For Chattanooga Whiskey's eighth edition of their Barrel Finishing Series, their distillers turned to Eastern Europe — this time to ice wine casks from one of Moldova's oldest and most awarded wineries, set in the hills above the Black Sea.
As with each of their Finishing Series releases, they drew from our library of dozens of mash bills to specifically match the character of the ice wine barrels.
Ice wine casks are some of the most intensely flavored they've ever worked with — the wine is sweet, aromatic, and doesn't leave much room for other flavors to come through.
But they weren't trying to overpower the cask, they were trying to give it a worthy partner.
To complement these casks, the distilling team assembled a complex blend of six mash bills: five malt whiskeys and one bourbon.
Each of these recipes draw from a range of toasted specialty malts including: a malted barley grown on Italy's coast near Venice and two types of malted wheat.
Aged for over four years, including more than a year in the finishing casks, the mash bills and ice wine casks work in harmony to create notes of French toast, wildflower honey, toasted oak, cream soda, and candied ginger.
MOLDOVAN ICE WINE CASK FINISHED DETAILS
- Mash Bill: 72% Straight Malt Whiskey, 28% Straight Bourbon Whiskey
- Age: Greater than 4 Years
- Proof: 95 (47.5% Alc/Vol)
- Cooperage: Toasted & Charred Oak, 53 Gallon
- Finish: Moldovan Ice Wine Barrels
- Finishing Time: Greater than 1 Year
- Batch Size: 6 Barrels
- Style: A Blend of Straight Whiskeys Finished in Ice Wine Casks
Moldovan Ice Wine Cask Finished will be available at the Chattanooga Whiskey Experimental Distillery on Thursday, August 13, for $59.99. Limited quantities will also be available on Seelbachs.com in the coming weeks.