Chattanooga's Latest Project Is an Interesting Twist On an Italian Classic

Tennessee-based Chattanooga Whiskey is best known for its signature high-malt bourbon. The distillery was founded in 2011, during a time when distillation wasn’t even legal in its home base of Nelson County. Founders Tim Piersant and Joe Ledbetter found a workaround by bottling sourced whiskey while lobbying with the state legislature to legalize distilling. Their efforts paid off in 2013, and afterward, they began distilling. After some tasting trials, they ultimately landed on a mashbill of yellow corn, malted rye, caramel malted barley, and honey malted barley, which came to be known as the “Barrel 91 recipe.”

In the modern landscape, where other flavoring grains like rye and wheat get all the attention, Chattanooga’s high-malt recipe is certainly a rare bird. Though uncommon, the mashbill has been well received by fans and critics, and today it’s still the distillery’s go-to recipe for its various main-line bourbon releases. Every now and then, Chattanooga also uses the Barrel 91 recipe for more experimental non-whiskey releases, using the high-malt spirit as a base that’s often paired with interesting infusions. The distillery's latest project, a bourbon barrel-aged Limecello is cut from that same cloth and provides an interesting riff on a classic Italian liqueur.

A Twist of Lime

If you’re familiar with Italian cuisine, then you’ve probably heard of the popular after-dinner drink limoncello. It’s a sweet liqueur that traditionally comes from Naples and Sicily, which is made from steeping lemon zest in neutral spirits and adding a sweetener like simple syrup. Limecello is a twist on that recipe, using lime zest in place of lemon for a bolder and less sweet liqueur. It’s a relatively rare offering, though it has notably caught on with some DIYers who make it at home using mason jars, leftover lime peels, store-bought grain alcohol, white sugar, and other ingredients.

Chattanooga’s iteration has a few notable differences from the usual recipe, starting with its base. Instead of neutral spirits or grain alcohol, Chattanooga uses white whiskey distilled from the same mashbill as its Barrel 91 bourbon. The distillate was infused over the course of two weeks with over 130 pounds of citrus peels—primarily lime, and some lemon—and galangal root, a spice that’s related to ginger and is popular in Asian cuisine. After the infusion, the liquid was transferred into first-fill Chattanooga bourbon barrels for around 3 months and was bottled at 41.6% ABV.

This is the third expression in Chattanooga’s Cello Series, a line of citrus-infused products that belongs to the distillery’s larger Experimental Batches collection. The series kicked off in September 2023 when Chattanooga released its take on a traditional Italian limoncello, which was infused with Meyer lemon peels, vanilla bean, and orange peel. The following year it released Citracello, which focused on citrus as a broader category with grapefruit, orange, blood orange, and hibiscus infusions.

All of these Cello expressions share a few key production methods—namely, the brief 3-month maturation and Barrel 91 mashbill—but the newcomer is unique in that it exclusively uses column-distilled whiskey. Distiller Grant McCracken explains that his 30-foot column still produces a more floral and herbaceous liquid, which helps him highlight specific flavors brought on from the infusions. It’s available in limited quantities at Chattanooga’s Experimental Distillery and online via Seelbach’s. It has a suggested retail price of $45.

What Does It Taste Like?

If you like key lime pie, you’re in for a treat. As soon as you start nosing, freshly squeezed lime juice jumps right out of the glass, joined by vanilla, whipped cream, soft cinnamon powder, and baking spices. The galangal root is a heavy lifter on the palate, which is surprisingly spicy with flavors of ginger, cinnamon, baking spices, key lime pie, and lemon sorbet. The finish is on the quicker side, adding orange spice, orange peel, and vanilla bean alongside lemon and lime. Overall, it stands up well on its own, but we think it fares even better in a simple Highball like this one.

Fill a Highball glass with ice and pour in a shot or two of the limecello. Next, add a teaspoon of cream of coconut and fill the glass to the top with vanilla-flavored seltzer. Gently stir the ingredients together, and add a lime peel garnish (optional). The coconut and vanilla are natural partners for lime, but they also play well with some of the spicier flavors on the palate. It's a great way to keep cool on hot summer afternoons.

Chattanooga’s Canned Cocktails

Speaking of Highballs, this month Chattanooga also announced that it’s moving into the ready-to-drink space with its first-ever canned cocktail. As the name suggests, Ginger-Infused Highball takes aged Chattanooga high-malt bourbon and infuses it with lemon peel, orange peel, dried ginger, lemongrass, and gentian for over a week. After infusing, both sugar and seltzer water were blended with the whiskey.

Ginger-Infused Highball is presented at 8% ABV. It can be found for a limited time at Chattanooga’s Experimental Distillery and select Tennessee and Georgia retailers, with a suggested price of $17/4-pack.