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.
Benromach 15 Year
Benromach is a Speyside distillery founded in 1898 by Duncan McCallum and F.W. Brickman and currently owned by Gordon & MacPhail, a brand perhaps more known for their independent bottlings. Benromach makes their whisky using all of their senses: sight, smell, taste, feel. Using only first-filled casks, water from the Chapelton Spring in the Romach Hills they make a subtly smoky scotch that is only lightly peated. The Benromach 15 Year was then finished in ex-sherry casks. We often love a good sherry cask finish. Do you?
Kilchoman Am Bùrach
Mistakes happen. In many professions, you have to sweep whatever the results were under the proverbial rug and start over. At Kilchoman distillery, unnamed employee mistakenly combined a three year old run of their flagship Machir Bay with a fresh ex-port matured expression in 2014. Instead of washing it down the drain or drinking it immediately, they stuck it in an ex-bourbon barrel to see if time would provide any hope before finishing the strange marriage off in an ex-ruby port cask. The beginning and the maturation process were, as the general manager called it, “am bùrach”, or “a mess”. The Kilchoman Am Bùrach is a unique mistake in many ways, not lease of which is that it survived and thrived long enough to be bottled. The ultimate hope of any young spirit.