McCarthy’s Oregon Single Malt Whiskey is of the Islay tradition of Scotch whisky. Of well-known single malts from Scotland, it resembles the Lagavulin whisky. It is very peat-y. Made from peat-malted barley brought in from Scotland, our whiskey would be a single malt Scotch if Oregon were Scotland. Widmer Brothers ferments the peat-malted barley into a "wash” or unhopped beer. Using the unfinished wash allows us to get all the flavor and character of the malt when we distill. We distill in our Holstein pot stills using one pass distillation, but make a small "heads” cut and a fairly large "tails” cut and put about 4 liters of tails into the next still run. The proof at time of distillation is about 150 (75%). Then we reduce in proof and barrel-age the rough distillate in old sherry casks. All the Oregon Single Malt now spends some time in barrels made from air-dried Oregon Oak. The present bottling is only 3 years old but we think it is remarkably smooth for such a young whiskey. The result is a smooth, peat-y whiskey with a surprisingly clean finish. Production is very limited because what we put in the barrel doesn’t come out for years.