“Not only does Fourteener’s name pay homage to the rugged peaks that dot its home state of Colorado, it truly embodies our spirit of adventure. If you’ve ever been on the top of a 14er, you know it’s truly something to celebrate,” Tincup founder Jess Graber said in an announcement of the release.
Aging a whiskey for fourteen years is a commitment to patience and foresight, explains Jason Levinson, a whiskey educator for Proximo Spirits, Tincup’s parent company. “When whiskey sits in barrels, it’s pushed in and out of the wood over time. As this happens, the barrel will remove impurities from the spirit and release additional flavors,” he says. This whiskey is aged in new white American oak barrels.
The more time the whiskey is given to age, the more refined those flavors become, Levinson adds. And not only does it take more time to age the whiskey, but it takes foresight to begin reserving enough whiskey for an entirely new liquid.
The end product is cut with pure Eldorado Spring water, comes in at 42 percent ABV, and has more fruity and candied characteristics than the other liquids, according to Levinson. “The extra time enhances and concentrates these flavors while adding a velvety mouthfeel when drinking,” he says. The caramel-brown spirit has an aroma of vanilla and sugar cookie with a flavor of caramel, syrup and vanilla, along with a medium-long finish with butterscotch.
Fourteener is the latest addition to the Tincup family, which includes its Original American Whiskey, a 90-proof straight rye whiskey aged in charred white oak barrels for three years; and a bourbon whiskey aged in oak barrels for a minimum of ten years.
Levinson’s preference for drinking whiskey is straight or with one large ice cube, but he believes everyone should enjoy it however they like it best. For Fourteener, he suggests trying it in an Old Fashioned, Mint Julep or a Gold Rush, which is made with bourbon, freshly squeezed lemon juice and honey syrup.
The $14,000 donation will help fund CFI’s Adopt-a-Peak volunteer trail stewardship program, which strives to engage local communities in protecting Colorado’s fragile alpine ecosystems. The goal for 2023 is to maintain more than twenty miles of trails on twelve fourteeners across the state, and to perform more than 1,100 days of volunteer stewardship.
This will be the first in an annual limited-edition release, according to Tin Cup. For more information, visit tincupwhiskey.com.