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Cowboy Country Gold Spur

Cowboy Country Gold Spur

We are in a renaissance of whiskey right now in almost any country, sometimes on multiple levels at once. For an example of this, one need look no further than Cowboy Country Distilling. When Tim Trites began distilling in 2015 and opened to the public on Valentine’s Day 2018, he did so as someone who had already spent decades in the industry at a major spirits company, after obtaining a master’s in chemical engineering. Whiskey, the magic of mixing science and art. Cowboy Country is a second act of sorts for Tim, as he is able to specifically make exactly the kind of spirits and liqueurs he’s always wanted to using narrow cuts to get the exact expression he’s looking for. The Gold Spur is a corn whiskey with a mash bill of corn, oats and millet. Like all Cowboy Country spirits, all the ingredients are from Wyoming and it is gluten free.

Copperworks Peated

Copperworks Peated

Copperworks Distilling has eschewed the normal distillery commercial standard by having a limited product offering but achieving uniformity between batches. Rather, the distillery has leaned purposefully into crafting each release as a limited, distinct expression that allows them to explore the subtle nuances that differences of grains, yeasts and cask aging can provide, while still holding onto some house styles. The Copperworks Peated is their 34th release, and is made from eight casks of whiskey that were aged for a little over four years, with Washington barley smoked using Washington peat, a first for the distillery. Copperworks has since signaled it will distill peated whiskies on an annual basis. 

Balvenie 15 Year Single Barrel Sherry Cask

Balvenie 15 Year Single Barrel Sherry Cask

This Balvenie 15 year is aged entirely in an ex-Oloroso sherry butt. A butt is a type of cask standard for aging sherry, approximately 475-500 liters. Because of the larger size, there is less surface area per amount of liquid and thus the cask impact is lessened. This may be why this particular offering spends its entire life in the same sherry butt, as opposed to other releases where the sherry cask is used only at the end. Unlike other age statement single malts, which contain a variety of ages with only the youngest listed, this Balvenie is 15 years only, no younger or no older.