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It takes a long time to make good whiskey. At minimum, two
years in the barrel, though your favorite midshelf bourbon spent seven
or more. Oregon's fledgling distilling industry thus has a few years to
wait before it catches up with serious whiskey-makers, which is why you
find so many locals bottling Kentucky-made spirits under their own
local-flavored labels or selling unaged and lightning-hot White Dog at
outrageous prices. Connoisseurs know better. I asked the tour guide at
Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Ky., what to do with his
company's White Dog. "I have no idea," he said. "We sell some little
souvenir barrels in the gift shop. Maybe buy yourself a little barrel
and age it." Billy, the new wheat whiskey from McMenamins' century-old
alembic still, actually got two years in lightly charred oak. It's quite
sweet—that wheat hits hard on the front of the tongue—and not all that
nuanced, but far more pleasant than any other Portland-made whiskey at
the moment. After a few more years of allowing the seasons to push the
liquor into and out of the barrel's staves, it could turn into something
quite special.
WWeek 2015
