For every bottle of Trail’s End Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey sold this year, Hood River Distillers will make a donation to the National Forest Foundation’s 50 Million for our Forests program. During the first year of the program, donations from Hood River helped plant more than 5,000 native trees.
Wes Swaffar, Director of Reforestation and Partnerships, National Forest Foundation, said more than 1 million acres of National Forests need of reforestation.
“No other portfolio celebrates Oregon Oak as much as Hood River Distillers,” said Casey Armstrong, Senior Brand Manager. “From McCarthy’s Oregon Single Malt, which pioneered the use of this hardwood; to Trail’s End, which draws its bold oak profile from Oregon Oak staves; to our Double Mountain Hopped Whiskey, which uses the Oak to balance bright citrus and floral notes; Oregon Oak is as core to our corporate DNA as the brands we produce.”
“In the last two years alone, more than 3,400 wildfires burned more than 1.2 million acres of forest in the Pacific Northwest. Nationwide, the National Forest Foundation is undertaking an ambitious effort to plant 50 million trees across U.S. National Forests by 2023.
Trail’s End is an ultra-premium, Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, launched in 2015. The bourbon is initially aged in Kentucky in new charred white Oak barrels for eight years. It is then brought to Oregon, where it is steeped with Oregon Oak, perfected with glacier-fed spring water from Mt. Hood and bottled at 90 proof.
The Oregon Oak imparts a bolder oak profile and does so very quickly, adding only a few months to the aging and finishing process. On the palate, however, the Oregon Oak brings forward flavors of the Pacific Northwest, including a warm nuttiness that differentiates Trail’s End from its southern kin.