This meticulously crafted spirit is designed as an easy to drink, no pretension whiskey with contemporary character. Marni Witkin, TasteMistress, CALI Distillery
Thunder mesquite finished bourbon whiskey is a high rye bourbon shaped by exposure to two very different varieties of oak and finished with blackened sonoran mesquite. Its rich chocolate, coffee and caramel notes with an amazing overlay of mesquite smoke earned it a Double Gold Medal in the 2024 Sunset International Spirits Competition. Thunder is created from a blend of American yellow kernel field corn and toasted flaked Rye. Field corn has a higher starch content and lower sugar content than the immature sweet corn you are used to eating at a Sunday barbeque. it’s harvested mature, hard and almost dry. The rye counterbalances some of the caramel sweetness of the corn, and adds a bite of minty, spicy, floral notes to the mash. Rye also lends a complexity, dryness, and “Scotch” undertone to Thunder.
After aging in a unique sequence of New American oak barrels, and sweet toasted French Oak, we add blackend branches of Sonoran mesquite. We source our mesquite from family farmers/wood cutters in the Sonora desert in Mexico. They harvest branches from mesquite bushes, and burn them in sand/clay pits. This is the highest quality mesquite used in traditional Texas barbeque pits.
Thunder is an American riff on the best smoky scotches. But instead of building on an astringent, bitter single malt base we start with a deep, smooth, sweet bourbon and then layer American style barbeque smoke in place of the more tobacco ash aromas of peat smoke.
Thunder is smoother and more complex and flavorful than a traditional bourbon. We think it is one of the smoothest high proof whiskeys we have tasted.
It is so good that Sunset Magazine named it the BEST BOURBON OF 2024.
We look forward to sharing with you.
KC Marni Howard