We are proud to announce the release of the latest in the Stranahan’s Snowflake series. The Solitude Snowflake. This whiskey was aged in new American white oak for 3.5 years and then transferred into a French White Oak barrel that housed a Colorado port for a period of 6 months, then transferred in to a Hungarian white oak barrel that has housed a Chardonnay from Sonoma California for 2.5 months.

Tasting notes:

Full strength Nose: The bouquet gives up milk chocolate, peach, floral notes, Colorado wild flower honey.

Palate: Big sweet, honey, floral, rose petals, orange zest/ overripe orange, Cognac, honey, spice, caramel, creamy, heat, Into pepper, spices, green fruit, leaf tobacco. Finish akin to strong black pepper or de-veined hot pepper. Honey, nice mouth feel, flavor lingers for a long time on palate

Dilute:

Nose: alcohol in bouquet eases up, honey and toast, rich dates, dark berries, fresh bread, wet barn wood

Palate: Honey, flowers, pie crust, butter, black tea, matures into almost tart, candied lemon peel? On roof of mouth, Cherry, date, hints of black pepper growing on soft palate, very creamy, sharper lemon peel, not unpleasant, Meyer lemon? Hot buttered rum with a Meyer lemon? Tannic complexity settles -in during finish, still strong cherry and date flavors, tobacco, smoked red apple, Lampong black pepper.

This whiskey challenges the palate as it seduces. Complex tannins interact with rich fruit notes and leaf tobacco. When I was a kid we, used to take halves of orange and stick them full of cloves and place them on the wood stove to infuse the winter air with spiced orange, Solitude reminds me of that. Lemon zest hides throughout poking head up every once in a while to balance the richness of the dates. The Solitude….give me a leather chair and leave me alone.

Listening to Gil Scott-Heron: Pieces of a man