When New Riff considered putting oats in a Bourbon, our distiller's minds went to the chocolate oatmeal stouts they enjoyed in their brewing careers. Those rich stouts, and resultant, Winter Whiskey, imbue our palates with the warmth and cheer of the season. Winter Whiskey is a Bourbon with the unique spice of raw and malted oats, backed by roasted cocoa notes of chocolate malt. The experience is something of a three-way conversation between the dry cocoa quality of the chocolate malt; a balanced amount of oak; and this unique spicy quality (sort of like kasha-style buckwheat, perhaps blueberry skin) quite distinct from that of rye. The finish dances away on the oaty spice, dusted with Belgian cocoa. Despite the suggestion of “chocolate” in the grains and the name, it never turns cloying, tending to delicate dryness.