Hi everyone. My name is Anthony. I’m a whisky enthusiast — I run The Bookworm’s Whisky Wednesday — and I think I just tried the best American whisk(e)y on this side of the ocean. I’d like you to try as well.

Please welcome McCarthy’s Oregon Single Malt Whiskey to The Bookworm whisky family. Why is it special? Where do we begin…

— It’s an American single malt, which already puts it in rare company; made from a single distillery (Clear Creek) using only one malt, barley.

— Speaking of that malt — it’s a fermented mash of peat-malted Scottish barley from the Widmer Brothers Brewing Company. So what we have here is a peated American single malt.

— Though American, McCarthy’s has strong Scottish characteristics. We’re talking specifically about Islay, which you might know as the Scottish island made famous by some of the world’s most beloved single malt distilleries (Laphroaig, Ardbeg, etc.).

— Aged three years, the minimum required for single malts, in sherry casks. But the age is misleading: if we didn’t tell you, you’d think this was a 10- to 12-year expression, such is its richness.

Don’t believe me though: McCarthy’s scored a 96 out of 100 on Jim Murray’s Whiskey Bible 2008. Four years prior, Murray awarded it “Best Small Batch Whiskey,” and Michael Jackson (not the singer, sadly, but a world-renowned whisky expert) listed it in “The Ten Best American Whiskeys.”

We haven’t even mentioned its taste — but for that, perhaps the less said the better. We’ll make it easy for you to just try: if you sign up for a Whisky Wednesday tasting within the next week, we’ll give you the option of adding a glass of McCarthy’s for half-price (deal’s good until our first bottle is gone). Email me ([email protected]) for more information, or check out the Whisky Wednesday page.

And as always, The Bookworm offers a regular whisky flight menu featuring top-notch single malts from Scotland and Japan.

McCarthy’s Oregon Single Malt
70 RMB / glass
35 RMB if you sign up for a Whisky Wednesday by next Sunday