Hillrock Estate Distillery – Single Malt Whiskey (75cl, 48.2%)

Hillrock Estate single malt comes from a farm distillery in New York's Hudson Valley, where the barley is grown on the estate and floor-malted, smoked and kilned by hand on site. It is distilled in a custom-built 250-gallon copper pot still, matured in small oak casks and finished in sherry casks before bottling at 48.2% ABV, in a 750ml bottle. Hillrock was set up under master distiller Dave Pickerell, formerly of Maker's Mark. Bottlings are barrel-numbered and vary a little from one to the next. The distillery describes a honey-amber whiskey with a nose of clove, anise, nutmeg, cinnamon and maple syrup, and a palate of clove, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spices, ending crisp and dry.