Tasting notes

nose

orange zest and white pepper over ripe summer fruit, bright and lively

palate

fresh bread and salted pretzel, then citrus and apricot over a steady malty base

finish

gently warming; malt and apricot hold on, and a soft summer-fruit sweetness lingers as it fades

Mash bill

50% unmalted barley, 50% malted barley. This is the Irish single pot still recipe, in which raw barley goes into the mash alongside malted barley, and Talnua uses it for every spirit it makes. The distillery separates the wort from the grain before fermenting, and it counts local barley among the things that give its whiskey a Colorado character.

Why it's craft

Talnua is a small Arvada distillery built entirely around single pot still whiskey, the Irish style made from a mash of raw and malted barley, and it mashes, ferments and triple distills that mash itself on copper pot stills. This bottling pairs the Irish recipe with the American practice of aging in new charred oak. It carries the Bottled-in-Bond designation, so it comes from one distilling season at one distillery and spent at least four years in a bonded warehouse. Co-founder Patrick Miller is the master distiller.