Origin: Wisconsin (USA)
Type: American RyeWhiskey
Strength: 50.3%
Ageing cask: American Virgin
Chillfiltered: No
Added colouring: No
Owner: Dream Whisky
Average price: € 80.00
Official website: dreamwhisky.com
Vote: 85/100
This is the duo’s second bottling under the American Oak label, which celebrates American whiskey by recovering pre-Prohibition recipes as created by the Death’s Door distillery, which closed its doors not long ago.
Like its predecessor, the result of collaboration with the legendary Jerry Thomas Project, here we find ourselves with a composition of 70% rye, 20% corn and 10% malted barley, the result of a single cask in which the spirit has rested for five years.
Long fermentation, highly charred cask (called Alligator), distillate of origin with a great level of cleanliness thanks to the use of the Carl column… It is useless to get lost in so many details when on Dream Whisky’s Facebook page you will find a rich mine of information and impressions on this and other bottles, as well as summaries on the production of the whisky and their other line, Materiae.
I would like to thank Marco and Federico for the kind samples and for hosting me, on a very hot afternoon in early June, in the new home of their creature in Milan, which is receiving the final touches and promises to become an indispensable place, warm and welcoming, for all whisky enthusiasts.
Tasting notes
The nose is unexpectedly fresh, presenting alongside gentle (but firm) notes of wood and spices a vein of ginger and cucumber, which complements impressions of spring flowers, fruit-scented eraser, tangerine. But it’s not all lightness and sweetness, there’s also porridge, chinotto, nuts and a touch of candied orange. A balsamic breath in the background.
On the palate, freshness returns in the form of balsamic pine candy, which combines with mentholated notes to vein a body with not very marked sweet tones of liquorice, green banana and walnut. A hint of tobacco on the length.
The finish is moderately long, alternating balsamic impressions with those of liquorice, walnut and toasted wood.
A particular whiskey, which thrives on subtleties rather than extremes, it deserves attention but (and here we are more than ever in subjectivity) doesn’t give back particular emotions. Academic, in some ways, but not without interest, on the contrary: it encourages study and reflection, but for this reason perhaps loses immediacy.