Everything about this whiskey is precise and exactly what it needs to achieve the flavor profile that the Wood Brothers think it should be.

P. T. Woodlooks like he was hired as an extra for the old TV show Grizzly Adamsbig bushy hair and bread, graying all around, perpetual baseball-style Woods cap worn straight on pragmatic, not stylish. When he speaks about distillation, with no sense of irony or pretension he refers to the water and grain as his color pallets and the still as his canvas. And he and his brotherLeemake their spirits in an old auto-body shop in Salida, Colorado, at the headwaters of the Arkansas River.

I you do not love everything your read so far then there is something wrong with you.

The folks atWoods High Mountain Distilleryare young at the game, starting in 2012, but are already making a name for themselves, using an antique copper still from Germanynamed Ashleyto create no less thanthree varieties of Gin, two Whiskies,and a new liqueur calledFleur de Sureauwhich is a new entry into theElderflowercategory.

So what is Wood’s Tenderfoot Whiskey? They call it their single-malt Whiskey, but is it? The secret is in the mix of grains. We dont want to get all Whiskey-wonkish on you here, but lets break it down. Tenderfoot is about 63% two-row barley, 9% cherry-wood-smoked barley, 6% chocolate-roast malted barley, 9% malted wheat, and 13% malted rye. And that may not be a classic recipe for single-malt Whiskey, you WILL find it singly delicious.

Everything about this whiskey is precise. The recipe is exactly what it needs to be to achieve the flavor profile that the Wood Brothers want it to be. Nothing more, and nothing less. But DO NOT drink it expecting a Scotch. Think of it as the missing link in the family of American Whiskies a barley-malt forward native Whiskey where everything else takes a back seat.