Chattanooga Wheated Single Barrel & Kola Experimental

I often get asked, "What is my favorite single barrel?" I have to admit, it's a tough question to answer with the amount of single barrels we release. After finishing the notes for our last Chattanooga wheated single barrel I said it might be my favorite of the year. After a quick sell out, we knew we wanted to bring back another one. How does a mix of Armagnac and sweet ham sound? One way to find out.  

Chattanooga Whiskey Single Barrels are a collection of the company's most beloved “high malt” recipes, presented in their purest single barrel form: uncut and unfiltered. Made from a mash of at least 25% specialty malted grains, each hand-selected barrel showcases a range of flavor characteristics unique to each recipe, and singular to their Tennessee High Malt style. This 4+ year wheated bourbon uses mashbill B005: Yellow Corn, Pale Malted Wheat, Oak Smoked Malted Wheat, Caramel Malted Wheat. 
 
The nose is inviting and decanted with cherry pie, vanilla bean ice cream, and strawberries and cream candies. The longer it rests, the more vanilla coke sweetness comes out. 
 
The palate has a push and pull from thick sweetness to softly savory, equally coating with vanilla wafers and Coke float as it has sugar glazed ham and slightly perfumed, armagnac-like spices. Through it all, a lovely sweet oak presence. 
 
The finish continues with that through line of Coke float, soft white pepper, and fresh cedar with a long finish of milk chocolate and plump berries. 

We also have their new experimental Batch 045 - Kola Infused. 
 
Inspired by Chattanooga’s long history of cola production, Kola Infused merges the nostalgic flavors of 19th- and 20th-century American cola with the complementary depth of our high malt bourbon! 
 
Before cola became a global phenomenon, it was brewed in apothecaries and soda fountains across the American South. But it was in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where cola truly fizzed to life: Chattanooga put cola in a bottle, made it portable, and turned it into a legacy. 
 
This Experimental Batch is a throwback to that time—when all-natural infusions (including those with real kola nut) were the norm. “Kola” – or Kola nut – refers to the seed of a tree species (cola nitida) native to the tropical rainforests of Africa. Their caffeine-containing seeds are used as flavoring ingredients in various carbonated soft drinks – such as cola!
 
To make Batch 045, they started with a blend of 4 unique bourbon mash bills—containing 8 distinct malted grains. They then infused the whiskey for over a week with nearly 200 pounds of 10 hand-selected botanicals – kola nut, citrus peel, dried cherries, sarsaparilla, vanilla, cinnamon, marshmallow root, ginger, mace, and cardamom. Like all of their liqueurs, Batch 045 is made using 100% real whiskey and real ingredients.
 
After the addition of real cane sugar, the liqueur is minimally filtered and bottled at an assertive 90 proof, retaining the bold, concentrated flavor of both the whiskey and its infusion ingredients—including the distinctive, irreplaceable character of real kola nut!