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We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: Free Ranch is one of the best craft whiskey distilleries in America right now. The Nevada-based operation is unveiling a new expression tomorrow — a single-barrel strength, single-barrel wheat whiskey that packs a punch and is completely different from the rest of the portfolio, and we’ve got the details on what you can expect. Should.
Free Ranch is known for making glass whiskey from grain at its distillery and farm in Fallon, Nev., about 75 miles east of the Sierra Nevadas. The distillery was founded by husband-wife team Colby and Ashley Frey, who hired Russell Wedlake as master distiller. According to the team, everything is done on site, from malting to maturation and even bottling, and the mashbills consist of grains grown on the 1,500-acre Free Family Farm. Core Bourbon is aged for five years and made from a four-grain mash bill of 66.6 percent corn, 11.4 percent rye, 12 percent malted barley, and 10 percent white winter wheat. Rye is a bottled expression made from 100 percent winter cereal rye.
The new edition of the Single Grain Series is unique in that it is made from 100 percent white winter wheat mash bales grown on the Frey Ranch farm. It was cultivated by self-described “whiskey farmer” Colby Frey, and like other whiskeys, every step of the production took place at the distillery. “Our slow-grown grains are at the heart of who we are as an American whiskey brand, so we’ll continue to experiment with different mash bills that incorporate variations of these single grains,” Frey said in a statement. exhibit high quality and unique flavor profiles.” . “[This] Our single grain is the first cask strength release from the series, and we look forward to sharing it with the whiskey community.”
100% wheat whiskey is a single-barrel product bottled at cask strength, so each bottle will vary depending on which barrel it came from—from 58.4 percent ABV (116.8 proof) to 67.2 percent. ABV (134.4 proof), and about six. By the age of about eight years. The sample we got to taste came from the higher end of the spectrum in terms of proof and the lowest in terms of age, after spending six years and two months in a barrel and warming to 134.48 proof. Despite the intensity, there isn’t a huge amount of alcohol on the nose, which kicks things off nicely with notes of butterscotch and caramel. However, heat enters the picture on the palate, but they shine with sweet candy notes as well as raspberry, bright lemon, vanilla bean, and buttery frosting. The press release describes this whiskey as a “sugar bomb” and that’s true, but not in a saccharine way. It’s a vanilla funfty cake of a whiskey, and those notes are amplified once you put a little water in your dram.
The new wheat whiskey will be available online from Frey Ranch. website (SRP $114) launching this weekend. In the meantime, you can now find remaining whiskey bottles on websites like ReserveBar.
Credit : robbreport.com