George Dickel Tennessee Sour Mash Whisky "Cascade Hollow Red Label"

I've been favoring Rye lately, even over the otherwise sacred Maker's Mark, and while I prefer Rittenhouse Rye, I find Old Overholt more than palatable. But last I tried to buy Old Overholt, the only Rye the store had was Jim Beam's Yellow Label, which, frankly, I'd rather not. They had a small display set up of George Dickel Tennessee Sour Mash Whisky "Cascade Hollow," and so we decided, for sixteen bucks, we'd try it. I note that elsewhere it's sold for around $10.00.

The original George Dickel was a German immigrant who worked in Nashville. He purchased the Cascade Hollow Distillery and all the rights to bottle and sell the whisky in 1884. The Cascade Hollow distillery had been making Tennessee sour mash whisky since it was founded in 1877 by John F. Brown and F. E. Cunningham. This is a brutally truncated version of some interesting history. Sometime in the 1980s, as best as I can pinpoint it, the Dickel distillery was purchased by the Guinness company, itself part of United Distillers, and United Distillers merged with another company to create the giant international beverage company Diageo. In 1999, they sold off a fair number of assets, and stopped production of Dickel Sour Mash Whisky. They resumed production again in 2003.

Tennessee Whisky, aside from using Tennessee water, is charcoal filtered before it is barrel aged. The barrels used for aging the whiskey are new oak barrels, carefully charred inside, and they are only used once for whisky aging. The Dickel distillery like the Jack Daniels distillery departs from the the process that makes bourbon in that they chill the whisky before it's introduced to the charcoal filtering vats. The mash is mostly corn, with some rye and some barley. Dickel was known for three whiskys, No. 8, the less expensive but exceedingly popular "black label" variant, and N0. 12, the longer aged form, and the top of the line "barrel select." The "Red label" Cascade Hollow brand is an attempt to create a lower-priced whisky, and a shorter production cycle since it's aged a mere three years, instead of somewhere of around 4 to 6 for the previous lower-end No. 8, and 8 to 10 for no. 12. For the curious, here's a comparison between George Dickel old No. 8 and the Cascade Hollow version. Producing Cascade Hollow also allowed the distillery to beef up production while they maintained brand presence; there's some question as to whether they'll continue to make Cascade Hollow now that they're back to full speed.

Cascade Hollow is 80 proof, and a very pale copper in color. It's pungent, and peppery on the nose, and has a bit of a sour quality in taste. The alcohol is more noticeable than I expected; it reminds me of Jack Daniels but it's milder, mellower, with less of an edge to it. That said, I'd be happy to use Cascade Hollow in cooking (there are some great recipes here) and in certain mixed drinks, but I think I'll return to rye. I miss Mr. Overholt.