Tasting notes

nose

fresh-baked bread and chamomile over cut grass, sliced green apple and a little sawdust

palate

light-bodied; honey, green apple and vanilla with ripe peach and a faint dusting of baking spice

finish

short; a light grain spice and pie crust, with a touch of spiced vanilla before it fades

Mash bill

80% unmalted barley, 15% malted barley, 5% oats. All three grains are grown in New York. The recipe follows Irish pot still whiskey, which mashes raw barley together with malted barley instead of using malt alone, and adds a small share of oats as a third grain.

Why it's craft

Finger Lakes Distilling makes this in the Irish pot still manner, mashing New York-grown raw barley with malted barley and oats and running it through its pot still, then resting it in barrels that first held its own McKenzie bourbon and rye. Brian McKenzie founded the distillery on Seneca Lake in Burdett in 2007, and it mashes, ferments, distills and ages its whiskey there from grain bought from New York farms.