Cascade Hollow Distilling® Cascade Moon ‘Mellow as Moonlight’ Barrel Proof 15 Year Old Whisky Edition #3 – 8139509006565

Nicole Austin, the GM and distiller at Cascade Hollow – home of George Dickel Whiskey – has been doing incredible things since her tenure began. She has made Dickel a household name with major awards won for her whiskeys. Now she is pushing the envelope even further with the newest Cascade Moon release. A line of spirits designed to start a conversation in the whisky world and highlight many unique aspects of the Cascade Hollow distillery, the No 3 release might be the most controversial thing any whisk(e)y produer can do: release something that isn’t (technically) whisky. The distillery is home to single story warehouses and is tucked into a unique geological setting. The result is that, not unlike Scotland, proof tends to go down in the Cascade Warehouses. Add to that the distillery’s low entry proof and you’ve got many barrels that, as they reach extreme ages, drop below the legally mandated minimum of 40%ABV to be called whiskey. Normally these would get just blended away by adding them to high proof barrels and winding up with a batch somewhere in the middle (or proofed back to a desired target). Instead, Mrs. Austin has taken the bold step of bottling and selling barrel strength spirit that cannot be legally called whisky. Clocking in .1% below 40 this 39.9% ABV spirit should open a fascinating conversation regarding the bounds of whisky and stand in stark relief against the current craze for insanely high proof barrel strength offerings.