Meeting #16: June ‘25 - Found North

Howdy y’all! Finally finding some time to sit down and write my review - fashionably late, of course. 

Our June meeting was a real treat. The club was visited by Found North’s whiskey ambassador and aficionado, Chris Riesbeck. Chris schooled the club in Found North’s history, and what makes their juice so unique. 

Found North has really positioned themselves in a unique situation. They saw opportunity in our northern neighbors, and have been masterfully blending Canadian distillates into some really high quality stuff. I know, it’s not bourbon. BUT it's pretty damn close, as long as you don’t pay attention to some rules. Rules are made to be broken anyway. 

In Canada, each grain is distilled and barrel-aged separately. Found North buys these distillates, particularly well-aged barrels (some 20+ years old), and they carefully blend them at their Massachusetts HQ. The advantage? Maximum control. They can experiment endlessly with blending ratios, as well as play with different ages of the grains within one whiskey (like a 22 year corn whiskey blended with a 8 year rye, for example). Chris likened their mixing experience to an orchestra. The same piece of music will sound different depending on the instruments, timbre, and tone you use. This blend is then finished in a variety of older air-dried oak barrels. Apparently old oak contains less tannins, resulting in a softer end-product. I supposed that’s like playing Beethoven on an 18th century hand-carved German cello - it just has to sound better, right? 

We had the opportunity to taste 5 Found North products. All very different, and while I enjoyed some more than others, don’t get it twisted…these are all 4+ whiskeys. We didn’t record group scores, as our tasting format was different this time. Hopefully my notes below will jog your memory. Funny side note, Chris said tasting notes are kind of ridiculous and mean nothing - everyone’s experience is different. I like that, mainly because no one can tell me I’m wrong. So, here are my meaningless notes! (FYI, visit their website for much more exotic descriptions.)

#1) Batch 010 

123.8 proof / 8-23 Year Whiskeys

66% Corn, 29% Wheat, 5% Malted Barley

New American and Ex-Bourbon Barrels

NOSE: strawberry jam, caramel, vanilla bean

TASTE: jammy, metallic fruitiness, cinnamon

FINISH: warm, cinnamon/baking spice, some tannin, toasted oak 

First sip of the night. A high-proof wheater, a bit hotter than how we usually start. But once you wake up your taste buds, it’s pretty nice. It had a minerality to it, which Chris described as “Rancio”, a french term for oxidizing flavors found in some aged wines and cognacs. Can have a slight savory “funk”. New term to me!

#2) Season 4 Single Barrel

116.8 proof / Aged 8 - 21 years 

71% Corn, 29% Wheat

Finished in New American Oak Char #2, Spanish Oak Toast

NOSE: oak, cinnamon bark

TASTE: oily mouthfeel, baking spices, toasted sugar, prominent oak char

FINISH: charred oak, tannins, with a faint minerality later on

This one was very interesting to me, mainly because I have a bottle of Season 4 at home and it tastes wildly different! My bottle is much sweeter, like maple syrup on pancakes. The club bottle was drier, very charred tasting. Comparing them, our club bottle started in a char #2 barrel and was transferred to a medium toasted Spanish oak cask. My bottle says NO char on the initial barrel, and a heavy toast on the Spanish oak barrel. Maybe I’m not hallucinating my tasting notes after all! While both are good, the sweeter version is a little better, in my opinion. That’s why single barrels are cool - each can be quite unique!

#3) Batch 009

124.6 proof / 19 years

91% corn, 8% rye, 1% barley

Aged in Ruby Port barrels, New American, Used American and Hungarian Oak casks.

NOSE: bright sweetness, ruby port, sponge cake

TASTE: deep port sweetness, oily mouthfeel, cinnamon

FINISH: warm, cinnamon/baking spice

Really enjoyed the ruby port notes in this one. It was bright, sweet, and warm. Definitely enjoyed this one more than the first two, whether my taste buds were adjusting or it truly was better. A good bottle! Crazy how many barrels these whiskeys go through (yep, you read it right. 4 different finishing barrels). They are moving LOTS of liquid at Found North!

#4) Hover Hawk 

123.2 proof / 15-27 years

90% corn, 9% rye, 1% malted barley

Finished in Moscatel New American Oak casks

NOSE: dark fruits, butterscotch

TASTE: saltiness, followed by brown sugar, vanilla, and blackberry

FINISH: oaky, cinnamon toast, with a hint of cocoa

Hover Hawk is of Found North’s more rare “High Altitude” series where the blenders experiment even more. They blend, finish, and even reblend. We also tasted the “first flight” of the hover hawk recipe - which is pretty cool. This whiskey has lived in a few barrels as well (initial aging barrels, followed by 2 aging barrels). The first of the two finishing barrels was a Moscatel barrel, which adds an interesting and nice salinity to the front of the taste. This one was pretty fantastic.

#5) Peregrine

126.2 / 20-27 years

91% corn, 8% rye, 1% barley

Finished in ex-cognac and new wood barrels

NOSE: Cinnamon, vanilla, lavender, slight hint of bubble gum?

TASTE: oily mouthfeel, cinnamon, orange zest, vanilla

FINISH: slight tannin from oak, cinnamon, gingerbread

Peregrine is another one of their top shelf “High Altitude” offerings. These are good, and Hover Hawk and Peregrine were the best of the evening. Quite complex and unique, yet very well put together. Definitely a special pour, if you can get your hands on it!

Found North pretty much only sells on a lottery basis through their website. Sign up for email notifications, and they announce their lotteries periodically. The lotteries are set up in a way that it tracks when you lose. Each time you lose a lottery, it keeps track and automatically increases your chance of winning next time. Wish the stock market worked that way! Bottles start around $185, that includes shipping. Definitely a special occasion kind of whiskey. Reminder - you can always enter the lottery and sell to a club member who lost. I’m sure you can find a buyer amongst us!!! If you made it this far, thanks for sticking around. See you July 10th for the next one!