Asheville Distilling Blonde Whiskey is a craft whiskey hailing from Asheville, North Carolina and is a brand I came by on my trip to Nashville to tour the George Dickel Distillery. One of my fellow distillery tourists is one of the distillers up there at Asheville and after we got to talking about what was being done up there I was incredibly intrigued because they’re doing things a bit different than most.
First off they don’t create a traditional bourbon, rye or anything like that. For instance this, their Blonde Whiskey, is made from a mash of corn and wheat with the enzymes that would normally come from barley (changes the starch to sugar for the yeast) added separately. They also don’t just use any old corn and wheat. The distillery uses classic or heirloom grains like White Corn and Turkey Red Wheat which gets distilled and then aged in honeycomb charred barrels. Different indeed!
Asheville Distilling Blonde Whiskey Info
Region: North Carolina, USA
Distiller: Asheville Distilling
Mashbill: 90% White Corn & 10% heirloom Turkey Red Wheat
Cask: New charred oak
Age: NAS
ABV: 40%
Price: $35*
Asheville Distilling Blonde Whiskey Review
EYE
Toffee
NOSE
Soft and sweet it’s brimming with complex dark sweets (caramel, butterscotch, toffee, etc.). A good amount of spice, wood, cherry-like sweetness and hint of wood. The aroma has a nice warm character to it.
PALATE
Where the nose was rich the palate is light. The dark sweets are much lighter and accompanied by notes of spice, saw dust, grain and light hints of nuts, dark fruit and oak.
FINISH
Medium and darkly sweet with a bit of chalk and tonic water.
BALANCE, BODY & FEEL
Decently balanced, a medium-light body and a soft smooth texture.
OVERALL
Asheville Distilling Blonde Whiskey uses white corn and heirloom Turkey Red Wheat to craft a soft, sweet, light whiskey that’s sippable and works well in simple cocktails. The nose is rich and wonderful, but for my tastes the palate is a bit light and sweet which kept it in the mid 80s. Though I have some friends who dislike rye mash bourbons or an overabundance of wood flavor and for those folks this would be right up their alley. It’s good, but a little out of what I’d drink on a daily basis.
SCORE: 85/100
*Disclosure: This bottle of Asheville Distilling Blonde Whiskey was graciously sent to me by the company for the purposes of this review. The views, opinions, and tasting notes are 100% my own.
Asheville Distilling Blonde Whiskey Review - Score Breakdown
Value
If you like the lighter sweet whiskies (I’m meeting more and more of those folks every week) then the Asheville Distilling Blonde Whiskey would be just the thing for you and it’s delivered at a fair price.
Overall
- Nose - 86
- Palate - 83
- Finish - 83
- Balance, Body & Feel - 84
We bought a bottle as a one-off and for a change of pace. I couldn’t immediately place the very familiar nose; eventually decided it reminded me of my grandparents’ 150 year old house, or more specifically, mothballs. My husband describes the taste as flat, thin, acrid… We’ve pulled it out a couple of other times, but alas, it’s too unpleasant for a second sip. We really wanted to like it, since it’s near-local for us, too. Sadly, this isn’t the case.
Sometimes that happens, but thanks for sharing your experience Laura. Cheers!
If it’s the Oak Reserve, I’m anxious to get your take. I have a definite opinion on it, but would love to hear someone else’s take on it.
It is. I also have the Platinum on deck. Which isn’t terrible for a “white whiskey”, but still… it’s raw juice.
This is produced in my home state, so I was quick to give it a try. Like you I loved the nose. While the taste didn’t live up to the nose, I really enjoyed it. It was light and smooth. A touch of smoke and leather with a sweet vanilla finish. A definite change of pace sipper. I love the local heirloom corn and wheat used as well. They began by making an unaged moonshine only, and have branched out with two aged products “Reserve” (which is their moonshine recipe barrel-aged for about 6 months)and Blonde (which adds the wheat to the mashbill).It was rumored that they were aging in used Woodford Reserve Barrels, but if your source claims new oak then I suspect rumors is all they were. I also think, based on their promotional material and website, they are marketing this as almost a “gateway” whiskey to introduce female spirit drinkers to whiskey.
I think you’re right on the nose with the gateway idea. I have one of their other whiskies that I need to try still. Cheers!
Why is this not called a bourbon? At least 51% corn (and the US government whiskey regulations don’t specify any particular type of corn), and matured in new, charred oak barrels. Nothing in the regulations say malted barley has to be there. The only things I can think of that would bar it from being called bourbon are that it is produced at higher than 160 proof, is stored at higher than 125 proof, or has additives.
You got it right on the proof. They distill it at too high and proof and enters the barrel at too high a proof to be called a bourbon. I don’t have the exact numbers, but that’s what the distiller told me.
Cheers!
If you found that out because my question prompted you to get in touch with the distiller, thanks for doing that. That is really going the extra mile for your readers! I wish distillers would be more transparent with the public. The information you just conveyed should be on Asheville Distilling’s website, but it isn’t.
I find the labeling for American whiskies to be a fascinating subject unto itself. I have read the US government’s “standards of identity” for distilled spirits, and I get the impression that they are not always correctly enforced, or at least there is inconsistent application of the rules. Either that or there are loopholes that are being exploited. Just off the top of my head, Corsair’s Quinoa Whiskey. It is made from 80% malted barley. They couldn’t use a majority of quinoa grain because then the drink would be unpalatable. Still, should they be able to market something as “quinoa whiskey” if is is only 20% quinoa, or less than that? I’m Canadian, and many American whiskey drinkers make fun of the loose Canadian labeling laws that allow for Canadian distillers to call spirits “rye” when there isn’t even much rye in the whiskey, and that’s a valid criticism, but it seems to me that the American craft distillers who are doing unconventional things are being allowed to get away with the same sort of nonsense.
Happy to do it. The labeling for American whiskey is incredibly frustrating at times and it seems like the TTB is either asleep at the wheel or incredibly under-staffed and over-worked so things that shouldn’t slip by do. To your point, one of the biggest areas is the craft whiskey sector because they’re creating things that haven’t been made before so they just get lumped into an “other whiskey” type category that doesn’t have the the same guidelines as others (like bourbon). If Quinoa Whiskey was it’s own, separately defined, whiskey style with strict guidelines then it would be enforced, but since it isn’t it can call itself what it wants which, to your point, does seem like a loop-hole.