Ripe red raspberry | Fig | Dried apricot | Allspice

Raspberry jam | Cherry | Cranberry bread | Graham cracker | Honey

Allspice | Strawberry | Slightly dry with lingering sweetness

Wolves was founded in 2017 and is located in Gardena, California. The company’s releases so far have included a range of unique whiskeys (typically distilled from a type of beer) as well as an attention-grabbing rye blend that combined sourced Indiana rye with Willett distilled rye, with prices ranging from $150-$350.

Flagship American Single Malt is Wolves Whiskeys’ first foray into the American single malt space, and is planned to be an ongoing product with a more accessible $90 price point. Intended to capture the essence of the region, the bottle label features a subtle detail that represents the topography of the western United States. The whiskey was distilled by SunTan Spirits in Arizona, aged in used California wine barrels in Arizona, and then blended from “hand-selected casks” and finished in cognac casks.

Wolves is onto something with this release, which isn’t immediately obvious. The whiskey dives deep into red fruit flavors, with ripe red raspberry, raspberry jam, and cherry at its core, foregoing the sharper citrus notes or malty cereal notes often found in American single malt whiskeys. As a result, it’s a very approachable, easy-drinking American single malt whiskey that’s beautifully sweet. Being a new and growing category, however, it’s an undefined flavor profile that doesn’t fit any of American whiskey’s current molds. If Wolves can up the intensity slightly, stay the course while the American single malt category grows in popularity, and cut the price down a bit, they’ve got a winner here that could have appeal on a wide scale.