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🥃Review #76: Chattanooga Whiskey 91 - Tennessee High Malt

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Chattanooga Whiskey 91 on a book shelf with glass

Chattanooga Whiskey 91 is the signature offering of its namesake distillery and showcases their signature "high malt" style, requiring at least 25% of the mash bill to be specialty malted grains. Chattanooga Whiskey is the first producer within city limits since before prohibition and its founders were heavily involved in getting Tennessee State and local laws changed to allow for distillation outside of the traditional three distilling counties, "Vote Whiskey". While they originally sourced whiskey from MGP, they have been producing whiskey at their downtown location since 2016 and the larger riverfront facility since 2017. The Tennessee High Malt style is a bread baker's approach to whiskey, showcasing the character of the grains, often from bespoke varieties and sources. This results in less of a focus on wood flavors with the upshot that Chattanooga bottlings tend to be younger, dumped before the barrel character can drown out the mash.  It is basically impossible to say how old the juice in a bottle of Chattanooga 91 is as they use a version of the solera method, taken from Spain's sherry industry, which is the practice of incrementally blending younger and older spirits. Chattanooga Whiskey has a 4000 gallon charred oak solera barrel from which the bottling is done before being topped off with another 8-12 mature barrels. In this way, the whiskey continues to mature as it mixes with the remnants of prior batches. The solera barrel was last emptied in 2022 for a transition to Tennessee-grown corn, so parts of every batch since then will go into each new-fill bottle. The upshot of this process is that batch-to-batch variability is drastically reduced, young rough edges are smoothed off, and the increased oxidation during fractional batching promotes esterification to amplify fruity or floral flavors.

Chattanooga Whiskey 91 on its side and a wood disk next to a glass

 🛒Sourced: $25.99 at Costco Perimeter, GA - 750ml, pretty darn cheap for a craft bottle and well below the SRP which has been mid-30s. I believe this is possible primarily due to the relative shortness of the aging period which keeps costs down and added pressure from slowing consumer demand. Costco is cooking with some of these deals. 

🧪Proof: 91 proof, 45.5% ABV 

🎨Color: R3 - a healthy apple juice color, limited legs

🥔Mash Bill & Production 

Chattanooga Whiskey has a huge experimental whiskey program and worked through over 100 variations before settling on this recipe for their flagship 91. They continue to innovate and tend towards transparency, providing plenty of info on each of their releases.

  • Mash Bill:  75% Yellow Corn, 12% Pale Malted Rye, 7% Caramel Malted Barley & 6% Honey Malted Barley - Caramel malt adds sweetness reminiscent of pralines and honey malt provides notes of toast, cereal, and honey.
  • Age: Greater than 2 years. When I visited, staff mentioned that they are usually 3-4 years before being dumped, but the inclusion of 3 year spirit means that they can't omit an age disclosure like they would be able to at four years. Labeling it as greater than 2 years keeps things simple.
  • Fermentation: Attemperated, 7 days - This is much longer than the industry standard which is typically 3-4 days. Attemperated simply means temperature controlled
  • Entry proof: Blend of 113, 115, 117 proof - distillation proof is somewhere around 125-130, lower than many
  • Filtration: Non-Chill Filtered
  • Barrel Char: heavy char (#4) 50% and slow-toasted/charred (#3) 50% barrels
  • Batch Size: 8-12 Barrels, finished in 100 barrel/4000 gallon solera barrel

👃Nose: High malt is right! Even from a distance, you can get a somewhat bready or beery nose. It is very approachable and upon deeper investigation I found white pepper and a little bit of citrus fruit.

😜Palate: Very easy to drink. If taking timid sips you may find it on the thinner side, but fully committing to the chew I found it to be plenty substantive enough. There is some sweetness, a breakfast biscuit with honey and orange juice, but it is not overwhelming. There is enough rye character in the mix which balances well the extra barley sugars. The malty character is still present in force but there is none of the corny nuttiness you sometimes find with under-aged whiskey.

💦Finish: Short, a flash of syrup and oatmeal.

🏆 Overall:  6/10 - Very Good - Chattanooga has a distinctive style and 91 does a fantastic job of bringing it to market at an aggressive price-point with mass-market drinkability. While I'm not certain everyone will be a fan of the malt forward profile, it is flawlessly executed. For a flagship, I have a hard time naming something on which to improve. The short finish and lighter mouth both benefit from additional proof, but that's why they have a 111 bottle and bonded iterations as well.

💵Would buy again? This is already a re-buy for me. Craft whiskey under $30 is a thing of beauty, especially when it is as unique and well put together as this one. 

🙈Blind Tastings:

⚖️Rating Scale: 

1 | Disgusting | So bad I poured it out 
2 | Poor | I wouldn’t consume it by choice. 
3 | Bad | Multiple flaws | Struggle to get through the bottle
4 | Serviceable | Mixing or ice recommended.
5 | Good | Drinkable Neat | An agreeable dram indeed.
6 | Very Good | Any flaws offset by interesting flavors | A cut above.
7 | Great | You find yourself reaching for this one often | Well above average.
8 | Excellent | Serve to Impress Guests | Really quite exceptional.
9 | Incredible | An all time favorite | You guard this bottle jealously
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