Cedar Ridge The QuintEssential American Single Malt

Red wine finishing is prominent in good and bad ways. This isn’t my ideal single malt, but it presents cleanly and is an enjoyable pour. Well done for an out of the way craft distiller, and will be a clear winner for those that like a spicier profile with those red wine barrel notes. Rich tawny red-gold. Grapey with a pleasant twinge of spice on the nose. A touch sour. Palate builds upon the nose. Grapes that edge toward grappa, persistent cinnamon, red fruit, and the vein of sourness stays. Aspartame. Walnut. Sweet start is overrun by a building spice that lingers. Shares a common hallmark with other CR products. A little young overall but a nice pour if you want a little assertiveness.

This whiskey is exactly what you want from an American Single Malt. It rounds out all the boxes from the aromatics to the nice chewy viscosity from the ever-changing complexity of flavor over sipping time. I have batches 2 and 5 and though they’re slightly different they both have all the qualities above. I’d rate this as an equal to my Lagavulin 16 yr. I can’t believe anyone would rate this under a 4. It’s a solid 4-5 in my book.

Batch 12: An orchard on the nose, mainly apples and plums, some nuts, with a bit of grass. The palate gives oak with a background of fruit and faint sweetness, transitioning to pepper. The pepper slowly fades, along with the fruit, for a long finish. This Distillery gets the vatting and solera casking just right. other than perhaps providing some nuttiness on the nose, I don't detect the peat (from one-half of the distillate).

Grassy, sugary grape and cherry brandy on the nose, very fruity with a hint of lemon curd. Lemon custard on the palate, mildly sweet and smoky with a little vanilla. A salty leather note sneaks in and makes me think i’m drinking scotch. Cinnamon and clove on the finish with a lingering peat aftertaste. Deserves a spot in the echelon of American whiskey contenders with Barrell, Balcones, Ransom, High West…

My go-to vatted American single malt. The wide variety of cask finishes that go into the final product mean there’s always something new to discover but there’s a balance that keeps it from being incoherent. None of the flavors are particularly challenging so I expect this to appeal to a variety of palates.

Caramel, red hot, and cocoa nuts Nose after a 10 min rest: stone fruits with chocolate, pepper, spice- nutmeg and cinnamon, caramel, vanilla orange and lemon, walnut, smoke Taste begins with chocolate, smoke, stone fruit, then pepper, nuts, spice, vanilla, ending on a caramel, vanilla, pepper, chocolate