Taste Test: San Antonio’s Maverick Distilling Debuts Whiskey Made From an Uncommon Grain: Triticale

The latest whiskey from Maverick Distilling is distilled from an uncommon grain: triticale.

On Tuesday, San Antonio, Texas distillery Maverick Distilling announced the release of a new, unusual whiskey. Unlike your usual suspects in the whiskey world, the primary grain from which this expression is distilled isn’t corn or rye or barley or even wheat.

Instead, it’s made from triticale, an uncommon hybrid of rye and wheat invented by a Scottish botanist in 1875.

Maverick’s experimentation with Triticale was the result of what owner Kenneth Maverick describes as a “happy accident.” The distillery had ordered thousands of pounds of rye but, unbeknownst to anyone, received triticale instead thanks to a snafu at the malt house.

Triticale is quite similar visually to rye, so nobody initially noticed the mixup. They realized something was wrong during the fermentation process, when the mix kept bubbling over because they were treating it as if it were rye. After some confusion, they looked at the grain under a microscope and ended up identifying it for what it was.

Samuel Maverick Straight Triticale Whiskey Bottled-In-Bond, is distilled from a mashbill of 72% triticale, 18% south Texas corn and 10% malted barley. Distilled in April 2019, this batch was aged for four years and four months in new American oak barrels. It’s bottled at 100 proof per Bottled-In-Bond regulations.

Maverick Distilling has released lower-aged Triticale whiskeys in recent years, but this is the first 4-year-old edition of the expression — the oldest yet. This Triticale release is highly limited, with only 66 bottles available. Maverick says the low bottle count is because of both angel’s share and because the distillery offered samples from the barrels to guests during tours. Samuel Maverick Straight Triticale Whiskey Bottled-In-Bond is available exclusively at Maverick Distilling in downtown San Antonio. It has a suggested retail price of $135.

Tasting Samuel Maverick Straight Triticale Whiskey Bottled-In-Bond

We sampled Maverick Distilling’s new Triticale release — here’s what we thought.

Nose: Very wheat-heavy nose. The aroma takes you straight to cracking open a warm baguette. There’s a lot of nuttiness, too. Almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts. There’s also a dollop of honey and a hint of lemon curd, plus a soft white-pepper note.

Taste: The mouthfeel is moderate, and the flavor profile is highly distinctive. Really creamy profile with plenty of butter. Charred walnuts, straw, a big toast note, a strong honey presence and a touch of oak. Subtle spice with cinnamon and pepper. Some barrel char and a hint of cherry.

Finish: Long finish with a bit of heat and a big dose of honey. The toast note continues on the finish, and the cherry from the palate is more prominent here. Cinnamon, hazelnut, French toast.

Overall: This is certainly something. It’s remarkably distinctive — I’ve never tasted anything quite like it. That makes sense, as this is my first taste of a triticale whiskey. It’s very wheaty with some subtle rye-like spice. The longer it sits, the more sweetness comes through. There’s plenty of honey, but it’s still not an overly sweet whiskey overall. There’s reasonable complexity at work, but the dominant profile is bread, toast, butter and honey.

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