Chattanooga Whiskey Experimental Single Batch Series #37: “Ancient Wheat” Review

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Chattanooga Whiskey has been churning out buzzworthy whiskey for several years. Before they completed construction of their distillery and finished honing their processes, they were bottling bourbon from MGP. This helped give them a respectable name early on. They followed that success with the launch of their own “High Malt” bourbons. As the years went on, they’ve also released a rye whiskey, finished bourbon and a whole slew of experimental spirits.

Chattanooga Whiskey’s Experimental Series

Similar to Michter’s, Chattanooga operates two separate campuses. The main distillery (which was a former car dealership) houses a large, 36″ copper column still and all of the equipment necessary to run it. It also has an aging warehouses on site. To my knowledge, it’s not open to the public but they do have an adjoining Whiskey Event Hall that can be booked for events.

The company also operates a public-facing storefront that houses their experimental distillery. It’s located in downtown Chattanooga on Market Street. This smaller operation is complete with a gift shop, tasting room and a tiny still that they use to create some seriously wild spirits like a German-style aperitif, peach-infused gin, Aquavit and more infused bourbons than you can shake a stick at.

My good friend Jon was kind enough to pick up an experimental release while he was in town with his son this past spring. I told him I didn’t know what they’d have, but I’d pay him back for whatever he brought home.

Ancient Wheat

Chattanooga does a great job pulling back the curtains on what goes into these experimental releases. For this particular bottle, they combined three barrels of whiskey into one batch. Two of the barrels used “Mash Bill 1: Straight Whiskey.” The second one used “Straight Wheat Malt Whiskey.” While I’m not sure what the first mash bill was comprised of (just corn and malted barley?), the second barrel seems to have used 100% malted Dinkel wheat. This is an ancient heirloom style of wheat that isn’t commonly grown anymore.

Part of the allure of using heirloom grains – and especially wheat – is that they offer flavors and scents not normally found with regular grains. The fact that Chattanooga has used the malted form of it makes it even more interesting. If you asked me to taste this a couple years ago when I was avoiding malted grains, I would have said no thanks. But ever since I had this Bohemian Wheat Bourbon from New Riff, I’ve found myself not only open to trying more, but actually enjoying them.

Chattanooga Whiskey Ancient Wheat was bottled at 105 proof and aged for just over 4 years, I’m unsure of the total bottle counts or the still proof or the barrel entry proof. I know that this bottle is kind of a gamble, but I’ve been wanting to get my hands on one for a while now. Let’s see how it tastes! I sampled this neat in a glencairn.

Tasting Notes

Nose: My nose is immediately greeted by a multitude of earthy scents. On top of finding things like “forest floor” and wet soil (I’ve recently learned these scents are called “Petrichor”), I also find a little grassy note. As my nose adjusts, I can focus on the more traditional malt whiskey notes and dough, raisin bread and dried apples. At times, this smells like a young, unpeated Scotch. There’s even a small Sulphur note which I wonder if it’s a byproduct of being made on a pot still. The nose gets better and sweeter (honey) as the session goes on, but if you had something before this to drink, it’s going to smell extremely young. Ask me how I know.

Palate: The palate is like Times Square. Every sip has flavors that zip by, immediately followed by another. The earthy scents from the nose follow over onto the palate while fruit notes like plum, grape skin and apricot preserves reveal themselves. Malt-forward notes like biscuits, malted milk and a sweet-ish sponge cake remind my tongue this drink has a lot of malted ingredients that went into it. Spices default to being on the softer side with vanilla and nutmeg leading the way. Tannins haven’t fully developed yet, so that would probably explain the cardboard note I get and also cocoa powder. Finally, if there is one note that’s hard to describe here, it would be flaxseed oil. It’s a kind of earthy, grainy, and slightly nutty tasting oil and is a note I don’t think I’ve ever had in a whiskey before.

Finish: This is whiskey where the finish doesn’t quite follow any of the outlines set by the nose and palate. I am finding lingering notes of untreated wood, resin, yeasty bread and prunes. Not too out of the ordinary so far, but the aftertaste gets even more strange with flavors of dry hay, unsweetened malted chocolate balls, neutral hops and used coffee grounds. Is it a lot? Yes. But does it all meld well together? Ehhhhhh…

Score: 5.8/10

There were definitely some notes that I was not expecting while tasting this whiskey. Each sip revealed a very malt-forward experience that had a combination of dough/baked goods and floral/fruit notes – just like an unpeated Scotch would have. Fortunately, I am a big fan of Scotch so I didn’t mind. But if you don’t have much malt experience, you’d probably rate this bottle lower than what I did.

Final Thoughts

I had a reoccurring thought while I was writing down my notes and assigning a score: What if Chattanooga had made this whiskey on their column still rather than on their small, 100-gallon experimental pot still? Would this have been a more refined product? Would some of the stranger notes not exist? And if so, would have that made it a more appealing product? I wonder if Chattanooga Whiskey also thinks about these things as well and if any of their experiments will see a larger run in the future.

In the end, the gamble for this bottle didn’t exactly pay off, but that’s okay with me. These experiments are the best way for a distillery to throw ideas at the wall and see what sticks. As I said before, I’ve had some malted wheat whiskies that work; but this one seems to need a little more refinement. I wonder if Chattanooga was actually aiming to make the entire release out of this one singular mash bill, but found the results unsatisfactory. That could be why they decided to blend in two other barrels of another mash bill. We probably won’t find out that answer. But in the meantime, if you’re in the area, I’d recommend stopping by their Market Street location and seeing what they’ve cooked up in the lab. You might just find something you really enjoy.