Smooth Ambler 2022 Founder’s Series

Notes & Review

Nose: dark chocolate cherry truffle, frosted animal cracker, baked vanilla, allspice, toasted oak

Palate: torched brown sugar, dirty cherries, allspice, bittersweet chocolate, tobacco, torched oak

Finish: allspice, star anise, cinnamon stick, charred oak

Review:

The Smooth Ambler Founder’s Series Cask Strength takes everything you love about Smooth Ambler and amps it up to 11. It’s aged six years in West Virginia, giving it a distinctive terrior and savory palate despite the sweeter nose. It’s non-chill filtered for those who would like to know and clocks in at a respectable 122.8 proof. Though, I have to say it drinks definitely lower than that. In a blind, I might put it somewhere around the 110 range.

John Little, Smooth Ambler’s Founder, said: “What’s great about the Founders’ Cask Strength Series is we finally get to let y’all taste delicious whiskey we’ve been excitedly working on for years in our part of the whiskey world – West Virginia. With this Bourbon recipe, we add a modest amount of rye to play well with high corn content and let it age in Char #4 casks in the Appalachian climate. It’s a surprising meddling of flavors and geographical superpowers that just work effortlessly. So please enjoy this newly minted convergence of flavors, from our home to yours.”

And, I have to admit, the pour is something of a surprise. It captures the very essence of what a Smooth Ambler pour should be, but just elevates it ever so much that you can tell you’re getting a distinctive product.

They are planning at producing only 6 batches per year, equating to less than 900 total cases.

Overall, we gave it a 4/5 for its excellent drinkability, lovely palate, and pleasing nose.