The tent zipper whirs open; there’s a pre-dawn glow. A stream quietly babbles through a mossen bend; rustling spruce and aspen dance and sway. The air is aromatized by pine resin and dampen campfire coals. Today’s adventure will be a good one. Greetings from Colorful Colorado; please enjoy this whiskey in the fresh air.

This segment of the Trail Magic series brings a depth to peated whiskey that many American distilleries have yet to explore. We started with a cask of the Ten Essentials that continued to age in American oak from the previous year’s bottling. We then began to layer peated malt whiskeys on top of that; first with one barrel, then another, then another. We used a bit of sherry-finished whiskey from our stock, as well as a barrel of un-peated single malt. To create an even further depth of flavor, we used a bit of whiskey from the Root Shoot malting barrels we have aging that utilizes, for the first time, a malt sourced within 30 miles of the distillery.

• Bottles produced: 1,401
• 100% malted barley whiskey aged in charred oak for a minimum of 4 years. Finishing times vary.
• Elements used:
  • Straight peated malt, 4.5-6.5 years
  • Straight malt, 6 years
  • Sherry cask finish, 7 years
  • Secondary aged Ten Essentials, 5.5-7.5 years
  • Root Shoot roasted malt whiskey, 4.5 years
  • Youngest whiskey: 4 years, 6 months
  • Distilled & aged in Boulder, Colorado
  • 53.5 Alc. By Vol / 107 Proof