Review #145: Found North Hover Hawk

COST: $160 for 750mL bottle

AGE: A blend of 15-27 year old straight whiskeys

MASH BILL: 90% corn, 9% rye, 1% malted barley (derived)

PROOF: 123.2

Hover Hawk is the 3^rd release of Found North’s High Altitude Collection. This expression started with a blend of 22, 23, 24, and 27 year old corn whiskeys and 15 and 18 year rye whiskeys. This blend was then divided to finish for 4 months in Moscatel and New American Oak barrels, and then the blend was recombined for bottling. After missing out on acquiring a bottle of the first two High Altitude expressions, I was very excited to get this one! However, my first tasting of it was rather disappointing as it came across as a complete oak bomb. But I decided to give it a couple weeks to breath taking a couple 1oz pours a week and let it open up before I reviewed it. I think the time is right. Let’s get to it!

Reviewed neat in a Glencairn.

APPEARANCE: Reddish umber (1.7); syrupy looking with a half dozen long tear drop legs that take 10-30 seconds to finally run down the side of the glass.

NOSE: A combination of lemon and pine give this a fresh smell. A blend of sweet caramel, toasted almonds, and light cinnamon makes me think of an almond praline. There’s a noticeable vanilla profile to round out the primary characters before finding minor fruit notes such as apple, white grapes, and stewed red fruit. There is a nice dark oakiness to it as well, and while this was almost overpowering when I first cracked the bottle, it’s certainly just a backdrop now.

PALATE: This has a wonderfully thick and viscous mouthfeel, creamy even, and hardly any astringentness despite its 123+ proof point. It lands on the palate with a rich fruity profile of overripe honeydew melon, figs, and cherries. Tannic, old oak and dessert wine dance around on the palate along with milk chocolate and raspberry sauce. There’s a spiciness that shows up mid-palate that I can best describe as a harmonious blend of cardamom and white pepper – spicier than cardamom, but with the sweetness I get of cardamom and a slight earthiness.

FINISH: The finish is long and sweet. Honey, stewed red fruit, boarderline black cherry preserves, sweet oak that turns a bit more tannic the further along we go, and a light maple syrup. There’s a tingle that’s left on my palate helping indicate the proof, but nothing offensive. Overall, this drinks significantly lower proof than it is – the decadent sweetness throughout help with this.

RATING: 8.6/10

VALUE: 7.0 /10 (This is an attempt to take into account price, tasting rating, age, and proof. See my spreadsheet for more details.)

OVERALL: Pretty standard Found North – producing another banger. 😊 While this isn’t my favorite Found North bottle, it’s still one of the highest rated bottles in my bar at this moment. And while $160 for a bottle isn’t easy for most, there’s a lot of great info and uniqueness that come along with that price tag, making it feel like it’s of significantly more value than plenty of other bottles in a similar price range. At the same time though, I can’t remove the fact that there are a lot cheaper bottles that also command 8-9 rankings (and significantly more available, e.g. ECBP). All that said, if mid 100s is in your price range for a bottle, I’m a believer you will never go wrong with a Found North bottle. As a matter of fact, I’m not sure I could be more confident in getting a banger of a bottle with any other distiller (NDP…whatever). Hover Hawk is no exception.

Stay tuned for an upcoming review: a side by side comparison of the first 3 expressions from the Found North High Altitude Collection.

Behind the Bottle

Found North’s High Altitude Collection is all about creating a blend, dividing the blend up and giving it different finishings, then recombing the different finishes for the final expression for bottling.

The High Altitude Collection features North American birds for the names of their expressions. The first was Peregrine, named after the Peregrine Falcon – an elegant whiskey focused on highlighting the creamy quality of the Cognac casks used in finishing. The second was Hell Diver, named after the Common Loon and its ability to dive deep into lakes – dark and rich, like diving into a sea of red fruit from the Pedro Ximenez sherry cask finish. Hover Hawk is named after the Kestrel and its ability and finesse to to hover in the air with how it floats on airstreams – vibrant and decadent riding the honeyed white fruit character of Moscatel.

This name sake was found to be fitting for this third expression as well due to the finesse required to make this whiskey. The finesse comes in the use of Moscatel casks for finishing. They found Moscatel casks to be very finicky because they provide a very small window to find a good balance of citrus, sweetness, and tannins.

(BEHIND THE PHOTO: We have a pond on our property that freezes over a couple times a year. Rarely does it get as cold as it has for as long as it has the past week leading to it being very solid. It was solid enough that I felt confident that I could place a bottle on the ice and it not fall though. While there was some light cracking and sounds at first, the ice held. My confidence was rewarded with this picture that I’m somewhat proud of.)

1 | Disgusting | ...I've not subjected myself to this level

2 | Poor | Balcones Lineage

3 | Bad | High West Double Rye, Jefferson's Ocean 28

4 | Sub-par | Weller's SR, Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select

5 | Good | Buffalo Trace, Sazerac Rye, Green River Wheated

6 | Very Good | Blanton's, Holladay Bourbons, Eagle Rare

7 | Great | Baker's 7yr SiB, BBCo Origin High Wheat, 1792 BiB

8 | Excellent | Most ECBP batches, JD SiB BiB, High West MWND Act 11

9 | Incredible | Barrel Bourbon Batch T8ke, BBC DS #7, Four Roses OESQ

10 | Perfect | Found North Batch 08