.
Nose: Gingerbread and allspice, with hints of mint too. Butterscotch, caramel, and hints of coffee follow.
Palate: Buttered popcorn, vanilla and caramel. Gingerbread and baking spices. A hint of mint chocolate too.
Finish: Medium length, with lingering warming spices.
Dad’s Hat Batch 1, 6 Year Old Rye Whiskey
Bottled at natural cask strength, 64% ABV, 263 bottles, RRP £99.95
Dad’s Hat, a Pennsylvania-based rye whiskey distillery, is attempting to revive the reputation of Pennsylvania rye by creating a small batch whiskey with a focus on quality and flavour.
The distillery, founded in 2011, creates an ‘old-school’ Pennsylvania-style rye: 80% grain, 20% malt (15% barley, 5% rye malt), no corn, and a sweet mash recipe. They use local farms for their grains, temperature-controlled fermenters, doing a five-seven day low and slow ferments to develop a complex flavour.
Nose: Rye bread and allspice, but then very fruity! Dried fruit; cranberries, apricots, and chocolate-covered raisins. The spices return with a hint of mint, and some wood char.
Palate: Silky mouthfeel. Fruity and spicy with sour cherries, and cranberries. Woody spices; clove, a hint of cinnamon, and charred oak
Finish: Medium length, and full of chocolate.
Distillery 291 Batch 2, 3 Year Old Rye Whiskey (Colorado Rye Malt)
Bottled at natural cask strength, 66.6% ABV, 267 bottles, RRP £99.95
The first of two new bottlings from the multi-award-winning, small-batch whiskey distillery nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Distillery 291, and an exercise in pure ‘geekery’. Dare we mention the ‘T’ word?
This is a single cask rye whiskey made from 100% Colorado Rye Malt. Open-air fermenters, triple distilled in locally-made pot stills. The third is the original still is made from copper photogravure plates and is used as a ‘thumper’. The whiskey is aged in virgin, heavy charred, American white oak barrels and is then brought to a finish using toasted aspen staves, which are harvested from a friend’s nearby land.
Nose: Spicy, herbal, and a little bit agricultural. Big rye bread dough notes, malty, Jamaican ginger cake, coffee candy. Hints of fennel and anise.
Palate: Warming spices lead to sweet coffee, toasted rye bread, roasted grains and peppercorns.
Finish: There’s a hint of chilli chocolate in the finish too. Seriously love this!
Distillery 291 Batch 3, 3 Year Old Rye Whiskey (German Rye Malt)
Bottled at natural cask strength, 67.8% ABV, 268 bottles, RRP £99.95
The second of two new bottlings from the multi-award-winning, small-batch whiskey distillery nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Distillery 291.
This is a single cask rye whiskey, made from 100% German rye malt. Open-air fermenters, triple distilled in locally-made pot stills. The third is the original still is made from copper photogravure plates, and is used as a ‘thumper’. The whiskey is aged in virgin, heavy charred, American white oak barrels and is then brought to a finish using toasted aspen staves, which are harvested from a friend’s nearby land.
Nose: Spicy rye malt, toasted rye bread, slightly floral, and herbal. Bramble leaves and hints of clove and gingerbread. It comes across softer and sweeter than the Colorado rye.
Palate: A big spicy start, followed by toasted rye bread, nutty grains, hints of bitter chocolate, and a leafy herbalism; blackberry brambles.
Finish: The spices return for a long chocolatey finish.
FEW Spirits Batch 5, 6 Year Old Rye Whiskey
Bottled at natural cask strength, 63.6% ABV, 362 bottles, RRP £89.95
Did you know that a Boutique-y release of a 2 Year Old Rye Whiskey was also our first non-scotch bottled in 2014?
This is their familiar high rye mashbill, a blend of 70% Midwestern rye, 20% local corn and 10% two-row malted barley. FEW use a wine yeast from France’s Loire Valley for fermentation, and age their whiskeys in air-dried oak barrels. This six-year-old rye whiskey has been finished in a Port cask for a fruity dimension.
Nose: Fresh rye bread, coffee beans, chalk dust, and a honied sweetness. There’s a hint of menthol too. whiskey.
Palate: Rich dark chocolate, black cherries, blackberry jam, dark rye bread, and hints of tobacco.
Finish: Blackberry jam lingers into the peppery finish.
Ironroot Republic Batch 1, 2 Year Old Texas Straight Bourbon
Bottled at natural cask strength, 56.9% ABV, 220 bottles, RRP £84.95
A 2 Year Old Straight Bourbon from Texas distillery, Ironroot Republic. This has been distilled from a mash of 100% Bloody Butcher Corn, meeting the requirements for Bourbon having been matured in a new charred oak barrel. (Char 1 – Heavy Toast).
An absolutely striking variety of Heirloom corn grown since the 1800’s, Bloody Butcher is probably the deepest red corn available anywhere. Ears grow to 12″, with a deep and bright red colour.
Nose: Nutty cornbread, barbecued sweetcorn, pinewood sap, burnt sugar, with hints of clove, cinnamon, and menthol.
Palate: Oily mouthfeel, chocolate-covered cherries toasted bread, cedar wood, demerara sugar,
Finish: A hint of liquorice, and warming spices that linger long into the finish
Kings County Batch 1, 2 Year Old New York Straight Bourbon
Bottled at natural cask strength, 61.9% ABV, 275 bottles, RRP £89.95
Kings County is New York City’s oldest distillery, and the first since Prohibition. Founded in 2010 it makes handmade bourbon, rye, and other whiskeys out of the 123-year-old Paymaster Building in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
This is a two-year-old peated straight bourbon, made using 80% New York organic corn, and 20% Highland peated malted barley.
Nose: Pretzels, burnt butterscotch, charred sweetcorn, fairground toffee apples, hints of new rubber tyres, and a touch of menthol too.
Palate: Meaty and rich. This comes across as quite salty, with notes of new leather, pretzels, again, rubber, and salted caramel.
Finish: Peppery spices in the drying finish.
Millstone Batch 6, 9 Year Old Rye Whisky
Bottled at natural cask strength, 53.1% ABV, 290 bottles, RRP £79.95
This is one of Patrick’s classic Dutch rye whiskies, made from a 50/50 mix of malted and unmalted rye, an 8-9 day fermentation, a low and slow distillation, and a very narrow cut point between 68-70%. It’s then been matured in a new toasted #3 charred American oak barrel, with charred heads, for nine years.
Nose: Deliciously fragrant. Demerara sugar, ginger sponge cake, hints of citrus blossom, Spices with cardamom and that signature wild fennel note.
Palate: Soft citrus with pine needles, malt loaf. There’s a candle waxiness to this too, and then some woody, earthy spices
Finish: Cardamom leads the fairly short spicy finish
Santa Fe Batch 1, 5 Year Old Single Malt Whiskey
Bottled at natural cask strength, 65.7% ABV, 258 bottles, RRP £99.95
This is a Scotch-inspired Single Malt, smoked with local Mesquite, by an Englishman in New Mexico. What’s Mesquite? I hear you ask (I had to Google it too). Mesquite is the smokiest of cooking wood, beloved for its distinctive, sharp flavour.
At almost 2,200 metres above sea level, Santa Fe Spirits are one of the highest distilleries in the US, if not the world. 30% of the malted barley is smoked with Mesquite which brings an aromatic, earthy balance.
Nose: Sweet, with stewed, or perhaps fermented, apples, baking spices and caramel. There’s no real indication of Mesquite smoke, although having not come across it before, I’m not sure what to expect!
Palate: Spicy, and woody. A big pepper hit on the palate initially, followed by toffee apples. Ginger, cardamom, and hints of liquorice.
Finish: It’s not smoky but there is a little fragrant wood smoke in the peppery, drying finish.
Brandies fit for a king. Or queen. Even the odd joker.
The American Brandies
Keeping in the ‘card’ theme, we asked our in-house That Boutique-y Brandy Company label artist, Toby Dowling to create a deck of playing cards for us. Copper and Kings brandies feature in four of these releases, so a suite of Kings it was.
Copper & Kings Batch 1, 4 Year Old: cask matured grape brandy, outturn 126 bottles, 45% ABV, RRP £49.95
Copper & Kings Batch 2, 4 Year Old: cask matured apple spirit, outturn 126 bottles, 45% ABV, RRP £49.95
Copper & Kings Batch 3, 4 Year Old: ‘Grapple’ A blend of grape and apple spirits, outturn 126 bottles, 45% ABV, RRP £49.95.
Peach Street Distillers Batch 1, 2 Year Old: cask matured peach spirit, outturn 126 bottles, 45% ABV, RRP £49.95.
Blended Brandy #1 Batch 1, 2 Year Old: A blend of the peach and apple cask matured spirits. ‘Papple’. Outturn 126 bottles, 45% ABV, RRP £49.95.
I think you’ll agree, that’s another impressive collection.
Cheers!
Boutique-y Dave x