Glenmorangie A Tale of Winter
Being a distillery with nearly 200 years of history does not guarantee success in the present day. Creativity can be almost as vital as what is in the bottle. In 2020, Glenmorangie began a limited series of no-age-statement releases beginning with A Tale of Cake. Each ‘tale’ has a creative story from Dr. Bill Lumsden, Director of Distilling for Glenmorangie and Ardbeg, and is meant to invoke a certain moment or feeling or place. These whiskies seem geared toward a different demographic than their core offerings, what with the emphasis on story and bright package design. The Glenmorangie A Tale of Winter is the second in the series and is meant to evoke the coziness of being inside somewhere on a cold winter day (or night). Though no age statement comes on the bottle, the scotch was 13 years old and finished in ex-Marsala wine casks for an undisclosed time.
Stranahan’s Sherry Cask
Stranahan’s Distillery was one of the first American single malts on the market in early 2000s, with their first bottle being released in 2006. One of the things American whiskies like bourbon were long not allowed to do because of regulation and tradition was something scotch had begun pioneering in the early 1980s, wood finishing. Not bound by the regulations of bourbons or ryes, American single malts like Stranahan’s are able to push the boundaries in creative ways their whiskey relatives were unable to for many years (though this has recently begun changing). The Stranahan’s Sherry Cask is a single malt aged for four years in virgin white American oak barrels and then finished in 500-liter ex-Oloroso sherry casks from the Andalusia region in Spain.
Sonoma Cherrywood Rye
Sonoma Distilling was founded in 2010 by Adam Spiegel and was the first located in a region of California more renowned for wine than spirits. As with many other distillers, Sonoma looks to local elements and promotes grain-to-glass production at their facility. Even the grains themselves are from the surrounding states. At least it is now. When the distillery was younger, some of the releases included grain from other locations, including this one with part of the rye content sourced from Canada. The Sonoma Cherrywood Rye is part of the distillery’s portfolio that takes their existing spirit – bourbon and rye so far – and smokes the malted barley that makes up a tenth of the mashbill with cherrywood.