This week it is time to smoke….M&O Smoke that is. In my continuing effort to introduce you to whiskies that you may not be as aware of, I will use the Sunday Evening Review this week to bring to your attention the M&O Spirits Smoke whiskey.

Make sure you put in the comments any bottles that you would like me to review.

NAME – M&O Spirits Smoke Whiskey

PROOF – 100

AGE – non-age stated

COLOR – auburn hair (1.6, mahogany, henna notes on the Whiskey Magazine Color Chart)

NOSE – Dark roasted sweet corn, cherry frosting, coffee, dark caramel, almond and sweet oak.

TASTE – Charred oak with sweet corn is the boldest part of the taste.  There is a fair amount of tobacco, leather and dark caramel. Smoked almond, dark cherry and cinnamon round it out.

FINISH – I would call this a medium finish. Charred oak, tobacco and the dark cherry hang around to the end.

REVIEW – Again a whiskey from a newer and very small distillery with stock that is not that old, there is a real good chance it won’t be very good and if it is good it lets you know its young. This Smoke whiskey is really good and outside the very pleasant sweet corn note, it would be hard to tell that it is a younger whiskey. Many times when you buy a craft whiskey you feel you over pay but you feel you are supporting small business and craft distilling. You don’t have to feel any of those thoughts as this is a $40 bottle that is more than worth it no matter what distillery it came from. Also, this is listed as a small batch but right now each of their batches are 1 barrel. So you are getting a single barrel product to boot.

FINAL COMMENTS – M&O Spirits is a distillery in Ashville, Ohio that is doing things their own way. This Smoke Whiskey is made from a blend of corn, rye, red wheat and malted barley. Pot distilled twice and then each batch is barrel aged with charred white oak staves added to the barrel. That last part is what I believe gives its more mature notes but adding red wheat to the mash bill is what imparts sweetness and that sneaky cherry note.

Do yourself a favor and check out this whiskey and if you can check out their Black whiskey, its good too.