Tenmile Distillery ‘Battle of Harlem Heights’ American Single Malt

Limited edition small batch American single malt whisky produced by Tenmile Distillery in Wassaic, New York. The ninth release in Tenmile’s Revolutionary Series, celebrating the semiquincentennial of the United States.

100% unpeated, floor-malted New York State barley sourced from Hudson Valley Malt in Germantown, New York. Water for production comes from a well on the Tenmile property. Fermented for 7 days in a temperature-controlled closed-top stainless steel fermenter. Twice distilled in Forsyths copper pot stills.

Aged for 5 years in a 50/50 combination of 15-gallon and 25-gallon ex-bourbon barrels. Once the separate maturations are complete, the spirit is blended and allowed to homogenize for up to 60 days prior to being proofed down and bottled. 600 bottles produced.

Brand Tasting Notes: Seductive doesn’t quite do justice to a whisky that opens with a deep waft of caramel and milk chocolate. The fine burr of fresh barley—plus the freshness of sliced fresh apples and an ample dusting of cinnamon sugar—reminds us that we’re drinking whisky, but the palate quickly resumes the sensation of ampleness, leading to fruitcake, fresh orange zest, and mild, lingering spice.

New York—the city that never sleeps—has a way of paving over even its recent history, and little more than a bas-relief monument on the Columbia University campus (at 116th St, off Broadway) marks the battle of Harlem Heights today. Tenmile celebrates this battle and the Continental Army’s victory with one of its final small-cask bottlings. While the flavors conferred by these smaller-cask releases have well established Tenmile’s maturation talents, the distillery’s transition to exclusively full-cask maturation signals a meaningful shift, much like that day in upper Manhattan when George Washington first outfoxed the British.