Rúa American Single Malt

A corn and oak almost moonshine taste on the front, with a bourbon like sweetness on the backend. Delicious

As a native North Carolinian, I'm proud of our excellent beer and sometimes excellent wine, but in my experience our whiskey falls far short of nearby states. In the past I've only had Defiant and TOPO whiskeys, both rapid-aged whiskey in stainless steel barrels. Defiant is average and overpriced for what it is, TOPO is terrible and severely overpriced. It pains me to say that because a lot of Top of the Hill staff played on and sponsored my soccer team. Their vodka and gin is alright! Anyways, a lot of NC distilleries are young which means their whiskey is either sourced or very young. In general they aren't reviewed well and seem overpriced, so I avoided trying any of these newer distilleries in recent years, until now. Rua has gotten so much love on here and on the Whiskey Vault, I had to buy it. First note, Rua American Single Malt Whiskey is currently released at 92 proof so the Expert Review is out of date using the older 80 proof version. My bottle was aged for 15 months, which is remarkable for the color, nose, and taste I get. The trick is they age this whiskey in 25-gallon barrels, half the size of traditional barrels used for bourbon. The climate is also a little more humid and warmer than Kentucky. Not quite Texas heat but you should get faster aging based on my 33 years living here. I get sweet bread pudding or a cinnamon muffin on the nose, but it lacks the banana flavor you'll find in Brown-Foreman products. That nose carries through the taste, it is beautiful, sweet, but not overwhelming. At the moment my two closest comparisons are Woodford Reserve Double Oaked and Balcones Baby Blue, which is surprising considering this is only malted barley. This shows how much charred oak and climate contributes to flavors we may associate with corn. I know I like referencing bread pudding for some bourbons, but this may be closer with dense breakfast pastries/cakes that are heavy with cinnamon and vanilla cream. The finish is medium and the sweetness disappears quickly, which I think is a positive. I get zero alcohol burn sipping on this. For a single malt this is much closer to bourbon than Scotch. Presently, this is the best NC whiskey I've had and I'd love to try other products by Great Wagon Road. It likely requires a distillery visit since I've never seen any other product sold around Chapel Hill. Release #50, aged 15 months in 25-gallon barrels

Nose is Dark caramel and burnt sugars, Sweet ripe fruits and barrel notes. Plums and Christmas candy. Hints of black licorice Front is sweet and charred, some warmth mid palate. Finishes a little Smoky, lingers with sweetness and barrel char/roasted malt. Dry grainy notes as well

Finished off my current bottle last night. Sweet Tea, Oak, Cigar, Vanilla and Chocolate Malt. How they make something this good with so little aging is a mystery that I wish other craft places would solve. It has to start with an awesome mash (provided by Olde Mecklenburg Brewery) and some Distilling/Barrel wizardry from Ollie at Great Wagon Road. Now, If I could only get my hands on some of the Cask Strength or Sherry Cask Finished...