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Whiskey Review: Old Potrero 18th Century Style Whiskey

We review Old Potrero 18th Century Style Whiskey from Anchor Distilling in California. It's made from 100% malted rye and aged in toasted casks.

OVERALL RATING

8
  • Katelyn Best, whisky writer & enthusiast.
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Tasting Notes

About:

This whiskey is a blend of whiskeys aged between two and a half years and five and a half years in new and used toasted oak barrels, and bottled at 51.2% ABV. Color: Deep gold, like a super-rich white dessert wine.
Appearance:
Nose:
Very grainy, almost yeasty, like rising bread. A little honey, combined with the toasty graininess, gives an impression of Honey Nut Cheerios. Dried stone fruit—namely that dense, faintly funky scent dried peach has—surfaces after a few minutes.
Palate:
Honey shows up first on the palate. There’s some grain, but not as much as I got on the nose. The fruit here is darker and juicier, more like blackberry, and it’s spicy, but in the peppery sense, not the baking spice sense. Fairly hot and pleasantly sticky on the palate. Spice on the finish, followed by oak, with fruit lingering.
Finish:
Comments:

I like this whiskey quite a bit. It’s got the pepperiness and fruitiness we typically associate with rye whiskey, plus an added layer of toasty grain from the malting. There’s enough going on here to keep your interest, but it still manages to be very approachable. I have no idea if this is what American whiskey really tasted like in the 18th century, but it’s definitely what we’d all like to imagine it tasted like.


Editor’s Note: This whiskey was either bought as a sample by The Whiskey Wash or provided to us as a review sample by the party behind it. Per our editorial policies, this in no way influenced the outcome of this review.

Katelyn Best

Katelyn Best, a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon, is a regular contributor to The Whiskey Wash. She has a particular passion for exploring the unique and unconventional aspects of the whisky world.

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