Lost Lantern Single Cask #1 Cedar Ridge Single Malt Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B+

One of the best aspects of Lost Lantern’s model is also what makes it unique: it’s a true negociant in the European sense, but plying its business in the United States. There are two things to understand about that statement to get at why it makes them unique.

First, as much as I love Barrell Craft Spirits and what they do, they are only carrying out half the model of a company like Douglas Laing. While Barrell Bourbon’s work at sourcing and blending bourbons and other whiskeys is outstanding, they aren’t in the business of releasing unique expressions of a single distillery’s work in the manner that is such a staple of the negociant business as we have come to know it. Lost Lantern, however, is in that business.

Second, Lost Lantern is pursuing that business in the United States. While Scotland has over 130 active whisky distilleries, the United States boasts 740 of them. That is a wide, deep range to play with.

The Fall 2021 Collection, Single Cask #1 is an example, coming from Iowa’s Cedar Ridge Distillery. It’s a single malt finished in a Sherry cask, and this from a distillery that has been perfecting their malt whiskey almost from the beginning, culminating in their QuintEssential Single Malt. This whiskey started out with two years in a new ASB, before moving over for a further two years in a 500-liter Sherry butt from Jerez. It was bottled at cask strength, 115.3 proof.

The Whiskey
This pour takes on a dull, light amber coloring in the glass. The nose smacks of a Sherry bomb, albeit an American Sherry bomb: honey, golden raisins, maple syrup. The flavor follows right down that same path, before rolling over in the finish to become lightly peppered and piney. It’s a thick, sweet, lovely blast of Sherry cask, malty sweetness and new oak coming into near balance.

The Price
A bottle of Lost Lantern’s Cedar Ridge Single Malt Single Cask #3 will set you back $100, coming from a run of 555 bottles.