Jack Daniel’s has been on a tear over the past few years, releasing some truly excellent Tennessee whiskeys that have expanded the lineup well beyond Old No. 7. But there’s another much smaller distillery in the state—Chattanooga Whiskey—that has been making a name for itself with some classic and experimental releases. These include a series of bottled-in-bond vintage releases, and the details of the latest one were just announced.
Chattanooga Whiskey, which is located in the city of the same name, started making whiskey a decade ago and launched its Bottled in Bond Vintage Series in 2021. As a reminder, “bottled in bond” means that the whiskey is at least 4 years old, bottled at 100 proof, and produced at one distillery during one distillation season. Chattanooga Whiskey releases its BIB bourbon as vintages, similarly to how Nicole Austin at Dickel does, and the latest is the Spring 2021 Vintage.
The distillery is known for making bourbon using what it calls a high malt mash bill, meaning there are a few different types of malted barley and malted rye along with corn included in the recipe. This release brings a new mash bill to the series called Barrel 78, which includes some roasted grains. According to a press release, the mash bill was named after the 78th barrel filled at the Experimental Distillery and consists of five grains, including Belgian-made chocolate malted barley, double roasted caramel malted barley, and cherrywood smoked malted barley.
“Every six months, our team goes through our wide library of mash bills to decide which ones we want to produce that season,” said founding distillery Grant McCracken in a statement. “While we love to make our core recipes like ‘wheated’ and ‘roasted,’ occasionally we’ll decide to scale up a promising new mash bill from our Experimental Distillery.”
The final recipe is comprised of 20 percent of this new mash bill along with two others—30 percent is their single barrel high malt mash bill, and 50 percent is their wheated mash bill. The whiskey was produced in two batches of 10 barrels that were filled between January and June of 2021 (one distilling season). McCracken provided some tasting notes for the new release. “Barrel 78 is something of an anomaly when it comes to flavor,” he said. “Alone, the mash bill has subtle notes of chocolate malt, and even a hint of sweet smoke. But when blended into this spring/summer blend, it acts as a flavor boost to the other two mash bills (particularly our wheated recipe). The result is a blend that lives on the lighter side of the flavor spectrum but still carries plenty of depth and complexity.”
Chattanooga Whiskey Bottled in Bond Vintage Series: Spring 2021 is available to purchase starting today at the Experimental Distillery (SRP $53), and will be hitting liquor store shelves and Seelbachs in the coming weeks. You can find other expressions, including past BIB releases, at websites like ReserveBar now.
Authors
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Jonah Flicker