Tasting notes

nose

heavy smoke with brine, seaweed and iodine, a tart edge of citrus, vanilla and a hint of tropical fruit, with leather and wet earth underneath

palate

dry in texture; blackberry, blueberry and pomegranate up front, then brown sugar, honey and molasses over bran cereal, scorched chocolate and salty driftwood smoke

finish

clings to the sides and back of the tongue, turning ashy with coffee bean, black pepper and dark chocolate; the berry fades first and peat ash dries everything at the close

Mash bill

100% peated malted barley. The malt is peat-smoked in Scotland and imported rather than grown by the distillery. It is the same malt as 10th Street's standard peated release; the difference is in distillation, where the cuts are chosen to keep more of the heavy peat and malt character in the spirit.

Why it's craft

For this bottle the distillers move the cut points on their copper pot stills to keep more of the heavy, smoky part of the run from the same Scottish peated malt as the standard peated release. 10th Street was founded in San Jose in 2017 by engineers Virag Saksena and Vishal Gauri, and it distills and matures its single malts itself.