Whisky Off The Beaten Path

Warenghem Distillery has been situated on the coast of Brittany, a coastal land with ties to Celtic history, since around 1900. In the 1990s, they started producing Armorik single malt. This Armorik Sherry Finish expression spends most of its maturation in ex-bourbon barrels and is finished for a few months in ex-sherry casks.

Three Ships Premium Select Whisky is made by blending together sourced Scotch whisky with malt and grain whiskies distilled and aged at least 5 years at the James Sedgwick Distillery, in Wellington, South Africa. This blended whisky was first released in 1991 and created by Master Distiller Andy Watts, who is only the 6th person to hold the position since the distillery was founded in 1886. Note: This is not available in the U.S.

Brenne Ten is the elder sibling of Brenne French single malt whisky. Like the NAS version, it's made from organic malted barley and spring water sourced from the Cognac region of France. To create the first edition of this 10 Year old whisky, four casks were selected by founder Allison Patel--barrels 1 and 2 were ex-Cognac barrels with a light toast, barrel 3 was split between new and used French oak with a light toast, and barrel 4 utilized new French oak with a medium toast. Only 290 cases were produced for the 2015 release.

The founders of this distillery asked why there weren't any whisky distilleries in Sweden. Was it possible to make in their climate? Well, that question has been answered with a resounding yes. Aging this single malt whisky (produced with barley grown and malted in Sweden, thank you very much) they use virgin European oak grown (where else) in Sweden along with 1st fill American oak barrels.

Brenne Ten is an annual release produced in Cognac, France. The French whisky is a marriage of about four different hand-selected barrels which were filled with spirit distilled in an alembic Charente still. Brenne Ten is aged for a decade in a combination of new French Limousin oak and cognac casks.

The latest edition of High West Campfire now includes a parcel of self-distilled rye, as opposed to entirely sourced whiskeys. Components include straight rye whiskey from MGP (95% rye, 5% malted barley), straight rye whiskey made in-house (80% rye and 20% malted rye), straight sourced bourbon from MGP (75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley), and sourced blended malt Scotch whisky. The final blend is bottled at 92 proof.

This Indian whisky was originally matured in either ex-bourbon casks or virgin oak casks. The whiskies then went through an intermediate maturing process in Sherry butts at Amrut’s Bangalore distillery. Amrut then transferred the whisky back into ex-bourbon casks for another round of aging.

Swedish single malt distiller Box's "Quercus" line focuses on different species of oak, in this case American white oak (Quercus alba). This whisky was first stored in used bourbon casks, then finished in small casks made from new white oak sourced in eastern and central North America. Only 9,806 (500ml) bottles were produced with an ABV of 50.8%.

Pierde Almas is best known for their mezcals. This is their first whiskey, twice distilled from ancestral corn varieties from Oaxaca, Mexico supplemented by 6% malted barley. This first release is unaged, but additional stocks are in barrel.

Equipo Navazos (Jesus Barquin & Eduardo Oreja) have joined forces with Nicolas Palazzi of PM Spirits to produce this single malt whisky made in northern Spain. It's made from 100% malted Spanish-grown barley, distilled in a pot still, then aged in fresh Valdespino Palo Cortado sherry casks. Though sherry cask aging is prevalent in whisky aging, this type of dry sherry cask is very rare, especially since it's so fresh from the source. Though non-age statement, it is between 4-6 years old.