Featured at World Whisky Day 2019: Whiskey Del Bac began production in 2013 in Tuscon, AZ. Founded by Stephen Paul and his daughter Amanda, the distillery is perhaps best known for their mesquite usage. Asking the very valid question of why barley couldn’t be smoked with the American Southwest’s native mesquite tree much like peat is used in Scotland and Ireland, Whiskey Del Bac has found resounding success since releasing their lineup, both in sales and industry awards. They are also a grain-to-glass distillery, using as many native elements in their production as possible. Named after the local Mission San Xavier del Bac, Del Bac Dorado represents everything we love about American craft whiskey, from the local sourcing to the experimentation to the crafting of a spirit unique to a place and people.
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Distillery: Hamilton Distillers
Region: Foreign
Age: NAS
Strength: 45%
Price: $49.99
Location: Tuscon, AZ
Nose: Bacon, nut, smoke, caramel, lit fireplace, fog, sulphered molasses
Palate: Earth, cinnamon red hots, spearmint
Finish: Smoke, dried grass, mint
Comments: Recommend to let sit in your glass for a bit after pouring so the whiskey can collect its thoughts.
Adam – After grasping at words for some time, I can only lead off with this: I really like this whiskey. It is bold, it is adventurous, it is unique. The curious mix of sandwiching the mint and zing of cinnamon between a smoky nose and smoky finish, each end deliciously swirled with variations you can barely grasp at before they’re whisked away, is almost dizzying. The Del Bac Dorado is not an Islay knock off, it is not a sourced bourbon, it is not quite like anything you’ve yet encountered, mostly likely. But it is well worth exploring, especially as production picks up speed and the distillery is able to widen their distribution.
Jenny – There’s something of the mesquite that reminds me of food, like Tex Mex good. It’s smoky and good and delicious and makes you think of hot southern places. It’s fun
Meghan – One of these things is not like the other… and in this case, it’s the palate. Both the nose and the finish have this glorious BBQ-esque smoke. But, in between is this slightly shocking sweetness. If you drink the Dorado slowly, the palate stands out, and not quite in a good way. Luckily, if you drink it like most people who aren’t trying to dissect it for a review, the sweetness blends nicely with the smoke. This whiskey has the best smokey finish I’ve found outside of a heavy-duty Islay. There is also a touch of mint throughout, a spearmint gum flavor on the palate turns into a whiff of menthol on the finish. There is also this grassy element: the sun burned grass in July of a drought year. It tastes of that silvered green that seems like it should burst into flame under the 3pm sun and of a horizon distorted by waves of heat. It is not what we’d call a “hot” (meaning alcohol burn) whisky, but it is a whisky that tastes like heat. If whisky had a sound, this one sounds like the absence of sound, of that silence when it is so hot and dry that everything living (except for a few whining insects) has stopped moving to try and stay cool. Although I sampled this in the summer and fall, I am curious to see what it would be like in the dead of a Minnesota winter. I think it might just make me feel like I’d snowbirded to Arizona.
It’s smoky and delicious and makes you think of hot southern places.
Mary-Fred – This one is well rounded.
Ben – The Del Bac Dorado is sweet, like fun dip or pixie sticks. A taste in there I can describe as gray, but gray like aged by time and weather, like how a cedar fence turns grey, or how firewood dries out. It’s no longer brown, it’s gray. It’s that taste of weathered gray. But this is a good thing. It’s earned gray, like when the hair turns. You worked for it. It really wraps around your tongue. It’s a full flavor. It doesn’t ignore any part of your mouth. And it balances out.
