Tasting notes

nose

Slow to open, then brown sugar, dark chocolate with orange peel, candied nuts, fruit chews and apricot marmalade

palate

More dark chocolate, with cinnamon, chocolate mousse and fresh babka, ripe banana and peppery tart cherry over caramel and vanilla

finish

A campfire edge of smoke comes in first, then toasted marshmallow and molasses close it out

Mash bill

85% rye, a blend of the AC Hazlet and Bono varieties, and 15% malted rye. The rye is grown for Tattersall on a single farm, Rum Lake Farm in Cambridge, Minnesota, and there is no corn or barley in the recipe at all. Using malted rye instead of barley malt means every grain in the bottle is rye.

Why it's craft

Tattersall picked the rye varieties, the yeast and the barrels' toast and char for this bottle, then waited more than five years to release it, long for a Midwestern rye made from grain to glass. All of the rye comes from one farm in Cambridge, Minnesota, and the whiskey was mashed, distilled and aged at Tattersall's own distillery. Founded in Minneapolis in 2015, the company now runs all of its production from River Falls, Wisconsin.