Virginia Distilling Co. Cider Cask Finished Whisky

nVA ABC- $44.99

Total Wine - $XX.xx

Class VI - $XX.xx

ABV - 46%

AGE - NAS

Well, I screwed up again.  I blame Mickey Mouse. I’ve been gone for the past week.  My son graduated from George Mason (Magna cum laude - I brag) and the family went to Disney World.  We had a wonderful time.  But, I selected another whisky that you can’t get in Maryland.  I’ll look for whiskies distilled in MD that you can’t get in VA to make up for this dumb mistake.  Anyway, below is a writeup of The Virginia Distilling Company’s Cider Cask Finished Whisky (They decided to go without the ‘e’).  Please enjoy some whisk(e)y this weekend and raise a toast to those who gave it their all and sacrificed everything.  I’ll be remembering some exceptional Special Operations officers who I had the pleasure of knowing, Maj Brian Downs, a Virginia native.  I had a brief but memorable encounter with Capt. Jeremy Fresques, and Capt. Derek Argel and Staff Sgt. Casey Crate were on board the plane that crashed in northern Iraq on Memorial Day, 2007 killing all of them.  These good men deserve to be remembered and honored. 

From the VHW Cider Cask Finished Whisky bottle:  A marriage of scotch malt whisky and American whisky finished in a cider cask…Our whiskies are distilled from 100% malted barley, finished in cider casks and married together to create this unique batch.  Cider cask vanishing adds nuanced character with notes of crisp apple, vanilla, and pear.

Notice the word smithing here.  It says it’s ‘malt whisky’, but not a single malt.  That could mean a number of things.  The malt whiskies come from different locations (they come right out and tell us that some of the whisky is malted scotch, so it’s true that whisky comes from a different location).  There’s no mention of pot stills so I think we can infer that some of the whisky comes from coffey, or column stills.  (Called a ‘coffey still’ because the two-column continuous distillation apparatus was patented by Irishman, Aeneas Coffey). 

From the VA ABC website:  “VHW Cider Cask Finished Whisky, made from 100% malted barley, marries American single malt whisky made in Virginia with aged scotch malt whisky, yielding a distinguished and complex spirit. For each new release of VHW Cider Cask Finished Whisky, Virginia Distillery Co. in Lovingston works with a local Virginia cidery, including Potter’s Craft Cider and Buskey Cider. The whisky finishes in these cider casks for an additional 8 to 20 months. Notes of vanilla, apple and pear are evident on the nose. On the palate, soft creaminess and sweetness from the malt mingle with caramelized wood sugars from the oak, pairing nicely with a touch of acidity from the cider barrel.”

It’s really delicious.  I can taste the apple and the pear.  Give it a shot.  Okuwagira!

Recipe

VHW Cider Mule

INGREDIENTS

2 oz VHW Cider Cask Finished Whisky 

1 oz lime juice (half a lime)

6-8 oz ginger beer 

Ice

Lime wheel and mint for garnish

METHOD

Fill mule mug or glass with ice. Add whisky, lime juice and ginger beer, then stir. Garish with a lime wheel & mint and enjoy!