6 hours Ago By Chris Chamberlain
April is one of my favorite months because it’s when one of my favorite distilleries releases its annual special anniversary blend. The 13th edition of Chattanooga Whiskey 's Founder’s Blend hit the shelves on April 11 this year, and it is definitely a worthy addition to the history of the business. In fact, it was named Icons of Whisky - Craft Producer of the Year (both America and Global) at Whisky Magazine 's 2023 World Whiskies Awards.
Every year, distillery founder Tim Piersant creates a unique blend that represents the past, present and future of the distillery, drawing from three large charred oak casks that hold thousands of gallons of whiskey in what is known as a solera process. Solera systems are very common in rum and sherry production — spirits that aren’t as obsessive about age statements as other categories. Where straight bourbon whiskies require labels to state the youngest whiskey in the blend to determine the age statement, solera systems are designed to be added to with new make over and over again.
This means that distilleries can release new barrels from the solera casks and legitimately claim that there probably are some much older spirits included in the mix, although they might be at the molecular level. They just can’t make that claim on the bottle’s label. Chattanooga Whiskey doesn’t use its three soleras that way, though.
Instead, the smallest of their three special casks (625 gallons) holds their original recipe, from before they were actually releasing whiskey that was made in house. Known as 1816, this was some really great whiskey sourced from MGP, the Indiana-based mega-distillery that supplies spirits to all sorts of companies. Whiskey Wednesday: New Favorites From Old Favorites Barrell Craft Spirits and Chattanooga Whiskey Co.
release experimental and exciting bottles For the Founder’s Blend, Piersant mixes some of the 1816, which has been aged between four and six years, with their flagship Barrel 91 Tennessee High Malt recipe, which is itself a blend of three different specially roasted and toasted malted grains. Are you keeping up so far? They keep their supply of this foundational recipe in the largest of the soleras at 4,000 gallons, representing the “present” of the distillery. With an eye toward the future, Chattanooga maintains what it calls an “Infinity Barrel” — 1,645 gallons of samples of the experimental projects that are always underway within their two distilling operations.
Additions to the Infinity Barrel this year include five new creations, including a malt whiskey made using Italian Adriatic Coastal Barley malt and an alternate version of their flagship 99 Rye recipe made with a heavily toasted rye malt. For this year’s Founder’s Blend, Piersant chose to mix 23 percent Past (1816) with 58 percent Present (91) and 19 percent Future (Infinity Barrel). The result is one of my favorites of the 13 editions of the series.
I feel like even though it’s less than a quarter of the blend, the MGP product really shines through this year, contributing more of the MGP’s recipe’s characteristic brown sugar, vanilla and toasted s’more character to the end product. I also enjoyed the gentle anise and fruity contributions, which I assume came from the experimental additions, and as always I appreciate the high malt character of the flagship 91 recipe. If you don’t find a bottle of Chattanooga Whiskey 91 on my nightcap whiskey shelf at home, it just means I’ve haven’t made it to the liquor store since I ran out last night.
Nashville is one of the lucky places outside of the Chattanooga Whiskey tasting room and bottle store where you can find Founder’s Blend, and at around $60 per bottle, I think it’s worth seeking out! Cheers..
