There’s a certain kind of whiskey drinker who doesn’t get excited about another shelf-stable, mass-produced bottle that’ll be sitting in the same spot next year. That guy wants something that’s actually going to run out. Something with a story attached to it that he can tell his buddies about later, standing around with a glass in hand. If that sounds familiar, there’s a new release out of Seattle worth knowing about.
Copperworks Distilling Co., the waterfront distillery that’s been turning heads in the American Single Malt Whiskey world since 2013, just dropped its latest limited release: Single Cask No. 97-2. And unlike most “limited” releases that quietly restock a few months later, this one is genuinely a one-shot deal. Once it’s gone, that’s it. Nobody will ever taste this exact whiskey again.
What Makes This Whiskey Different
Single Cask No. 97-2 starts with something a lot of casual whiskey drinkers never think about: the barley. This batch was made using single varietal Baronesse pale malt barley, sourced from Joseph’s Grainery out in Colfax, Washington. That’s not filler information — the barley variety matters a great deal to how a whiskey ends up tasting, and Baronesse has already proven itself inside Copperworks’ lineup.
A previous release using that same Baronesse barley, part of the distillery’s Farmsmith series, won gold at the 2025 American Craft Spirits Association Competition. That bottle sold out completely. So when Copperworks decided to bring Baronesse barley back for a single cask release, it wasn’t a shot in the dark — it was betting on a grain that had already delivered…