Whiskey Wednesday: Chattanooga Whiskey Gets a Wacky With New Release

Some people don’t like it when their favorite creators get a little weird. That whole Garth Brooks/Chris Gaines thing really threw some country fans for a loop back in ’99, and Robin Williams shocked fans by going super dark in Insomnia. But personally, I don’t mind when certain whiskey makers go a little weird for an experiment.

This is especially true of one of my go-to distilleries, Chattanooga Whiskey Company, because they intentionally start out a little weird anyway. Although their flagship product does contain at least 50 percent corn to qualify as a bourbon, the Chattanooga folks strive to set themselves apart in a category they invented for themselves, Tennessee High Malt Whiskey. Coming from a brewer’s background, the founders like to emphasize and experiment with the barley component of their mash bill, much like brewers do when crafting a lager versus an IPA or a märzen.

Chattanooga Whiskey Company doesn’t just limit their innovation to grain recipes. They also like to play around with unique cask finishing protocols. Their latest release is the eighth in their Barrel Finishing Series, and it’s a stunner. Chattanooga Whiskey Moldovan Ice Wine Cask Finished is a blend of five different malt whiskeys and one bourbon finished in rare ice wine barrels from one of Moldova's oldest wineries, set in the hills above the Black Sea.

The six mash bills feature different toasted specialty malts, including a malted barley grown on Italy's coast near Venice and two types of malted wheat. The whiskey spent more than four years aging, and more than a year of that time was spent in the rare Moldovan barrels.

Ice wine is crazy enough just by itself, made from grapes that are picked by hand in winter while they are still frozen on the vine. The process yields only a few drops of juice from each cluster that is pressed, but the resulting wine is concentrated sweet magic. The barrels that aged this wine take on the dried apricot, honey and gentle oak of ice wine and contribute it to this truly unique whiskey.

Bottled at 95 proof, the resulting whiskey has a captivating flavor profile that is buttery and honey-sweet at the outset before resolving into a delicious long and gentle finish of oak and floral stone fruits. This is definitely snifter-worthy, as the whiskey changes over time in the glass and with the addition of just a drop or two of water.

Many of Chattanooga Whiskey’s most experimental releases are only available at their tasting room in Chattanooga, but this one enjoys a wider distribution to select states, including the rest of Tennessee. I’ve still seen some bottles on the shelves around town at around the $60 range, so you might want to snatch one up before I beat you to it. My first bottle is getting low!