We are going to pull back the veil a bit to really show you how our whiskey is made…
To kick off our series diving into the making of our soon to be released Trestle American Single Malt, we wanted to start at the beginning, by answering the question, “How do we think about what spirits to make in the first place?”
This is one of the hardest decisions any distillery has to make, especially when it comes to aged spirits. We’re constantly asking ourselves, “What will we want to sell in 3 years? In 7 years? In 20 years? What will our customers be excited about? What will we be excited about experimenting with?”
In the age of instant everything, we’re often reminding ourselves that our best products are still a decade away. Talk about a lesson in patience...
For Trestle American Single Malt, we looked at a few things:
First, why did we choose to make a single malt in the first place?
Well to start, we love a good single malt. The balanced flavors of the malt, the varying levels of smoke from the peat, the smooth finish... the combination is something whiskey lovers relish. If you can picture that scene from Ratatouille where Remy mixes a bite of cheese with a bite of a strawberry and experiences fireworks, that’s how we feel about a good single malt. The heat, the smoothness, and the way the flavors open up sip after sip transports us to sharing a glass over great conversation with great friends. And that’s what this is all about. Moments with close ones.
Second, we wanted to try something new.
Single malt is historically an Irish/Scottish style of whiskey, but regional single malts are starting to show up more and more in the market. There actually isn't a definitive class for an ‘American Single Malt’ yet, and this told us we could do something somewhat new and different. An American Single Malt, really a California Single Malt, made with the best water on earth right here in Truckee, gets us excited. Not being a team to shy away from experimentation, our juices started flowing as we began brainstorming.
Finally, since this grain to glass offering (more on grain to glass in an upcoming blog post) would be our first offering under the “Trestle” brand, a single malt seemed to fit the mold, as by definition, single malt whiskey is “malt whiskey from a single distillery.” This one is 100% start-to-finish an Old Trestle product.
Our first Trestle American Single Malt is a low/no smoke single malt whiskey and will be available for sale in a few weeks. Follow us on social (@oldtrestle) and keep an eye out for email updates as we get closer to launch. In the meantime, try one of our other products.
If you missed our previous post as we unveil the steps taken to make our soon to be released Trestle American Single Malt Whiskey, check them out:
And coming up next: What is an American Single Malt Whiskey?