~$40, 750mL bottle- Purchased at Riley’s Wine & Spirits, Hixson, TN
Background
Some days you can feel the weight of many things coming together at the same time. Things starting. Things ending. Things taking unusual turns. New deals. No deals. Time wasters. The day is so full you look back at the end and are just surprised so much happened. Or maybe it’s not just one day. Whatever the case…on a day like that, I headed out to my front porch with some new(ish) Chattanooga Whiskey Scotch Cask and the last of my Davidoff Master Blender Selection, a #11…my favorite of the 36(?) blends.
The focus today is on this whiskey, though. This is part of the Chattanooga Whiskey “Barrel Finishing Series” and is billed as “Straight Bourbon Whiskey finished is Islay Scotch Casks.” It weighs in at 47.5% ABV, or 95 proof. The back of the bottle states:
Our limited edition finishing series celebrates the union of Tennessee high malt into a variety of classic finishing casks, crafted from a combination of unique bourbon mash bills – all containing at least 25% specialty malted grains – each batch is custom-made to complement the flavor & aroma characteristics of the finishing barrel.
This used a blend of mash bill B004 and SB091, originally aged in 55 gallon “toasted and charred oak barrels.” Then finished for more than 3 months in 3 different types of Islay Scotch barrels. The interesting thing here is that Islay Scotch is typically aged in used bourbon barrels, so most likely these “Scotch” barrels were Jim Beam or some other bourbon aging device, shipped to Scotland for whisky, then shipped back to America for this ending. Round and round it goes.
Notes
The Chattanooga Whiskey Scotch Cask is fairly dark in the glass, a dark amber shade that seems to suggest more than 4 years of age in the original oak barrels. Even popping the cork and pouring, you can get rich notes of peat and iodine in this dram. Taking a closer sniff, I got some of the vanilla and oak notes hiding underneath that, but really the heavily peated Islay Scotch masterfully covers most other aromas.
Giving it a sip, initially it performs much like a regular bourbon, with smooth sweetness on the lips and the front of the tongue. Hold on to it a little longer and it gets notes of oak and vanilla, also very bourbon-like. Then let it start to migrate to the back of your mouth and let it drain down your throat. You’ll get that peat and iodine note very strongly in the mix.
I figured a rich, complex Davidoff might be a very good bet to stand up to the flavor monstrosity that Islay brings to alcoholic beverages. Even though this is technically still a bourbon, the extra peat in the nose and flavor was sure to stomp all over most delicate, one-note cigars.
On the cold draw, the Davidoff Master Blender Selection 11 had cedar, hay, white pepper, and mushroomy funk, all of which are fairly typical of Davidoff, but there was extra body and earth, even in the cold draw, that reminded me of a Colorado Claro.
The flavors of the Scotch-y Bourbon blended quite well with the cigar. This is a cigar blend I would actually put up against an Islay, so it was a natural to pair with this whiskey blend. I found this Chattanooga Whiskey Islay Scotch Cask to be more complex and full and rounded than most Scotch whiskies I’ve had, combining some of my favorite aspects of Scotch with some of the best reasons to drink bourbon.
