One of the best four grain whiskies we have had.
Notes: This distillery is a little over 2 years old now and producing even more products.The distillery located in Ovid, New York ( north of Ithaca, New York if that helps anyone) has been producing a number of excellent products over the past couple of years and now with stocks of spirits reaching maturity they are releasing more aged products such as this, their Four Grain Whiskey. Four grain whiskey which contains corn, wheat, rye, and barley, is a primarily American whiskey form that is a variant of American bourbon and/or rye ( each of which contain 3 of the 4 grains in various degrees).
Myers Farm Distillery is an organic farm to flask distillery that grows, harvests and distills and bottles their own organic distillates right on their own farm. You can’t get much more organic, low carbon footprint than that. Their products include their Meyer Farm Wheat Spirit White Dog, Myer Farm Corn Whiskey White Dog, Myer Farm Gin, Cayuga Gold Barrel Aged Gin, Myer Farm Rye Whiskey, a new Ginger Flavored Vodka, and their Myer Farm Wheat Vodka. An Aged Wheat Vodka has been laid down and currently aging for sale at a later point to be determined. Established in 1868 the farm is a family farm of roughly 1000 acres that grows organic grains and 2 years ago they caught the distilling bug after selling their grain to a number of other distillers .
Grown on their farm is the base grain of this spirit, the organic soft white winter wheat is a softer and more unusual wheat than the more common varieties such as the hard and hard red winter wheats you usually encounter in distilling.
Appearance: Beautiful gold Baltic amber in th e bottle, pale yellow in the glass. On swirling it leaves a thin but tenacious oily coat on the glass and only slowly starts to develop droplets along the edge line, lovely,oily type of body to it showing a lot of grain oiliness in the whiskey.
First Impression: Smells lie walking into a grain mill. Pleasantly intense grains smells with an interesting but harmonious interplay of all four grains in the nicely grainy and fruity bouquet. Wheat flour and wheat germ mix with the sweetness of corn, the sweet/sour of rye and the bass grain notes of bare all come into play giving the whiskey an almost cognac/grape melange with spice,oak, leather and saddle soap notes.Hints of tobacco, orange and flowers.
Taste: Nicely oily entry with orange honey notes, rapidly drying with intense grain taste, spicy, with oaken char, pipe tobacco and dark fruit/berry noted with a pleasantly lingering finish that lets you know you are drinking whiskey but not punishing you for it.
Drinks: An excellent choice for mixing. The four grain gives you more much complexity than a single grain whiskey ( or predominantly one grain whiskey to be more correct) such as a rye or bourbon. Almost a crossover whiskey, the Myer Four Grain has subtle characteristics that allow it to be used in bourbon, rye and Irish whiskey cocktails and lighter versions of Scotch whisky cocktails. With it’s intensely grainy taste and full mouthfeel it is an excellent base for a twist on many a classic whisk(e)y cocktail.
Bottle: Heavy clear bell or apothecary shaped bottle with heavy decanter bottom. Simple but tasteful graphics on a gold-colored paper label ( in this case it has a graphic of a juniper branch with berries and a couple of wheat heads) and a black synthetic cork with a nicely ridged top make it easy to open. Overall a nicely done if not overly distinctive package.
Other: 100 % organic wheat and grown on the property – Field to Flask !
Final Thoughts: If you like four grain whiskies this is a great choice. If you haven’t had a four grain whiskey before, this one might ruin you for tasting the others. It is much better than most and more modestly priced than the ones from the big boys in distilling. Coupled with the handmade,field to flask, grown in New York, that makes it a hard whiskey to beat.
Website: http://myerfarmdistillers.com
Website has some information as to the farm and history, product list ( with great tasting notes), list of where to find/buy but could be more informative. There is also a link to their Facebook page which contains much more current information and updates.