Drink of the Week: Frey Ranch American Single Malt Smoked Whiskey

Whiskey drinkers are well aware that American single malts are quickly becoming a thing. As Susannah Skiver Barton reveals in her feature for the September/October issue, some distillers are expanding the range of American single malts by bringing on the smoke. That brings us this week’s Drink of the Week: Frey Ranch American Single Malt Smoked Whiskey.

Scotland, of course, created a baseline for smoked single malts with their use of peated malt. Some American distillers have access to domestic sources of peat. But for Frey Ranch and other distillers, there are many more options for giving whiskey a smoky touch.

Based in Nevada, Frey Ranch uses entirely estate-grown barley that’s harvested, milled, smoked, and distilled entirely on the farm. Peat’s not exactly prevalent in Nevada’s arid landscape so Frey Ranch got creative. Frey Ranch master distiller Russell Wedlake proposed a plan to repurpose the farm’s composted corn stalks and residual corn flour, and turn them into pseudo-peat blocks. These blocks were then added to a farm-made smoker constructed from a decommissioned grain silo and a fireplace, and used to smoke the farm’s own barley. (Frey Ranch also added some Scottish peated barley into the final recipe.)

The resulting whiskey is redolent of campfires and cocoa. A sip delivers a potent smoky pungency, laced with notes of dried fruit, vanilla, and pastry cream. There’s no denying the intense smoke factor in this single malt. If that’s your jam, then we’ve got your whiskey for autumn sipping. caskcartel.com, $89.99/375ml