OOLA Three Shores Blended Whiskey Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B-

OOLA Three Shores
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

If OOLA started their Discourse series with the intent of starting conversations about non-traditional whiskey-making methods, I’m not sure if Discourse C was the right place to start. That release was essentially a bourbon whiskey finished in Cabernet barrels. While not exactly traditional, in an era when there are nearly 600 craft distillers making and exploring the boundaries of whiskey, what went into Discourse C can’t really be described as the stuff that provokes debate.

Three Shores, on the other hand, is part of a much smaller class than whiskeys finished in red wine barrels. This third installment in the Discourse series is a blend of their own “high rye” American whiskey with imported Canadian whisky and Highland Scotch whisky. The imported whiskies are aged for an extra year in American white oak before blending, an interesting and perhaps unique choice. Although there are a handful of examples of world blends of this type around, I’m unaware of anyone giving their imported stock extra aging in a new cask prior to blending. The whiskey is bottled at 94 proof.

The Whiskey
In the glass, Three Shores looks a lot like many a rich Scotch, or Canadian whiskies aged in used barrels for that matter. The liquid has a golden color. Coating the glass yields a few tears.

A sniff reveals a decidedly foreign kind of nose too, one that smacks of butterscotch, fresh cut grass and traces of woodiness. The whiskey has a silky texture on the palate, and it’s there that I found all three constituent whiskeys came into play, with a lightly honeyed sweetness balanced nicely against rye spices, with a vegetal, grassiness in the background. On the finish, the whiskey turns a bit peppery.

The Price
OOLA Three Shores fetches $50 to $55 a bottle.