2023 Whiskey Gift Guide: A Whiskey For Every Palate
Both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are fast approaching, so we decided it was high time to update our Holiday Gift Guide!
This new version has whiskey that is in stock as of early May and should you help find a whiskey for the mother-figure or father-figure in your life.
Traditional Whiskey: New Twists on Familiar Flavors
The whiskies on the traditional side of the whiskey gift guide all offer flavors that will be familiar in some way to people who already know their whiskey. The single malts share major touchpoints in flavor with Scotch whiskey; the bourbons and ryes have a lot of flavors in common with traditional Kentucky bourbon and rye. They all have their own unique twists and attributes, but they are at least in the same wheelhouse.
To put it more simply: if you or a friend loves Scotch, Kentucky bourbon, and Kentucky rye, it’s safe to say you’ll like the whiskies on the left half of the whiskey gift guide. Lovers of smoked whiskies like Laphroaig and Lagavulin will particularly appreciate our two McCarthy’s single casks. Fans of sherried whiskies like Glenfarclas, Macallan, and GlenDronach will be intrigued by our award-winning Cedar Ridge Iowa Single Malt—and they’ll probably get a kick out of a whiskey with that kind of flavor profile coming from Iowa. Lovers of Compass Box, Douglas Laing, or other blended malts will really enjoy our American Vatted Malt, an American take on the long tradition of blended malt.
On the bourbon and rye side, our Dad’s Hat straight rye single cask has drawn comparisons to Stagg Jr., while our Starlight Bourbon has the softness of a Weller or Maker’s Mark and our Starlight rye has the pepperiness of something like Knob Creek.
Innovative Whiskey: A New World of New Flavors
The other side of our whiskey gift guide is a little different. If the whiskies on the left will be familiar to traditional whiskey lovers, the ones on the right are great for the person who wants to explore. These are the whiskies that truly push boundaries and do things that are quite different than anything we’ve seen in whiskey before.
The single malts in this section, for instance, actually do not have a ton in common with single malt Scotch—at least not from a flavor perspective. Our Copperworks and Westward single malts both owe at least as much to the craft brewing tradition of the Pacific Northwest as to world single malt traditions. While being made from the same ingredient as single malts all over the world (always 100% malted barley!), they go in very different directions. These whiskies are perfect for beer lovers as much as for Scotch lovers.
Other whiskies on the innovative side of the equation are made in styles that are not very common or familiar, even to the serious whiskey palate. We’re seeing more malted rye come out these days but it’s still relatively unusual and our Cedar Ridge malted rye is a great introduction to that style.
Other whiskies, like our Spirit Works Rye Finished In A Sloe Gin Cask or our Dad’s Hat Straight Rye Finished In A Vermouth Cask, use unusual types of finishing casks to bring in flavors that are normally never seen in whiskey. Both taste almost like cask strength cocktails: the Spirit Works reminds us of a Negroni and the Dad’s Hat of a Manhattan. We love these unusual explorations of flavor, and this spirit of experimentation.
We put out a lot of whiskies, and that’s on purpose. We think our lineup offers something for just about everyone, and we hope our Whiskey Gift Guide helps you find the perfect whiskey for the whiskey lover in your life—whatever they happen to like!