By Richard Thomas
Rating: B
(Credit: Richard Thomas)
Up in St. Paul, Minnesota, three guys teamed up to open a gastropub style micro-distillery, King Coil Spirits. The collective story of Matthew Lange, Matthew Zanetti and Jeremy Maynor is a pretty familiar one to those who know the craft spirits scene. Zanetti is a businessman, and after two decades in real estate and construction started a craft brewery in 2013. Maynor also comes from a white collar, business background. Zanetti brought in Lange, who was his brewmaster. Seeing white collar, ex-corporate and business types start a craft distillery is a familiar story, as is drawing on brewing know-how to make whiskey.
King Coil, with its mid-century modern sense of style, has a rye and bourbon whiskey in its inventory, but more interesting is their Poitin-style peaty whiskey. Poitin is basically Irish moonshine, and as a malt whiskey double distilled on a hybrid still using just the pot, this stuff is quite similar to the original. The white whiskey/legal moonshine thing became moribund several years ago, so it’s nice to see King Coil pick it back up and put an interesting twist on it. It’s bottled at 90 proof.
The Whiskey
The pour is almost clear. There is just a hint of yellow-green in the liquid; shifting the angle on the glass tends to bring it out a little more distinctly. The nose comes across strongly as malt whiskey new make, and a grassy, oily malt new make at that. What is absent is any hint of the peaty part.
A sip changes all that. A plume of herbal smoke comes up first, followed by a little honey and a little all-spice. The taste concludes with a moderate, smoky finish.
This whiskey is surprisingly good. It is very simple stuff, but not as rough around the edges as most barely matured whiskeys, and in being simple it’s elements are clear. If you like a smoky whisky, it’s worth checking out for its plainer virtues. The thing about simplicity is that its hard to argue you’ve ruined the thing by putting it on the rocks or mixing it up into a highball.
The Price
No pricing information was offered, but the Peaty Poitin is available at the distillery and some area retailers.