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?
Cleveland Underground Sugar Maple
Back in 2009, navy veteran Tom Lix started experimenting with whiskey. But not in the traditional sense. Cleveland Whiskey seeks to push the envelope about what is possible with whiskey, from how it is produced and aged to the regular taste profiles generally expected in the industry. The Underground series is the distilleries main line, each offering ages in traditional barrels for about six months before going through a proprietary process involving pressure extractions and differing wood combinations using more exotic woods rarely seen as finishing elements. The Cleveland Underground Super Maple is a bourbon finished with sugar maple wood using this transformative method.
Balcones Brujeria
Though Balcones has a very wide portfolio with many takes on traditional American spirits staples like bourbon and rye, they are also don’t neglect one of the first things that put them on the map: their single malt. Having clearly invested in an American single malt from the beginning, time and continued experimentation has allowed them to craft various expressions of this cornerstone offering. For the distillery’s tenth anniversary in 2019, they released two single malts only available at the distillery store, both with cask finishes. The Balcones Brujeria, which approximately translates to “witchcraft” or “witchery”, is finished in a mix of ex-Oloroso and PX sherry casks.