Papaya | Hops | Mixed tropical fruits | White grape | Baking spices | Spiced apple | Faint oak | Light chocolate shavings | Exotic 

Dull oak | Vanilla | Chocolate malt | Baking spices | White peppercorn spice | Nutmeg | Stout beer 

Malt | Dry oak | Leather | Hops | Lingering dry hoppy finish

Charbay has been creating spirits, wines, ports, aperitifs, and liqueurs for 42 years in Northern California. According to the company, there isn’t another family in the U.S. that can “claim to hand-producing the scope of handcrafted wines & spirits than that of Charbay.” The company’s founder Milorad “Miles” Karakasevic traces their family’s winemaking and distillery experience to 1751 in the former Yugoslavia. After receiving formal training overseas, Karakasevic arrived in North America at age 21. In 2010, Karakasevic became the U.S.’s only Grand Master Distiller, which is the title of a distiller who has distilled all four of the major spirits categories: brandy, whiskey, rum, and tequila. 

Karakasevic’s son, Marko, is now master distiller at Charbay after a 26 year classical European apprenticeship with his father. According to the company, in 2009, Marko formally became a master distiller using the classical definition: he was recognized as having “equaled or bettered the skill of his Teacher, his father.” In 2017, Marko and his wife Jenni Karakasevic purchased the family distillery. Marko continues with the family tradition of pushing the creativity of the spirits and wine they craft.

Charbay Double & Twisted is part of the distillery’s core lot of whiskeys, along with R5 and Stout (S) whiskey. It’s made by distilling bottle ready Czech pilsner and stout beer into whiskey, along with a single malt, which are all separately aged before being blended with additional whiskey. This is the company’s latest release of the whiskey and is the follow up to Lot No. 2.

The whiskey starts with an exotic aroma that mixes in fruit and spice along with a healthy dose of hops, which points to the base distillate being used. The midpoint is slightly more traditional tasting, highlighting the whiskey's stout beer component more, with spices and a chocolate malt note bubbling to the top. This rollercoaster of a whiskey ends on a massive corkscrew as it twists your palate all over the place, thanks to malt, dry oak, and an infusion of hops that stay with you for minutes after the sip. The result is a unique tasting whiskey that will not be for everyone. However, those who enjoy an unusual sip are in for a memorable journey.