Blackberry | Cherry jubilee | Poached pear | Smoked apple | Toasted oak | Faint marshmallow | Brandy | Expressive

Aged charred oak | Mellow brown sugar | Dried apple | Light white peppercorn spice | Baking spices | Leather | Toasted orange rind | Light cocktail cherry | Toasted barley

Baking spices | Cocktail cherry | Mixed peppercorn spice | Well-aged oak | Leather | Dried orange | Lingering heat & dried fruit

Located in Cambridge, Wisconsin, Dancing Goat Distillery has a wide-ranging portfolio of spirits, including Beren's Old Fashioned Brandy, Dancing Goat Presents, Death's Door Gin, and Limousin Rye, among others. Led by father and son Ted and Nick Maas, the company’s latest brand launch focuses on experimental barrels acquired from MGP. The company states that “from 2010 to 2016, distillation at MGP in Indiana included a series of large exploratory test runs which resulted in a number of unused barrels.”

The name Stillman’s Sonder is derived from Tom’s father, Duane Maas, who began working as a stillman in the 1950s. “‘Stillman’ speaks to patience, process, and precision, while ‘Sonder’ captures the awareness that every individual carries a life as vivid and complex as your own. Together, the name reflects a whiskey rooted in intention and connection.” For the inaugural Stillman’s Sonder American Single Malt release, the company took sourced barrels from MGP and rebarreled and aged them in Wisconsin. The company then had the whiskey go through three rounds of blending, re-barreling, and finishing before bottling. Notably, one of the many finishing barrels used was a Wisconsin brandy barrel, which you rarely see being used to finish American whiskey, let alone American single malts.

Stillman’s Sonder American Single Malt is a cornucopia of flavors due in large part to all of the various finishing barrels that Dancing Goat Distillery used in creating this whiskey. In particular, the brandy, Cognac, and calvados barrels shine through and impart fruit notes from start to finish. It starts with a really expressive aroma that highlights strong scents of blackberry, cherry jubilee, poached pear, and smoked apple. A big whiff of brandy is present but simmers down as you move to a midpoint that pulls in more oak, spices, and leather. Mellow brown sugar mingles with fruit notes of dried apple, orange rind, and light cocktail cherry. The cocktail cherry weaves into the finish as spices and more grounded, earthy notes join in. Dried orange transitions to a lingering dried fruit and heat to round things out.

The sip is so fruit-influenced that you’d be hard-pressed to guess this is an American single malt. The combination of the aged MGP experimental barrels along with all of the barrel finishes deployed makes for a wild ride that doesn’t quite taste like anything else on the market, which means it will stir up a wide range of opinions. The biggest downside to the sip is how much the Wisconsin brandy barrel dominates. It would have been nice to see a more even balance between the other barrels utilized for finishing, as at times, the brandy barrel is almost too overpowering. Overall though, this is a great American single malt by Dancing Goat, and consumers looking for a unique pour need look no further.