Me: What drove the decision to add the malted barley whiskey component to Batch 010? This is the first time in a FN Batch, correct? Are the 9 year malted barley casks new to your inventory, or have you had them for a while and waited for them to get to the right age to match the characteristics you were looking for?
Nick: It is indeed the first time we have used malted barley in a Batch. The malted barley in previous batches was always a result of the rye components having a small amount of barley in them. We’ve been sitting on these components for a while, just letting them blossom. The decision to use them in Batch 010 was all about texture. True, it brought some nice flavors as well, an almost chocolatey quality, but the more important impact was the chewiness, roundness and depth the barley brought to the blend’s mouthfeel. The goal was never to recreate 005, it was about finding a way to iterate off of it and improve on it. The barley was really the lynchpin for doing just that.
Me: Is the wheat the “key component” cask in Batch 010?
Nick: Good question on key component. In this blend the foundation of the whisky was the wheat and we absolutely formed the blend around it, but the component that really unlocked the whisky was the barley.
Me: Batch 005 and Batch 010 have the same aged wheat component. Is any of the wheat whisky used in Batch 010 from Batch 005? Why 8 years specifically?
Nick: The wheat was an entirely new lot of whisky. We recasked it into New American Oak and have been sitting on it for a couple of years waiting for it to mature. In a way, the fact that it is 8 years old is a coincidence. In fact, we were a few weeks away from the wheat reaching 9 years, but we thought it was peaking so we decided to bottle it. We care about what age brings to the whisky a lot more than we care about the number for the sake of marketability. The reason that both whiskies were 8 years, though, is more about the profile. We love wheat in that age range. It’s mature enough to not have a spirity note, but it hasn’t matured out of its wheat characteristics. The pairing of 8 year old wheat with 20+ year old corn works extremely well because you get the right age range for both the wheat and the corn. It’s really what makes doing Canadian wheaters so damn fun.
Me: Compared to previous Found North releases, Batch 009 had a significantly increased run of 6,253 bottles. This is less than Batch 010’s 4,550 bottle run, though it’s not the final bottle run amount. Does this mean the bottle run can surpass Batch 009, or is Batch 010 still much less than Batch 009?
Nick: Our batch sizes are generally limited by certain components. In this instance, the wheat barrels were the limiting factor. Unfortunately, when we reracked the wheat into NW, we were a much lesser known brand, and we didn’t know we would need so much more of it in the future. We used the entire lot for this blend. If we had more, we would have made more. 009 was limited by a rye that we used in a much lower proportion, so we were able to make more bottles. In general, we are trying to make the batches larger, but there is a lag time.
Let’s get started!
The five components of Batch 010 are:
23yr Corn, New American Oak.
23yr Corn, Reused American Oak.
19yr Corn, New American Oak.
8yr Wheat, New American Oak.
9yr Barley, New American Oak.
Taken: Neat in a Glencairn glass, rested for about 15 minutes, both at original proof and at the suggested Manager’s Proof, adding 0.8mls (16 drops) of water to a 50mls (1.7 oz.) pour.
Distilled In Canada: Blended at cask strength and bottled by Found North Whisky. No additives, non-chill filtered.
Proof: 123.8.
Age: 8 to 23 years.
Batch #: 010. Aged in new American and ex-bourbon barrels.
Grain Ratio: 66% Corn/29% Wheat/5% Malted Barley.
MSRP: $134.99.
Appearance: Copper.
Nose
To start, there’s a lot of rich caramelized dark brown sugar, toffee, butterscotch candy, and dark chocolate-covered raisins. Right alongside is upfront green tea, nutmeg, peaches, pears, and orange marmalade, with an underlying layer of malt, vanilla, flaky pie crust, allspice, and hazelnuts. The balance and flavor profile of this nose is excellent.
Palate
The nose meets the palate with caramelized dark brown sugar, toffee, butterscotch, dark chocolate, green tea, nutmeg, hazelnuts, peaches, orange citrus, malt, floral, and oak. The allspice ramps up nicely mid-sip, covering the palate with a very good, viscous mouthfeel. This is a very delicious and complex whisky that drinks below its proof.
Finish
Allspice continues to cover the palate for a very long time. As the spice fades, you’re left with rich caramel and toffee, vanilla beans, green tea, lots of apricots, a subtle amount of malt, and soft pipe tobacco. This long finish finally ends with some tasty oak coming back around with a bit of dryness.
At Manager’s Proof, the profile gets sweeter, bringing out more butterscotch, fruit, vanilla, and pie crust, less allspice, and a shorter finish. I preferred to keep Batch 010 at the original proof without added water, but I didn’t have enough whisky in my 100ml sample bottle to experiment with splitting the difference as I did with other Found North Batches.
Conclusion
Compared to recent Found North releases (Batches 008, 009, and High Altitude), Batch 010 shifts into a different gear. Because I was limited to a 100ml Batch 010 sample bottle, I began with a small warm-up pour of Batch 005 to reacquaint myself with what a Found North profile is like with a wheat component and not finished in a wine or cognac cask. This also allowed me to compare 005 to 010. I loved Batch 010’s flavor profile from the first pour but noticed much more of its complexity on the second and third.
Batch 010 picks up where Batch 005 left off. Spec-wise, Batch 010 has a higher-proofed, more elevated profile that includes three corn whisky components, two of which are 2-years older than the Batch 005 single 21-year corn component and a 9-year malted barley component that’s new to any previous Found North Batch. These differences impact the whisky with a more flavorful profile, richer caramelized brown sugar, darker chocolate, greater complexity, and a more viscous mouthfeel. In contrast, Batch 005 has a sweeter profile with more butterscotch and similar fruit flavors, but it’s not as complex. To reach a sweeter profile similar to Batch 005, you can experiment with bringing Batch 010 to Manager’s Proof.
Batch 010 stands out as a unique, decadent, and super delicious release in the Found North lineup. If you were one of the fortunate ones chosen in the Found North Batch 010 lottery or soon to get lucky from Shared Pour or Seelbach’s, you won’t be disappointed.
Rating: 8.5/10.
1 | Disgusting | So bad I poured it out.
2 | Poor | I wouldn’t consume by choice.
3 | Bad | Multiple flaws.
4 | Sub-par | Not bad, but better exists.
5 | Good | Good, just fine.
6 | Very Good | A cut above.
7 | Great | Well above average.
8 | Excellent | Really quite exceptional.
9 | Incredible | An all-time favorite.
10 | Perfect | Perfect.
