Oh Taste & See: Wasmund's Single Malt Whisky

A few weeks ago I wrote about my recent visit to Copper Fox Distillery in Sperryville, VA, and today I'll taste their Wasmund's Single Malt Whisky as the third and final installment in my series of three American, craft, malt whisk(e)y's. The first two I reviewed were Edgefield Distillery's Hogshead Whiskey from Oregon and MB Roland's Malt Whiskey from Kentucky. Wasmund's is the outcast of this trio since it drops the 'e' from whiskey, but that's not the only thing that makes it different.

For one thing, this is a soup-to-nuts, produced-in-house whiskey. Copper Fox's Rick Wasmund malts his own barley in-house, sourced from nearby farms, and dries it in a kiln fired by apple and cherry wood. As far as I know he's the only distillery in the world doing that. He also brings some non-traditional wood into the aging process, and in only 14 months of barrel-time turns out a very classy and unique whisky.

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Oh Taste & See: MB Roland Malt Whiskey

This is the second of my three-part American craft-distilled malt whiskey tasting. My first was Edgefield Distillery's Hogshead Whiskey from Oregon, and today I'm tasting MB Roland's Malt Whiskey from Kentucky. The MB Roland distillery is just outside my hometown, and you can read about my visit there by clicking here. Their malt whiskey is a very small batch product, and is totally unique in that the mash bill is not 100% malted barley, but a blend of malt, rye, and corn with malt being the majority grain. It is also aged in new, charred oak barrels like a bourbon which is unusual for malt whiskeys.

This unique recipe leads to one of the most singular whiskeys that I have tasted. It is unlike anything else; charting its own little path down the whiskey road. This is precisely the type of innovation that small distillers like MB Roland can bring to market, and I applaud them for trying something so innovative.

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Distillery Tour: Maker's Mark

On the same trip during which I visited MB Roland Distillery I also had a chance to tour the Maker's Mark Distillery in Loretto, KY about an hour south of Louisville. Maker's has long been my go-to whiskey when I'm at a new bar or restaurant because it is consistently delicious - straight-up, on the rocks, or as a Manhattan - and it is available almost everywhere you go. Seeing the place where this iconic, red-wax-capped whiskey is made would be a nice treat indeed.

I missed the first few minutes of the 3:30pm tour because this distillery is really tucked away into the rolling hills of Kentucky's bluegrass region, and it took a few minutes longer to get there than my GPS predicted. I was cutting it close to begin with because I couldn't help but stop at for a few minutes at the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site which you pass on the way to Loretto when approaching from the south. As I rolled through the small town of Loretto I could tell we were getting close to the distillery because I started to see large complexes of barrel-houses along the side of the road. The red-and-black paint-jobs on the barrel houses indicated to me that they must belong to Maker's Mark, but it was still a winding 10 minute drive from the time I saw the first barrel-house until I crossed a small bridge across a burbling brook and saw the sign welcoming me to the Maker's Mark Distillery.

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Craft Distillery Tour: MB Roland Distillery

My mom has a habit of sending me clippings from the local newpaper back home in Kentucky. Usually she sends my high-school friends' wedding announcements or articles about local political happenings. Sometimes these clippings hang on the fridge for a week or two, but mostly they go straight into the recycling bin after a quick read. One article she sent recently caught my interest though. It told about a new craft distillery that had opened right down the road from my hometown in Pembroke, KY.

The idea of craft-whiskey being produced in Pembroke blew my mind. This is the Pembroke where I used to ride four-wheelers on my friends' farms and once spent hours trying to steal a road sign reading "Welcome to Pembroke, Population 1,000." The Pembroke where the population includes large numbers of Amish, Southern Baptists, and other groups for whom alcohol is a taboo subject. This I had to see.

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