Every year when the chica and I travel to Kentucky for the 127 Yard Sale, I challenge meself to find a great booze that even Hi-Time Wine Cellars doesn't have. And I had a bumper crop this year: Kentucky rums, Tennessee white dog, even some crazy-ass Colombian coffee liquor that I picked up at the Willet distillery in Bardstown that had sat forgotten in a warehouse on the property for decades (the story is true: I can't find any traces of it online.)
But the drink I'm highlighting here is Wasmund's Single Malt Spirit out of the Copper Fox Distillery in Sperryville, Virginia. Hi-Time, God bless their souls, carries Wasmund's Rye Spirit, but not this beaut, which I found in the Hi-Time of the South: the gargantuan Party Source in Bellevue, Kentucky (note to Hi-Time: they have a liquor library where folks can buy shots for sampling. Hint hint?)
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This is one bolo punch of a booze at 124 proof, and it almost functions like a Scotch with its arresting smokiness borne of an applewood and cherrywood mixture used in the malting process. But instead of peatiness, you get the prairie: all barley, all earthy and strong yet delicate from start to finish–you get the same satisfaction you find after smoking a Cohiba. Copper Fox says you can use this in a cocktail, but don't believe them: sip it slow and let it linger. So get some Wasmund's Single Malt, Mr. Hi-Time, and start that liquor library post-haste!
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