Baking chocolate | Malt | Green grape | Fresh hay | Faint fresh cut grass | Honeydew melon

White peppercorn | Sweet melon | Light honey | Malt | Dry hops | Dab of baking chocolate | Dry oak 

White peppercorn spice | Light chewy oak | Fresh hops | Baking chocolate | Green peppercorn | Lingering faint hops

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 R5 is part of the distillery’s core lot of whiskeys, along with Double & Twisted and Stout (S) whiskey. This 10 barrel release is made by distilling Racer 5 IPA beer sourced from Beer Republic in Northern California into whiskey, just like it has been since it was initially released in 2012. This is the company’s 6th and final release of the whiskey and is the follow up to Lot No. 5.

Opening with an aroma that is full of unique scents, this whiskey will make you instantly realize it’s not like most others you’ve tried before. The rest of the sip follows suit, pulling in pepper, sweet, and oak notes at will, and ending on a long, lingering note of hops. Charbay R5 Final Lot has a lot of similarities with its previous Lot No. 5 release. While I find Lot No. 5 to be a touch more enjoyable when it comes to its flavor combination, Final Lot still contains many of the same unique qualities that make it stand out in today’s marketplace.