Review #108: Single Cask Nation Milk and Honey 2 Year
Single Cask Nation (SCN) has sprung to cult status overnight. We have a Lechaig from this independent bottler that we absolutely adore, so I’ve been actively following their newsletters. They announced a Milk and Honey 2 year old rum cask about a month ago, and within just a matter of a few hours, sold out (even after limiting it to only 2 bottles per household). Naturally, I was insanely curious about Milk and Honey ever since.
Milk and Honey, Israel’s first whisky distillery, draws its name from the biblical depiction of the area. God told Moses to settle in an area flowing with milk and honey:
“And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptian, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.”
Exodus 3:8
The distillery is based in the heart of Tel Aviv and has just started churning out whisky with a heavily Scottish influence. Israel is HOT, so the whisky grows up fast. The distillery estimates a whopping 9% angel share, compared to roughly 2% per year in Scotland or ~4% in Tennessee and Kentucky.
Sadly, as reviewed below, we didn’t really find the whisky to live up to its hype at all. I’m glad that we didn’t spring for the M&H rum cask to be quite honest.
Single Cask Nation Milk & Honey Whisky Review
Product Name: Single Cask Nation Milk & Honey 2 Year
- Score - 5/105/10
Overall
Tasting Notes
Nose: Soft, floral, upon first nosing like tomato paste. Sharp, alcohol and phenolic notes. Bit of oak, like a varnished deck.
Palate: Starts out with a huge hit of honeyed malt, but quickly gets into intense oak flavors and bitter tannins. I think with another decade in the barrel this would be marvelous stuff. Odd and herbal, not in a peat driven way, more like chewing on a root. Aftertaste is astringent.
Pros
Cons
Quick overview of our scoring system
Additional Information
- ABV: 59.85%
- Aged 2 years
- Bottled by Single Cask Nation
About Milk and Honey
- Israel’s first distillery, based in Tel Aviv.
- All of their whisky is kosher.
- Started operating in 2014, and was advised by Dr. James Swan until he passed away in 2017.