11/2/2023 0 Comments Blackened whiskey willettA thought hits me midway through this dram: I’ve tasted all of this before, but in what? Barrell Seagrass!įinish: The spices get a bit dryer while the dry red wine notes become dominant. After-dinner mints couple with cinnamon and oak to help eek some of the aged whiskey traits out that you can tell were lurking. The fruit doesn’t stop there as apricot jelly, grape juice and cherries also reward your tongue with each sip. Guava, papaya and honeycomb all combine for an almost tropical-like drink. Palate: Sweet and sticky flavors complement peppery and fruity notes to create a whiskey that has it all. The sweetness is perfectly balanced with aromas of toffee and molasses. Notes of lemon cough drops, dryer sheets, fresh mint leaves, oregano and dill all combine to highlight the rye whiskey within. Tart cherries, citrus flesh and sweet wine all amp up the very bright scents I find throughout. Nose: The floral notes in the nose hit fast and hard while sweet, fruity notes are layered throughout. So how does this collaboration taste? Let’s find out. Here’s to hoping that this release means that single barrels can return to their normal levels. Now that this product has dropped, it is assumed that Willett had reserved a large amount of their rye whiskey barrels for this project and that they were not able to release as many single barrels as they used to. Luckily for us, they also decided to bottle it at cask strength which came out to be 109.8 proof.Īs a side note, many fans of Willett’s single barrel rye whiskey noticed that they had largely dried up for the last 2 years with no explanation. Willett has two rye whiskey mashbills that either use a small amount of rye (51% rye, 34% corn, 15% malted barley) or a high amount of rye (74% rye, 11% corn and 15% malted barley).īlackened x Willett Cask Strength Rye Whiskey, as it was to be called, would combine both of these mashbills and then put them into Madeira wine casks before subjecting them to the Black Noise treatment. The older single barrels are even better, but harder to find. Willett’s rye whiskey has been widely coveted by the whiskey community ever since the release of their 4 year old Willett Family Estate bottling came out a few years ago. Some speculated that Blackened American Whiskey was going to be finished in used Willett barrels.īut when it was revealed that the whiskey that was going to be used was entirely Willett Straight Rye Whiskey aged anywhere from 4 to 8 years, enthusiasts lost their minds. When the name “Willett” showed up next to “Blackened” in the same press release, few knew what that exactly meant. But nobody could foreshadow the release that would come in the fall of 2021. The positive reception of Blackened led to the brand releasing a cask strength version of this product in early 2021 that was also well received. Sadly, Dave Pickerell passed away soon after it was released in 2018. Reviewers generally enjoyed it and found the subtle brandy influence helped to amplify the profile of the whiskey. Whether or not the music really does anything to the whiskey is up for debate but Blackened American Whiskey was a success. It was ultimately decided that the whiskey would be combined and put into “black” Brandy barrels in an attempt to have the vibration of the music create interaction between the brandy-soaked wood and the whiskey. Metallica’s members wanted their music to be incorporated somehow and they landed on a process called “Black Noise” whereby they would aim subwoofers that were specially designed to introduce as much frequency vibration as possible to a group of barrels.īut they needed a medium to combine these two ideas. The collaboration would see Dave sourcing bourbon and rye whiskey (rumored to be from MGP and Alberta Distillery) to create a unique whiskey blend. In 2018, Metallica teamed up with the legendary Dave Pickerell for the concept of a new whiskey company that would focus on the creative process of how to blend together the world of music and whiskey making. The history of Blackened has been short and bittersweet so far. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
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