If you’re not yet familiar with Found North, allow me to be the first to tell you that this brand is probably the most exciting new bottler in years. The Taylor brothers, who founded the company, seem to have cracked some sort of whisky cheat code. What they’ve proven is that mature whisky doesn’t need to spend its entire life in fresh wood to be complete. If you take well-aged whisky, blend it skillfully, and finish it thoughtfully, you can create something far greater than the sum of its parts. Of course, it’s not that simple. You need great whisky and great wood from the start. Blending is a huge factor as well, but it’s clear these guys are overachievers on both fronts. We’ve never had a Found North release that didn’t overdeliver, and these two new barrels are no exception. Let’s see how an old tawny port cask works with these exceptional old Canadian rye and corn whiskies. The color is a deep, sanguine auburn (1.5), an absolute about face from the Madeira cask, offering dense red fruit notes of cherry, cassis, and raspberry. Next come layers of roasted nuts and rich herbal tones such as cassia bark, cinchona, and kola nut. The palate shows dense rye spice and earthy warehouse floor more overtly than the Madeira, with the spice kicking up at the end. It begins with sweet, jammy red fruit like dark cherry and fudge before melding into gravelly rye spice and exotic herbs. Both whiskies are excellent and particularly fascinating to taste side by side to understand what a long, thoughtful finish can do when you start with bold, high-quality aged whisky.