Lost Lantern Single Cask Day’s Defile Idaho Straight Bourbon Whiskey Review

Self-described whiskey nerds, Lost Lantern Whiskey co-founders Nora Ganley-Roper and Adam Polonski built their brand by hunting down whiskies no one has discovered and sharing the stories of distilleries they’re most excited about. Lost Lantern is an independent bottler, meaning they do not distill anything but instead acquires spirits from others to make unique blends and expressions. Lost Lantern has three main categories: Blend series, which Lost Lantern uses to create unique blended expressions; the Single Distillery series, which is the same but blended from products of one distillery; and the Single Cask series, which “shine[s] a light on a single distillery through the lens of a single barrel of whiskey.” You can find a rich detail of the mash bill, age, and any other unique traits for each whiskey on Lost Lantern’s website, an uncommon practice which most coinsurers appreciate.

The subject of today’s review is an expression from their Single Cask Series: the Day’s Defile Idaho Straight bourbon Whiskey – 10 year. At a whopping 77.2%, this is THE HIGHEST ABV whiskey this writer has ever seen or heard of. Interestingly, this dram was not distilled by Day’s Defile, but instead was acquired from a now mothballed Idaho Distillery. It “was made from 76% corn, 11% triticale (a hybrid gran of wheat and rye made in the late 19th Century), and 13% malted barley” and is purportedly the “oldest whiskey ever released from the state of Idaho”.