Fruit leather | Dark cherry | Black raspberry | Cherry cough syrup

Fruit leather | Black raspberry | Malt steeped tea | Frosted Flakes cereal | Musk strawberry

Blackcurrant | Oatmeal cookie | Black raspberry | Malt | Long

Copperworks Distilling Co. is a distillery located in downtown Seattle, Washington, and has been operating since 2013. Copperworks focuses on single malt whiskey, and variables across releases include the variety of barley, aging time, and characteristics of barrels used for aging. Copperworks Special Release Pondera Cabernet Cask is made by first aging a 100% pale malt whiskey for 7 years in a refilled American single malt whiskey cask. The whiskey is then aged for an additional 7 months in a used cabernet sauvignon cask from Pondera Winery in Woodinville, Washington. Cabernet is a full-bodied red wine known for high tannin content and dark fruit flavors.

Starting with a developed single malt made from 100% pale malted barley creates a solid base for this cabernet cask finish, allowing the dark fruit notes to take hold. The result is rich with fruit leather and dark fruit influence over a lively malty base. This integration of lighter malt flavors and rich dark fruit flavors might not seem like a good match, with cabernet finishes sometimes producing a sip that is light or overly dry on the backend. However, in this case the combination of flavors works really well, with the pale malted barley base serving as an effective base for the dark fruits infused by the cabernet finish. With that in mind, I would like to see Copperworks continue experimenting with combinations like this.  

Copperworks Special Release Pondera Cabernet Cask is a 190 bottle single barrel release.