George Dickel is an iconic Tennessee whiskey (but as a brand, they spell whisky without the “e”) that deserves a lot of love, particularly for their releases from the past few years. Lost Lantern is a non-distilling, Vermont-based independent bottler of American whiskey that works almost exclusively with smaller craft brands.
It’s an unlikely duo to collaborate, but their Lost Lantern George Dickel Collection, out now, might be the best whisk(e)y team-up of the year.
Dickel hails from Cascade Hollow Distilling Co., founded in 1878 and rebuilt in the 1950s. The whisky brand’s recent critical and popular resurgence can be attributed to distiller Nicole Austin joining in 2018 (Austin also serves as Diageo’s Director of American Whiskey Liquid Development). Lost Lantern was launched in 2020 and curates some of my favorite whiskeys from smaller distilleries across the country—they literally use the motto “Shining a Light on the Independent Spirit,” which makes this new collection all the more surprising.
For their Dickel series, Lost Lantern co-founders Nora Ganley-Roper and Adam Polonski worked with Austin to select whiskies that run a bit outside of the distillery style—or, as they put it, styles that the distillery has produced for years but rarely, if ever, released, which is typical for a Lost Lantern release. The Lost Lantern team went down to Tennessee and spent two days with Austin to pick out those one-of-a-kind barrels.
“We had to be able to work with a heritage distillery the same way we work with small distilleries, working closely with the team and sourcing with full transparency,” says Ganley-Roper. “Working with Dickel, it came down to how many different types of whisky they had in their warehouses that had never seen the light of day.”
“I’m so thrilled that they were interested in working with us, since their focus has previously only been craft producers,” says Austin. “I have so much respect for them as people and as independent bottlers; I was so excited to see what they would do with these whiskies.”
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The collection includes an 18-year-old Tennessee whisky, a wheat whisky, a light whisky, a bourbon that has not undergone charcoal mellowing (as Tennessee whiskeys all do), and Tennessee-distilled rye. All the releases are cask strength, non-chill-filtered, and bottled with no color added.
“For me, what I find the most interesting is the bourbon,” says Ganley-Roper. “It didn’t go through the Lincoln County Process of maple charcoal filtration, which is required for Tennessee whiskey. So the bourbon is a rare glance at what George Dickel tastes like without that signature step, and it casts some light on what maple charcoal filtration actually does from a flavor perspective. The bourbon has a surprisingly classic [bourbon] flavor profile.”
Courtesy Brand
That said, if you’re a fan of classic Dickel, you’ll want to try Fabled Forest, the blend of 11- and 18-year-old whiskies. It offers a nutty, dark cherry, tobacco, and heavy oak profile that is also a bit more complex and approachable than the usual big age-statement Dickel. And if you’re not a fan but curious what an outside perspective could bring? Wild Woodland George Dickel rye is a Tennessee-distilled rye (which has never been released on its own before), and it shows a completely different side of the distillery–fresh, chocolatey, and minty. The wheat whisky, a favorite of Austin, is soft, chocolatey, and full of baking spices. Personally, I loved the eight-year-old light whisky, which features a corn-heavy mash bill (84 percent corn, 8 percent rye, 8 percent malt) and was aged in a used oak barrel. It almost reminds me of a Mizunara cask; there are hints of sandalwood, nutmeg and coconut at play here.
The Lost Lantern George Dickel Collection is available as of this week via Lost Lantern’s website, on Seelbach’s, at select retailers in a limited number of states, and at Lost Lantern’s tasting room in Vergennes, VT. Some of the bottles are single casks and are highly limited in availability.
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