The First American Single Malt Whiskey? (WhiskyCast Episode 705: June 10, 2018)

Mark Gillespie
WhiskyCast
Published in
1 min readJun 11, 2018
Clear Creek Distillery founder Steve McCarthy in the early days of making his McCarthy’s Oregon Single Malt Whiskey. Image courtesy Clear Creek Distillery.

Historians aren’t sure who distilled the first Scotch-style single malt whiskey in the United States, but Oregon’s Clear Creek Distillery has a pretty solid claim to the title. Steve McCarthy started making his McCarthy’s Oregon Single Malt in 1993, and while Steve McCarthy sold Clear Creek in 2014 and eased into semi-retirement, his influence still guides Clear Creek’s distillers to this day. We’ll talk with Clear Creek’s Jeanine Racht on WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, the G7 Summit ends with no progress in resolving a global trade dispute pitting the US against its key trading partners, while new tariffs could affect 65 percent of all US whiskey exports within the next month. We’ll look at a new whisky that’s helping raise money for search and rescue operations in the UK, along with other new whiskies, tasting notes, and much more.

LISTEN

Links: Clear Creek Distillery | Distilled Spirits Council | Wild Turkey | The Macallan | Single Cask Nation | Laphroaig | Bowmore | Compass Box | Delilah’s | The Temple Bar Whiskey | Ardbeg | Great Northern Distillery | Speaking of Suicide

--

--

Mark Gillespie
WhiskyCast

Host and producer of WhiskyCast, a weekly podcast focusing on whiskies from around the world. Veteran broadcast journalist, writer, & photographer.