Tasting notes

nose

brown sugar, caramel and cherry with toasted almond, sweet corn and a floral lift of honeysuckle and lavender

palate

medium-bodied; butterscotch and honey give way to orange, grapefruit and lemon peel over sweet corn, cookie dough and pie crust

finish

dry; burnt caramel and orange marmalade, then sage, cinnamon crumble and rye spice

Mash bill

Corn, rye, wheat and malted barley, all grown in New York; the combined proportions are not published. The corn and much of the rye come from the house's rye-recipe McKenzie Straight Bourbon, more rye from its rye-and-malt McKenzie Straight Rye, and the wheat from a separate whiskey distilled from a wheat mash. Every component is whiskey distilled at Finger Lakes Distilling, with no neutral grain spirit in the blend.

Why it's craft

American blended whiskey needs only 20% straight whiskey, and the rest may be neutral spirit. Mac's is three-quarters straight McKenzie bourbon and rye, and the remaining quarter is whiskey distilled from a wheat mash, all made at Finger Lakes Distilling from New York-grown grain. Brian McKenzie founded the distillery on Seneca Lake in Burdett in 2007, and made Mac's as its economical mixing whiskey.