After selling out of their initial release in days, Wolves Whiskey are back with their second limited release titled “Winter Run.”
Winter Run contains a whiskey distilled from craft stout beer and aged in French Oak for 8 years, a whiskey distilled from craft pilsner beer aged in New American Oak for 5 years, a rye selected for its spice, and a single malt whiskey aged for 9 years in used French Oak. The flavors are remisicent of Wolves’ critically acclaimed First Run. With the exception of the rye, the whiskeys in the blend were distilled by Master Distiller Marko Karakasevic in northern California using a rare copper Alambic pot still imported from Cognac in 1983.
“We wanted to run it back again with Marko, who is a generational artisan working with a tried and true still,” says Wolves co-founder Jon Buscemi. “The still is old and slow but the result is better. We took some cues from First Run while incorporating a really earthy single malt – I like single malts all year round but enjoy them most in the colder months. It took a lot of work to get this right, but the result is special and I’m happy we were able to crank out a few more bottles this time in production.”
Each small, bespoke batch of distillate is created by Karakasevic over a near-sleepless 10-day period to ensure the heads and tails are cut out properly, and that only the hearts remain for barrel aging. The still creates massive body that you cannot easily find in whiskey made from a more efficient column still. And because the Stout and Pilsner whiskies are distilled from finished craft beer, the hoppy flavors are pronounced and the nose is slightly sweet. The team landed at 104 proof for this edition.
“Our group comes from apparel and music background, our concept to do multiple drops like you would a fashion/shoe brand or new music was to always keep it fresh and exciting,” says Wolves co-founder James Bond. “Continue to add to the catalog, and in theory when you collect all the drops you get a piece of our story.”
Each bottle of Winter Run is wrapped by hand in a chocolate espresso Italian sheepskin leather, which is laser cut, embossed, printed with UV light, and laid flush to the glass by hand. The bottle is heavy and French-cut, while the cork top is made of Maple wood. Each bottle is delivered in a canvas sleeve that was stitched by hand and designed to fit Winter Run like a glove.
Wolves produced 1,338 bottles of Winter Run that are available for purchase on a first-come first-served basis now for $185.
