Tasting notes

nose

buttered toast, coffee grounds and a little honey, opening to candied pecans, brown sugar, walnut oil and toasted spice

palate

rich; coffee, salted dark chocolate and cherry syrup, with a doughy note, a hint of melon and peppery spice

finish

medium; tannic oak steps forward as the chocolate fades

Mash bill

100% malted barley, of Wisconsin malted barley, cherrywood-smoked barley and dark-roasted barley; the proportions are not published. The smoked malt is dried over cherrywood smoke rather than peat. Every grain in the mash is malted barley, as the American single malt category requires.

Why it's craft

Interstate was Tattersall's first American single malt, more than five years in the making, and the distillery held its release until the federal American single malt category was approved; it is a member of the American Single Malt Whiskey Commission. The smoke here comes from cherrywood-dried malt rather than peat, alongside dark-roasted barley, aged in virgin oak. Tattersall, founded by Jon Kreidler, distilled the whiskey in Minnesota and aged it in Minnesota and Wisconsin; the name recalls the nation's first interstate park, which spans the two states.