Tasting notes

nose

Orange zest and oil over multigrain biscuit, rye bread and pie crust, with vanilla, baking spice, toasted cedar and a hint of lemon meringue

palate

A burst of orange gives way to spicy rye and wheat, chewy vanilla caramel, orchard fruit and sweet corn, with eucalyptus and peppery oak

finish

Medium length but intense, tart lemon and cooling eucalyptus holding on as bright spice and a soft oak grip take over and the fruit fades

Mash bill

62% wheat, 23% corn, 11% rye, 4% barley. All four grains are organic and grown in Washington, and every component was distilled at Bainbridge. The wheat-heavy recipe comes from a base of six-year-old light whiskey made from organic soft white wheat and aged in once-used barrels, combined with the distillery's own corn, rye, wheat and barley whiskeys aged five years or more.

Why it's craft

Arrow Point is the distillery's first blended whiskey, modeled on 1930s–1950s blends in Keith Barnes' own collection, but where those blends used neutral grain spirit it uses Bainbridge's own six-year-old wheat light whiskey plus aged corn, rye, wheat and barley whiskeys. Everything in the bottle was distilled, aged, married and bottled at the independent, family-owned distillery Barnes started on Bainbridge Island in 2009.