Review by: dustbunna

Clear Creek McCarthy’s Single Malt out of Oregon is unusual in a couple of ways. First off, to my knowledge Clear Creek is currently the only US distillery that sources their malt from Port Ellen Maltings on Islay, Scotland, providers of heavily peated malt for the majority of that island’s distilleries. Second, they use primarily a mix of new and refill Oregon oak (quercus garryana) to mature their spirit, rather than the more common American white oak (quercus alba). Their standard release is relatively easy to find in the US, but only a smattering of regional cask strength picks are released each year. 

Gathering info from K&L when it was released, this single barrel was originally meant to be a pick for Hard Water, a bar in San Francisco that specializes in American whiskey of all kinds– K&L bought the cask to help the bar stay solvent when they closed at the start of the pandemic. The whiskey was barrelled February 19th, 2016 and bottled February 3rd, 2020, making it just shy of four years old. K&L described the barrel as “once-used” Garryana, which was enough to prompt me to buy it, but based on conversations with their current master distiller, it seems likely this was at least a 3rd-fill and might have been as much as 6th- or 7th-fill Garryana (the original notes from Steve McCarthy here are unclear– it was a barrel that just kept on giving over the years.)

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Distillery: Clear Creek.

Bottler: Distillery bottling.

Region: Pacific Northwest.

ABV: 55.6%. Cask strength.

Age: 3 years. Distilled in 2016. Bottled in 2020.

Cask type: Refill Oregon oak barrel.

Price: $90 USD.

Natural Color. Non-chill-filtered.

Bottle open across approx. 5 months, notes taken leisurely across that period. Bold notes taken beneath the shoulder, regular-formatted notes taken further into the bottle past the halfway point, italicized notes taken towards the heel.

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Nose: barbeque smoker, acrylic paint, banana bread, with water fruit esters come forward, candied orange peel, a bit of liquorice, smoked brisket, milk chocolate, charred cherry wood, fresh jam-filled donuts, tree bark, dead leaves.

Palate: oily body ~ cherries, coffee, faintly medicinal, a bit of salt liquorice (salmiak), charred wood notes that appear in the nose follow through.

Finish: medium length ~ lingers with strong wood smoke, salt, peat comes forward with more ash and medicinal notes, goes quite a bit saltier on the tail end, some menthol.

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Conclusion: On the neck pour, if you handed this to me blind I could be convinced that it was some wild experimental thing Dr. Bill conjured up for an Ardbeg Committee Release. It’s a chameleon in its character: sipping alongside other heavy Scottish peaters brings out the more distinctly American qualities, while it feels much closer to Scotland when poured alongside other American malts. The nose is just fantastic, and keeps developing more layers as the fill level drops. The palate does not quite match that same complexity in development, but is still excellent and engaging. Lovely stuff that now has me on a quest to try any McCarthy’s I can get my hands on; this is the first American single malt I’ve really enjoyed, and enjoyed sharing, and I will definitely miss having it in my cabinet.

Final Score: 87.

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Scoring Legend:

• 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
• 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
• 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
• 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
• 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
• 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
• 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
• 50-59: Save it for mixing.
• 0-49: Blech.