Tasting notes

nose

wildflower honey and warm bread crust lead, with dry hay, almond and a twist of lemon peel

palate

lemon curd and buttery toffee sit over crisp green apple and ripe pear, with flaky pastry and malted cereal underneath

finish

lemon and caramel hold alongside toasted malt, then an earthy note and a faint wisp of smoke arrive late, staying light and sweet as it fades

Mash bill

100% malted Baronesse barley. The barley is a single variety grown at Joseph's Grainery in Colfax, Washington, and pale-malted at LINC Malt, the same farm source behind the first Farmsmith release. Copperworks does not grow the grain itself, but naming one variety and one farm puts the barley at the center of the whiskey, where it shows as honeyed cereal and fresh bread.

Why it's craft

Copperworks has been an independent, owner-run distillery on the Seattle waterfront since 2013, founded by craft brewers who brew their own unhopped barley wash and distill it on copper stills built in Scotland. This bottle is one variety of barley from one Palouse farm, distilled in Seattle and aged for just over seven years in a single cask that once held Speyside Scotch. Only 297 bottles came out of it.