Chattanooga Whiskey Founder’s Anniversary Blend

Chattanooga Whiskey Founder’s Anniversary Blend is the finite blend founder Tim Piersant builds each year from three solera barrels at the Riverfront Distillery, bottled at 100 proof. The 1816 solera is older straight bourbon distilled in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, the recipe tied to making distilling legal in Chattanooga again. The 91 solera is Chattanooga’s Tennessee high-malt bourbon, yellow corn with malted rye, caramel malt, and honey malt. The Infinity solera holds the experimental whiskeys. He tastes the three, sets that year’s proportions, and the barrels are refilled, so the next anniversary is a different whiskey with the same bones.

Across the published anniversaries the glass keeps returning to dark fruit, usually cherry or blackberry, and a soft dessert sweetness. Cream, frosting, toasted oak, or a nut shows up often enough to expect one of them. The body stays full. The exact dessert changes with the year on the bottle.