Honeydew | Toasted malt | Wildflower honey | Stone fruits | Graham cracker | Light brown sugar | Toasted oak | Inviting

Oatmeal cookie | Honeycomb | Sweet malt | Toasted oak | Dried apricot | Wildflower honey

Apricot | Chewy malt | Chewy oak | White peppercorn | Light rye spice | Faint brown sugar | Lingering light chewy toasted malt

Chattanooga introduces their eighth member of their Barrel Finishing Series with the release of Moldovan Ice Wine Cask. To produce this release, the distillery blended five malt whiskeys with one bourbon and finished it in ice wine barrels from one of Moldova's oldest wineries. Located in the hills above the Black Sea, the grapes on the vines were allowed to freeze solid before being harvested and pressed to form the winery's ice wine. Although Chattanooga’s whiskey releases feature a high malt content in their mashbills, almost all of their single malt releases have been relegated to their experimental line, making Chattanooga Whiskey Moldovan Ice Wine Cask one of their first majority-made mainline malt whiskey releases.  

Chattanooga Moldovan Ice Wine Cask opens with an incredibly inviting aroma. It starts with a strong honeydew scent, with toasted malt and wildflower honey joining in and slowly revealing notes of stone fruit, graham cracker, and toasted oak. The palate pulls in more of the base malt whiskey as notes of oatmeal cookie, honeycomb, and sweet malt jump out. Dried apricot and wildflower honey make an appearance and remind you of the whiskey's ice wine finish. Rounding out the sip is a finish that brings in just a dash of fruit thanks to apricot before transitioning to notes of chewy malt and oak, while white peppercorn and a light rye spice bring subtle heat. The whiskey is slow to let go of its grip, as it ends on a lingering, light, chewy toasted malt note.

Chattanooga Moldovan Ice Wine Cask does a nice job of balancing its three main components: Malt whiskey, bourbon, and an ice wine finish. The bourbon is the least prominent, playing a light supporting role, and adds oak and brown sugar notes. Surprisingly, the ice wine finish isn’t the most dominant part; instead, it provides fruit and wildflower honey notes as needed, while the malt whiskeys take the dominant role and display a hefty amount of various malt and toasted oak.

While Barrell Craft Spirits released their own ice wine finished bourbon, these types of finished whiskeys are still a rarity. Chattanooga Moldovan Ice Wine Cask stands out even more thanks to its high percentage of malt whiskey. It’s a great whiskey for those who enjoy Chattanooga’s unique malt whiskey first and a barrel finish second. For others, that uniqueness comes with a double-edged sword, as the high percentage of malt sometimes overpowers the ice wine finish and the sweeter, fruit-influenced notes that many will be expecting throughout. For those who are fans of ice wine, this will prove to be a nice deviation from so many wine finished whiskeys that normally rely on port, sherry, cabernet sauvignon, and other red wine finishes.

The bottle in review is from batch #26H10R.