Bull Run Single Malt Whiskey Is One of the First Real Oregon Whiskeys

Its single-malt was scratch-distilled in Slabtown.

We've had a good, long wait for real Oregon whiskey. The stuff you see for sale at local distilleries is either un-aged white dog best used for spiking punch, or bourbon originally made back east, bottled with a local label and sold to suckers at a hefty markup.

So God bless Bull Run Distilling, which just released one of the first real Oregon whiskeys. Its single-malt was scratch-distilled in Slabtown and aged there for four years. It's even more Oregonny than that, actually, since it started as malted barley grown in the Klamath Basin before being distilled and aged in American oak barrels. The result is an 89.08 proof bottle that runs $50—and also runs a little hot if you drink it straight. There's a nice caramel sweetness to the nose, which emerges best over a single ice cube.

Because of the single malt and young age, it lacks the round edges you find in whiskeys made with corn and blended from hundreds of 7-year-old Kentucky bourbon barrels. But that's a small price to pay for an authentic, groundbreaking product. Recommended.

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