Tasting notes

nose

Raisin and fig compote up front with spun sugar, orange marmalade and a thread of licorice, grounded by worn leather, oak and vanilla

palate

A juicy rush of red fruit turns into fruit leather and baking spice, with marmalade and vanilla over sweet oak and a creamy, warming back end

finish

Fairly short and dry, with white pepper and baking spice outlasting the raisin sweetness and a light tannic grip closing it out

Mash bill

Corn, rye and malted barley; the split for the blended base is not published. The base is the distillery's high-rye bourbon mash, and its own distillate is 56% corn, 38% rye and 6% malted barley. That base also includes bourbon distilled in other states, whose recipes are not disclosed. The high rye share gives the spicy backbone the sherry finish is meant to sweeten.

Why it's craft

The finishing casks are retired PX sherry vessels from an old solera, which once held a dense dessert wine made from shriveled grapes, chosen to lay fig and marmalade over a spicy high-rye base. The base whiskey combines bourbon distilled at Breckenridge with bourbon bought from distilleries in other states, so it is not all made in-house. Bryan Nolt founded the distillery in 2008 at 9,600 feet in the Colorado Rockies.