UNTITLED WHISKEY #12
Batch 2 bottled March 10, 2021MASH BILL – unstated sourced wheated bourbon mash bill
PROOF – 88 proof
AGE – 11 years according to the District Made website, 10 years according to the neck tag
DISTILLERY – District Made Spirits (formerly One Eight Distilling)
PRICE – $54
WORTH BUYING? – Sure!
Uncorked and tasted in The Year of No Buying (The what? 🔗 here.)
My introduction to District Made Spirits (formerly One Eight Distilling) was their decadent and rustic 7-Year BiB Bourbon, a blend of three choice barrels of their own distillate that together yielded a wonderful rye-forward bourbon, at once dry and syrupy.
If the specs on that release weren’t interesting enough, District Made also put out this Untitled Whiskey #12 thing, a well-aged sourced wheated bourbon finished in casks that had originally been used by them to age bourbon, were then given to a chocolate maker, Harper Macaw, to age cacao nibs, after which they were returned to District Made to finish this wheated bourbon.
Wheated bourbon aged a decade+ and finished in used bourbon barrels that were used to finish cacao nibs and then used again to finish the wheated bourbon? Sounds like dessert. And at this price? Bring it!
And so here we are, six weeks after uncorking and a third of the way into the bottle. These brief notes were taken using a traditional Glencairn.
COLOR – a dark and hazy autumnal orange
NOSE – both dry and syrupy, with dark chocolate nibs and shavings, a cherry or red berry brandy of some kind, soft pastry bread dough like in the heart of a cinnamon roll, flaky croissant
TASTE – very like the nose, showing the same notes, with a thin but slightly syrupy texture like a drizzled chocolate sauce, and a slight bitter oaky edge outlining everything
FINISH – bright cherry, tingly wood and baking spices, rich medium-dark chocolate icing, oak tannin
OVERALL – at once light and rich, like some easy-pleasing fancy dessert
Maybe at a higher proof this would be too tannic, and so they brought it down to 88. Or maybe that was to maximize a limited yield. In any case, though the balance among the flavors is great, I don’t think they’re held up by the texture as well as they could be. Everything is just a wee thin in contrast to the richer chocolate and cherry notes.
That said, I enjoy this. It’s definitely a dessert pour. The chocolate influence is very forward, and I’m a big ol’ chocolate fan so I don’t mind its prominence. I can imagine someone less chocolate inclined finding this whiskey to be more like an aromatic chocolate liqueur than a bourbon. But for me that’s fine—something light and sweet to sip after a dinner that warrants a chocolatey digestif. It could also go very nicely in coffee.
A very interesting experiment. I don’t see myself keeping an eye out for any future releases of this sort of thing—if they’re in the works at all; It’s my impression that District Made is done with this and on to other things. But I’m glad to have this bottle on the shelf. I’ll serve it to friends new to whiskey who like chocolate.
And when I myself want a desserty pour that’s light on alcohol, I’ll reach for this. Whiskeys proofed in the 80s are typically too light in flavor for me. But the intensity of the flavors in this chocolate-finished wheater are forward enough, and rich enough, to compensate for the lower ABV, making this a sweet little pour for the right time and mood.
Cheers!
The Right Spirit 