New Basin Strong 3 Year Old Light Whiskey Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: C-

New Basin Distilling Company is found out in Madras, Oregon, and they’ve been around since 2012. The folks there also seem to be keenly aware that to stand out in a craft whiskey market that has (even after the pandemic) several hundred producers, they need to go where the competition ain’t. They have a wheat whiskey and a rye whiskey, but most interestingly New Basin has staked out territory in light whiskey territory. I’m thinking they must have an eye on the cheeky oxymoron, because they named their light whiskey “Strong.”

Created in the 1970s, light whiskey was the industry’s desperate response to the changing market trends that caused the global whiskey bust of that decade. One of the things that was becoming popular at the time was vodka, so the industry lobbied for the creation of this new category, a whiskey distilled to a much higher and more vodka-like level of purity of between 160 and 190 proof. It can be aged in either used or new oak barrels.

Light whiskey never really caught on, and since it has been used as a constituent in cheap blends. It’s obscure status is highlighted in recent releases of middle aged light whiskey by Boondocks and High West. Demand for light whiskey is low enough that one can actually find older barrels on the stock whiskey market.

The Whiskey
This youthful whiskey, aged in the high desert of western Oregon, is bottled at 80 proof a strength that very much underscores the designation. Another feature pointing to “light” is the coloring, which is a very pale amber.

My own take on sampling it is short and sweet: to counter the folks who would say anything distilled to such a high level isn’t going to taste like whiskey, Strong says you are wrong. The liquid is sweet, simple and light, but it is definitely identifiable as an American whiskey. However, it is so simple and light that has little to speak to beyond that.

The Price