A couple months ago, I first heard about whiskey made with oats in the mashbill. Ever since, I have been looking for one, but was not successful in procuring a bottle until New Riff shipped their Winter Whiskey. In retrospect, probably a good introduction to “oated” whiskey as it’s still a bourbon, with that categories inherent sweetness and corn-based mash bill. New Riff goes into great detail to tell us exactly what’s in this whiskey: 65% corn, 20% malted oats, 7% pale ale malt, 5% steel cut raw oats, and 3% chocolate malt. It is bottled in bond, so at least 4 years of age and exactly 100 proof on the bottling, which is done without chill filtration.
Winter Whiskey is a medium-dark amber in color with legs that develop and drip slowly when I swirled it around my glass. The aroma coming off had a good amount of cocoa powder up front, with some oak, and some slightly sour note, too. Taking a sip is delightful and eye-opening. It definitely has some traditional brown sugar sweetness and vanilla up front, but that melts into an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie that sent me right back to my favorite cookies that my grandmother made when I was growing up. The finish lets that cookie note linger a bit, then fade into a slight cinnamon burn.
This stuff is fantastic…I’m going to try to acquire another bottle tomorrow because I don’t think they will last all that long on store shelves.
