Jersey Spirits Wildwoods Cherrywood Smoked

Jersey Spirits was founded in 2013 by John, Sue and Betty Granata and began production in 2015. Located in Fairfield Township, New Jersey, they are one of the few distillers in the Garden State, crafting their offerings from local grains, and the first there to release a whiskey. Jersey Spirits offers a wide offering of gins, vodkas, rums, moonshines and bourbons that are use in a wide array of cocktails, operating out of a front that clearly serves as a local watering hole replete with regulars and familiarity. The Wildwood series is named after a resort area in New Jersey and is the banner all their single malts appear under. The Wildwoods Cherrywood Smoked is made from 2-row barley sourced from Rabbit Hill Farms in South Jersey and then smoked over a cherrywood fire.

The 375ml bottle used for this review was provided free of charge, which did not influence our reactions. Thanks John! 

Distillery: Jersey Spirits
Country: United States
Age: NAS
Strength: 42.5%
Price: $57.99
Maturation: 5-gallon oak barrels
Barrel: Batch #E38I; bottle 175
Location: Fairfield, New Jersey
Nose: Grain, cherry wood, wintergreen, smoke
Palate: Oak, cherry, almond
Finish: Chocolate, wood

Comments: Recommended to try with chocolate.  

Adam – The Wildwoods Cherrywood is sweet on the nose, but the sweetness of the barley. Perhaps lightly of cherries also? Could be the power of suggestion but if so it’s not an unpleasant one. A surprising aura of wintergreen I was not expecting and almost confused for the whiskey’s youth. After sitting in the glass for some time, the cherrywood is much more noticeable with perhaps a dash of chocolate. A bright, fun nose altogether. The palate enters with big oak but it does not overshadow the cherry. A tart note hits on the back of the palate, perhaps from the wood, that feels akin to furniture polish but does not cross over. The finish is brief and woody, with the flitter of occasional sweetness. Fascinating, this really evolves the longer it sits in your glass. Worth exploring for that evolution by itself. This is definitely young whiskey but still stands on its own and shows promise if it is ever aged for a little longer. 

Henry – An uncomplicated, barley-forward nose of grain and cherrywood, with a sweet undertone which links the two together. Oak astringency enters on the palate but does not diminish the cherry notes, just the sweetness. The finish is drying, spicy and woody – is that cacao? – with young, bright tannins predominating.

Ben – I kind of like this. The Wildwoods Cherrywood has that smokiness and it does have the smell of cherry candies. There’s something tart in the smell like tart cherry. It’s tart on the palate and then it waffles its way into very ashy and then that’s a lot of the feeling too. But I can see where the smoke is in there with that. It just feels like it dries up. All right, second nose. Cherry pie filling. I’ll throw out there too that on second nose there’s wintergreen, which I didn’t get before.

Bill – I like the colored notes here from the cherry. It really is kind of taking that big grain and kind of just mellowing it out a little bit. Not a lot. It’s still big grain, but it’s it is mellowing it out a little bit. I was lucky enough that since I’m since in my workshop, I actually have part of a cherry door that I recently cut up. So, I’m sitting here smelling the cherry door just to see if I can find it in the smoke on the nose. And I actually couldn’t believe it, it’s there. Cherry is really weird that way. I like how it still does manage to be a little bit grain forward. The Wildwoods Cherrywood registers as uncomplicated on the palate. It’s just a simple, straightforward approach. It’s almost dusty. I think that really brings out that stone fruit, that cherry a little bit more. But there’s just that undertow and it is totally the grain. It’s the barley. It’s just being augmented by the cherrywood smoke and I’m really really enjoying it. But I remember liking their Wildwoods Applewood on the nose as well. Rather than bitter on the palate, I would go with tart. Like a a really big emphasis on the tart cherry, I think, for me. I agree that the dusty woody bit kind of carries all the way through and then definitely finishes up extremely dry. Wintergreen on the second nose that’s covered pretty quick by almost an herbal quality to it. But yeah, that’s probably back to the grain itself. I really want this with a nice piece of dark chocolate.

Mike – I get zero smoke on the nose. It is all grain for me for the most part. A smidge of sweetness, but not really. What I got was predominantly grain. The palate started off with that grain, you know, the single malt flavors I would expect, but it went super bitter really fast. And then after after that it went to smoke. None of the smoke I never noticed on the nose, but here it was like turning a switch. It went super bitter, which I wasn’t prepared for at all. And then smoky. I don’t get cherry pie filling exactly, but more like the filling part without the cherry. Basically the sugar, gelatinous, whatever. I don’t get cherry. I don’t get cherry at all actually throughout this entire thing, which is kind of weird. It goes straight to that bitter note for me. It was like the bitterness that hits right before the finish combined with the smoky wood flavors then turned it into a dark chocolate. I think this this falls under the category of give it some time. Keep going. Give it some time.