Located in evocatively named Dripping Springs, Texas, Swift Distillery is a new single-product distillery taking the craft ethos to heart. Founded by Nick and Amanda Swift in 2012 and focusing entirely on the production of Swift Single Malt, a Scotch-inspired single malt, this grain-to-glass distillery mills, ferments, distills, and ages onsite. The single malt focus helps set them apart from other Texas distilleries like Balcones, Ranger Creek, or Garrison Brothers, who are more honed-in on American whiskey styles.
Swift Single Malt is made from 100% malted barley, and fermented with a single malt yeast the distillers purportedly source from the Speyside region of Scotland. After fermentation, the spirit is distilled on copper Portuguese pot stills before being aged for a bit less than a year in used charred Kentucky bourbon barrels. It’s then transferred to Oloroso sherry casks from Spain, a move inspired by the fine sherry-casked whiskies of Scotland.
With its stylish hand-numbered label and classic dropper-shaped bottle, Swift Single Malt would have a lot of shelf appeal if weren’t for the murkiness of the contents. Swift Single Malt is not chill filtered, a step that involves freezing and then filtering a spirit to remove the oils that contribute haziness – and add flavor – to a distillate. It’s normal for non-chill filtered spirits to cloud when diluted with water or ice, but it’s unusual to see a whiskey so cloudy in the bottle, and not particularly appealing.
Tasting Notes:
Tasting Notes:Appearance: Cloudy yellow in color with a thin texture
Nose: Tart and funky, with a lemony acidity that unfortunately reads as bilious alongside cut grass, mint, and a peanut-like earthy bass note.
Palate: Thin at first, the mid-palate is decidedly more robust with notes of peanut skins, walnut, and char as well as citrus juice and white pepper.
Finish: Quite long and dry with a distinct acrid astringency that discourages another sip.
Conclusion:
Swift is obviously dedicated to doing things right, but they still seem to be pulling all the pieces together. This single malt has some interesting nutty notes and a lot of character that might translate to complexity with more aging, but at such a young age, it’s more like an orchestra tuning up before the show than the Philharmonic playing Beethoven’s Fifth. At $50 a bottle, it’s tough to recommend, but with a little more time and experience under their belt we’ll be looking forward to their next efforts.
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Score: 78/100
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