Morris Australian Signature
Morris of Rutherglen is an Australian winery and distillery located in the northeast of Victoria province. Founded in 1859 by the one of the more prominent winemaking families in Australia, Morris is now run by sixth-generation winemaker Madden Morris. The history of spirit making is slightly shorter at Morris, where a still was installed in 1941 – now nicknamed “Ella”- but lay dormant for decades until being resurrected in the 21st century. The head distiller is Darren Peck, who has been crafting whiskies there since 2015 from local Australian barley and water, and aging them in casks made on site and used to previously hold red and fortified wines from the vineyard. The Morris Australian Sigature is, as the name would imply, their signature expression and anchor of their core offerings.
Kanosuke Single Malt
Kanosuke started in 2018, named after the leader of the Kanosuke Komasa. The distillery is located in the southern Kagoshima Prefecture of Japan, along Fukiagehama Beach. Each of their three copper pot stills is of a different design, allowing them greater blending opportunities since the distillate off each would be somewhat different. One can maybe get a sense of their aim by acknowledging their distillery motto: “Japanese whisky, richer and more mellow.” They produce pot still and blended whiskies in addition to single malts and are in the midst of releasing batch offerings by year. The Kanosuke Single Malt is the current flagship whisky of the distillery, the third batch of which was released in 2023. It is made using a blend of single malts from all three pot stills, though curiuously the grain is never specifically named. We presume it is barley.
Stranahan’s Distiller’s Experimental Batch 005
Stranahan’s is one of the oldest distileries in the United States. While they have kept a solid core offering over the years, they have also featured annual releases, single casks and limited series. The Distiller’s Experiemental Batch is only available at the distillery itself or the connected Aspen Whiskey Lodge. This series is, as the name connotes, made up of experiments concocted by head blender Justin Aden. Regulations surrounding whiskey allow much more freedom to experiment than some other places, which allows this series to really stretch into all kinds of finishes, grains and other territories not even seen in major releases. The Stranahan’s Distiller’s Experimental Batch 005 was released in 2022. This single malt was aged for six years and two months, and finished for a gin cask that had formely held a single malt scotch. The distillery has not disclosed what specific scotch or American gin the cask previously held, or the exact length of the finish.