The white whiskey craze continues to rumble along, and artisan producers keep driving the trend. Our friends at Craft Distillers offer this spirit, distilled from Bavarian hard wheat (wheat with a higher protein content) and fermented to an 8.8% alcohol beer. It’s then double-distilled in a copper pot still and bottled at about 90 proof, cut, intriguingly, with distilled rainwater. Aging: Nil.
The results are intriguing for this category: Heavily wort-like on the nose, then sweet on the initial attack, a change of pace from the overpowering gut punch that white whiskeys so commonly deliver. The body is surprisingly mild, offering more of that rich grain character, but it’s not off-putting in the way most white lightning is. The finish is easygoing and almost pleasant, soft and again hinting at sweetness.
My general disapproval of this category keeps me from giving a higher grade, but it’s certainly the best white whiskey I’ve reviewed to date, though I’d love to try Stillwater Spirits’ 120-proof white dog (tasted here) again. Ignore my prior review of Low Gap there — a sad C-minus — which I can only attribute to the vagaries of the roundup setting and the vast variety of aged spirits that had been tasted before getting to Low Gap… and making it virtually impossible to appreciate properly. It happens.
B+ / $40 / craftdistillers.com
