Tasting notes

nose

raisin, fig and date with honey, grape syrup and candied fruit, plus overripe cherry, almond and a little leather

palate

honey and tart red cherry, blackcurrant and fig, with walnut, a nutty brine and touches of chocolate and coffee

finish

buttery caramel, whipped cream and brown sugar, ending on a pinch of smoked cayenne

Mash bill

100% malted barley. Stranahan's double distills its malt and fills it into virgin American white oak, the new barrels bourbon is aged in, instead of the used casks single malt usually sees. Only after at least seven years in that new oak does it go into sherry casks.

Why it's craft

Stranahan's was founded in Denver in 2004 by Jess Graber and George Stranahan, who met when Graber, a volunteer firefighter, turned out for a fire at Stranahan's barn; it became Colorado's first microdistillery. This bottling takes the house single malt, aged at least seven years in new American white oak, and finishes it in Pedro Ximénez sherry casks from southern Spain. The distillery is owned by Proximo Spirits and still makes its whiskey on South Kalamath Street in Denver.