On January 19, 2025, American Single Malt Whiskey becomes an official spirits category in the United States. The ratification of this new category (the first in more than half a century) was announced last month with an effective date of this coming Sunday.

For ASMW distillers and enthusiasts, the recognition of American Single Malt Whiskey as its own distinct category is significant, offering legitimacy, transparency, and accountability to the whiskeys that bear its label.

To honor the occasion, we’re celebrating with SEVEN DAYS OF AMERICAN SINGLE MALT WHISKEYS. Every day this week, I’m selecting an American-made single malt whiskey and featuring it here, on Instagram, and even on LinkedIn. All of the selected whiskeys are already in my cabinet; I didn’t buy any new bottles for this occasion. Some are open and well-loved, while others are yet-uncorked, ready to be experienced for the first time.

Some, like today’s whiskey selection, are a mix of both.

Whiskey Del Bac, the Tucson, Arizona distillery that lives by the mantra “mesquited, not peated,” deserves credit for being the American Single Malt Whiskey that drew me into the category. I lived in Tucson for seven years, with Whiskey Del Bac (also known as Hamilton Distillers) as my home distillery.

That sounds so very magical and right for the whiskey enthusiast I am today, but I have to confess something: while I enjoyed Whiskey Del Bac in a cocktail, or even poured neat, many times over the first four years of my desert life, I didn’t really give this locally-made whiskey a lot of thought.

When I went out, I almost always ordered Scotch. I had cut my whisky teeth on Laphroaig 10, and I was actively planning a trip to visit distilleries 5,000 miles away, with barely a thought to those within the borders of my own country. American whiskey simply didn’t enter my frame of reference—not bourbon, not rye, and certainly not American single malt whiskey.

All that changed when I visited Whiskey Del Bac in late 2021.

The shift really began in 2020, when the pandemic forced all of us to spend far too much time at home. I was lucky enough to continue working remotely throughout the lockdowns. Like many people in my situation, my bank account rose, my usual spending outlets suddenly limited by the seclusion. I started buying more whisky as a result, and, with an abundance of free time, learning more about the craft of distillation too.

My then-partner and I had been planning a trip to Scotland—a bucket list item we’d set together back in 2013 when we got married. As I enthusiastically dug into the details of the trip (canceled, of course, for 2020), I naturally began to research the distilleries we would visit too. And then I began to watch documentaries about whisky.

And, well, it all spiraled from there. Quickly.

I obviously knew about Whiskey Del Bac by then, and I had thought about visiting the distillery on a handful of occasions. The idea of a tour, however, always seemed to come to me in the summer. The distillery’s website warned that the facilities weren’t air conditioned. As a result, they could become extremely warm on Southern Arizona’s needlessly hot summer days.

For this thick-blooded Michigander, it was thanks, but no thanks.

I finally booked a tour in late 2021, prompted (if I recall correctly) by yet another encounter with Whiskey Del Back out in Tucson at large. It was only my second distillery tour ever, and my first single malt tour. By the end of the tasting, my vague appreciation for the desert-made spirit had risen exponentially. When they advertised a job posting for tour guides a couple of weeks later, I immediately applied.

Within a month of visiting Whiskey Del Bac for the first time, I was on the payroll, learning about the distillation process well enough to offer that same knowledge to others. By the time I left, just a short six months later, I was a fully-developed American Single Malt Whiskey enthusiast.

Whiskey Del Bac remains my favorite American Single Malt Whiskey distillery, in part because of all that it gave me.

You might have noticed sentimentality as a common thread in the narratives so far this week.

Yes, I’ll admit it: I’m a sentimental fool.

I still count many of my Whiskey Del Bac colleagues as friends, even almost three years and 2,000 miles later. Without that experience, without having lived in Tucson and walking through their front door, I probably wouldn’t live in Kentucky, and I absolutely would not be doing this series.

It helps that they make damn good whiskey too.

Today’s selection is a little bit of old and new. While the distillery is known for their mesquited single malt, called Dorado, the Classic Single Malt is an unsmoked whiskey modeled after a Speyside Scotch. It’s meant to offer a straightforward whiskey experience, not a campfire, but a bold, enjoyable whiskey experience all on its own.

Historically, the distillery has always aged its whisky in new American Oak quarter casks, each holding around 15 gallons of spirit. As a tour guide, I used to surmise (and never actually verified) that the sizing was a result of the distillery’s humble origins. Smaller casks casks are much easier to fill, maneuver, and store than the standard barrel—especially for the one-man operation that Whiskey Del Bac was in its earliest days.

The diminutive size of these barrels, paired with the extreme temperature swings of the Sonoran Desert, typically produces a mature, delicious whiskey in little more than a year.

The Whiskey Del Bac Classic Bottled in Bond—today’s American Single Malt Whiskey selection—was instead aged for four years. It is made from the same unsmoked new make spirit as the original Classic, carefully produced in a single distilling season. But instead of being poured into small barrels, the new make spirit was loaded ino new Standard American Barrel holding roughly 53 gallons. The casks were stored as legally required for bottled-in-bond, aging for at least four years in a federally bonded warehouse in Tucson, then bottled at 50% ABV.

Only a small batch of spirit was produced in this way back in 2020, the precious liquid allocated to an experiment with results yet unknown. In 2024, the larger-than-usual barrels were emptied and bottled as a limited release. This small sample sent to me by my friends at the distillery, and has waited until today to be opened and enjoyed.

The color of the Classic Bottled-in-Bond is slightly darker than the usual Classic whiskey. The flavors, too, are a little bolder. This is unsurprising, considering that it’s bottled at 50% ABV instead of the usual 46%. Beyond that, it is the same dark fruit, sweet caramel, and warm vanilla whiskey that I’ve grown to love over the last several years. It’s just a little more robust and more flavorful—and that’s saying a lot, considering that the original Classic was listed in Wine Enthusiast’s Top 100 Spirits in 2021.

In short, I love it. If you’re a fan of American Single Malt Whiskeys, you just might too.

Sláinte, y’all!

In My Glass

Whiskey Del Bac Classic Bottled-in-Bond American Single Malt Whiskey

Hamilton Distiller/Whiskey Del Bac – Tucson, Arizona

50% ABV; 4 Years Old

On My Desk

Royal Futura 600 Manual Typewriter, c. 1960