Tasting notes

nose

dark honey, dried cherry and dried orange peel over roasted oak, with ground cinnamon, a floral lilac lift, vanilla and a soft bready grain note

palate

dense honey and fresh red apple up front, then roasted oak, cinnamon, toasted bread, black pepper and a touch of maple

finish

long; honey and red apple fade into cherry and orange peel, leaving a mineral edge and lingering oak

Mash bill

70% Bloody Butcher corn, 16% red winter wheat, 14% malted barley. Bloody Butcher is a red heirloom corn that is hard to grow, and Savage & Cooke has it raised on a plot it chose in Winters, California, about 35 miles from the distillery. The distillery credits the corn with the whiskey's intensity and structure, the wheat with its velvety texture and fuller mouthfeel, and the malted barley with rounding out the recipe.

Awards

• Silver — Bartender Spirits Awards 2024

Why it's craft

Savage & Cooke distills on Mare Island, a retired naval shipyard in Vallejo that served the Navy from 1854 to 1996; it began distilling in spring 2019 and its first house whiskey reached shelves in fall 2023. For this bourbon the distillery ran every step from the field on, picking a farm plot in Winters for the heirloom corn, then mashing, fermenting, distilling and aging the crop itself. Since the end of 2024 the distillery and its brands have belonged to Redwood Empire Whiskey, part of Purple Brands.