Asheville Distilling Blonde Whiskey is a craft whiskey hailing from Asheville, North Carolina and is a brand I came by on my trip to Nashville to tour the George Dickel Distillery. One of my fellow distillery tourists is one of the distillers up there at Asheville and after we got to talking about what was being done up there I was incredibly intrigued because they’re doing things a bit different than most.
First off they don’t create a traditional bourbon, rye or anything like that. For instance this, their Blonde Whiskey, is made from a mash of corn and wheat with the enzymes that would normally come from barley (changes the starch to sugar for the yeast) added separately. They also don’t just use any old corn and wheat. The distillery uses classic or heirloom grains like White Corn and Turkey Red Wheat which gets distilled and then aged in honeycomb charred barrels. Different indeed!
Asheville Distilling Blonde Whiskey Info
Region: North Carolina, USA
Distiller: Asheville Distilling
Mashbill: 90% White Corn & 10% heirloom Turkey Red Wheat
Cask: New charred oak
Age: NAS
ABV: 40%
Price: $35*
Asheville Distilling Blonde Whiskey Review
EYE
Toffee
NOSE
Soft and sweet it’s brimming with complex dark sweets (caramel, butterscotch, toffee, etc.). A good amount of spice, wood, cherry-like sweetness and hint of wood. The aroma has a nice warm character to it.
PALATE
Where the nose was rich the palate is light. The dark sweets are much lighter and accompanied by notes of spice, saw dust, grain and light hints of nuts, dark fruit and oak.
FINISH
Medium and darkly sweet with a bit of chalk and tonic water.
BALANCE, BODY & FEEL
Decently balanced, a medium-light body and a soft smooth texture.
OVERALL
Asheville Distilling Blonde Whiskey uses white corn and heirloom Turkey Red Wheat to craft a soft, sweet, light whiskey that’s sippable and works well in simple cocktails. The nose is rich and wonderful, but for my tastes the palate is a bit light and sweet which kept it in the mid 80s. Though I have some friends who dislike rye mash bourbons or an overabundance of wood flavor and for those folks this would be right up their alley. It’s good, but a little out of what I’d drink on a daily basis.
SCORE: 85/100
*Disclosure: This bottle of Asheville Distilling Blonde Whiskey was graciously sent to me by the company for the purposes of this review. The views, opinions, and tasting notes are 100% my own.
