Ranger Creek Rimfire Mesquite Smoked Texas Single Malt

Have a very distinctive flavor that I can’t quite put my finger on. Very very smoky with loads of flavors. Great whiskey but has a medium hard finish with a long linger.

375 ml bottle, sale price $19.99

Very tasty. Smells like peat and malt, some chocolate tones. Tastes smooth, some mesquite, mostly vanilla.

Smoke. Mesquite wood. Barbeque. Prairie grass. Subtle woody sweetness.

I have to admit, I was disappointed by this one. On a recent visit to the Ranger Creek “brewstillery” in San Antonio (the beer was much better, particularly the coffee ale and the prickly pair sour) I tried a pour of this along with a distillery exclusive “heavily smoked” version, which supposedly had a much higher percentage of mesquite smoked barley. I found both expressions lacking on the nose. The mesquite is hardly present on the nose in the original and starts to jump out in the heavily smoked version, but both pale in comparison to the Coklegan Single Malt or the Whisky Del Bac Dorado. The taste was pleasant enough, with some chocolate and soft malt notes, but the finish was week and left me wanting. This is still a young distillery and I have hope for them yet, especially as the Texas Whisky Trail picks up momentum, so perhaps in future distillations they’ll tinker with their recipe more to integrate the mesquite smoke more effectively. For now though, my rating stands this, and I hope to try something more compelling in the future. For now, if you’re looking for a mesquite smoked American single malt, go with one of the other two I listed above if you can find them.