Sips & Sites & Bites

The frontier for great whiskey continues to move west, as California craft distillers are putting out some of the best in the country. 

Take Shelter Distilling for example. 

Nestled in Mammoth Village, in California’s Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, they open the working distillery, brewery and kitchen to guests seven days a week. And while many visitors come for the mountains, many stay for the whiskey.

“The mountain attracts some of the best visitors in the world,” said Matt Hammer, Shelter Distilling’s co-founder. “The distillery and our spirits are a labor of love for the entire Shelter family. It also reflects our love for adventure. The only thing that comes close to the joy of ripping down the mountain, is settling down with one of our premium whiskies and recapping the day with friends.”

Shelter Distilling has four flagship whiskeys that can be found at their mountainside distillery, as well as on retail shelves across the Golden State.

The Shelter American Single Malt Whiskey is double pot distilled, rested in Hungarian oak, then aged in American oak barrels. The oak aging gives it notes of vanilla, stone fruit and spice. It clocks in at 90 proof and sells for $49.99.

The Shelter Small Batch Blue Corn Bourbon is, as the distiller describes, a celebration of the American West. Shelter uses non-GMO heirloom California blue corn, grown with water from the snowpack of the Sierra Nevadas. The small batch is blended from hand-selected barrels, and has signature flavors of birthday cake, vanilla and maple. The bourbon clocks in at 90 proof and sells for $49.99.

And the Shelter Single Barrel Blue Corn Bourbon is made the same way as the small batch, never using GMO grains. This whiskey comes in at 92 proof and sells for $69.99.

“I am excited to share our American Single Malt and Blue Corn Bourbons with more people,” said Jason Senior, master distiller. “Our distillers have worked hard to create wonderful tasting whiskies that give people a unique tasting experience. We start with High Sierra snowmelt water then focus on ingredients grown for flavor such as our Colorado malted barley and California blue corn to create the base of our flavor profiles. We build on those tasty base flavors using modern fermentation techniques, different types of wood and high Alpine aging in traditional American oak barrels to finish off these great whiskies. Whiskey fans will not be disappointed.”

For more information on Shelter Distilling, tour information, or their other libations, check out  https://shelterdistilling.com.