McCarthy's Oregon Single Malt Whiskey

"our whiskey would be a single malt Scotch if Oregon were Scotland"

Mrs. Greasy Spoon and I were enjoying a few drinks at one our favorite places in downtown Denver called Double Daughter's. They have, in my opinion, an insane happy hour (4:30pm-8pm) with half off all drinks. This makes for a nice after work drink of Johnnie Blue for $16 or Hennessey XO for $10.25...

We stared talking to the bartender, Ian, who turned out to be the GM for DD and Mario's. After talking a bit about Whiskey's and such he asked me if I liked Laphroaig. Admitting that it was probably my favorite single malt, he went over to the shelf and pulled down a bottle of McCarthy's Single Malt and poured us a sample... After just a sniff I said, "that's a nice smelling Islay." He smiles back and tells me it was from Oregon!

Apparently Clear Creek Distillery, makers of McCarthy's, fly in peat to smoke their grain. And they do a pretty damn good job of it. The finish can't quite compete with typical smoky Islays but the nose and middle fooled me.

I don't know if Clear Creek sells McCarthy's east of Colorado but if any of you see this bottle:



Give them a try... You won't belive your drinking an American Whiskey...

McCarthy's Oregon Single Malt Whiskey
Clear Creek Distillery
2389 NW Wilson Street
Portland, OR 97210
http://clearcreekdistillery.com/index.php

Double Daughter
1626 Market St
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 623-3523
http://www.doubledaughters.com/

~GS

Greasy Spoon wrote:I don't know if Clear Creek sells McCarthy's east of Colorado but if any of you see this bottle

They sell it at least as far east as Kansas City at Harry's Country Club in River Market. I'd meant to post on this whiskey several months ago. I'm not much of a Scotch drinker, but I found it equally surprising.

Harry's has a pretty nice whiskey menu, which includes sections for Bourbon, Tennessee, Rye, Canadian, Scotch Blends, Single Malts, and American, the latter of which included McCarthy's, Michter's (from KY but not bourbon), and St. George's from CA, which I believe is also Scoth-style.

I haven't had the last two, but I enjoyed McCarthy's and have been meaning to return to give them a shot.

No half price happy hour, unfortunately, but they do have Hendrick's martinis for $4 from 3-6:30 M-F.

The food's not too bad either, and pretty decent live music. I really like Harry's, actually.

Harry's Country Club
112 E. Missouri Avenue
Kansas City, MO 64106
816-421-3505
http://www.kansascitymenus.com/harryscountryclub/

This sounds like my kind of whiskey. I'm intrigued -- thanks, GS.

I bought a bottle from the Binny's downtown (213 W. Grand Ave.) last year. It was their only bottle and was actually on longstanding hold for another customer, but when I asked nicely they called the guy, and apparently he said I could have it.

I tried this at Bluebird last week and was very impressed. So impressed that I went to Sam's (Lincoln Park) and bought a bottle. Imagine my surprise when I saw that it was on sale for $38. Nice!

They had plenty of bottles. It's located on the bottom shelf in the Scotch whiskey aisle -- a bit of a slight, maybe, but whatever. Mostly, it just made it a little more difficult to find.