Cabernet Cask Select is Virginia Distillery Co.'s red wine finished American single malt, made from 100% malted barley at the distillery's home below the Blue Ridge Mountains in Lovingston, Virginia.
Maturation begins with several years in first-fill bourbon barrels, after which the whisky is moved into a selection of cabernet wine casks, including premium cabernet sauvignon barrels from France and California. The nose carries black cherry, cedar and apricot with a wisp of soft smoke, and the palate follows with blackberry, plum, candied ginger and rich chocolate.
Darker and more brooding than the distillery's bourbon led releases, and a good introduction to what wine casks can do to American malt.