Denver gets all the attention when folks talk about cities at high altitude. Mile High City is what they call it because it sits at 5,279 feet above sea level.

Here’s a well documented but little talked about factoid…

Sante Fe, New Mexico sits at a significantly higher altitude than The Mile High City, and yet no one ever talks about it. 7,199 feet in the Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ?!?) Foothills is where it’s at. Our lungs hurt just thinking about it! Good thing we have some whiskey on hand to ease our pain.

On today’s episode of A Tasting at The Murder Table, we’re sampling a whiskey from Sante Fe, New Mexico’s Sante Fe Spirits called Colkegan Single Malt Whiskey.

Here’s a good bit of info about this whiskey taken directly from the Sante Fe Spirits website:

Like its Scottish single malt cousins, Santa Fe Spirits’ Colkegan Single Malt Whiskey is made entirely from malted barley, carefully distilled, and aged and finished in various oak casks to enhance the complex flavors inherent to true single malt whiskey. But there are key differences that set this remarkable spirit apart from its Scottish relatives.

While peat-smoked malt has always been a key ingredient in many well known Scotch whiskies, Santa Fe Spirits’ Colkegan Single Malt Whiskey’s wonderfully complex flavor profile benefits from a very different type of smoked malt : mesquite. The result is a smooth, mellow, mysteriously balanced hint of smoky complexity unique to Santa Fe Spirits.

Santa Fe Spirits’ Colkegan Single Malt Whiskey’s unique barrel aging process also separates it from its low-altitude relatives. Santa Fe Spirits is located 7,000 feet above sea level in the high desert and utilizes a climate-controlled barrel warehouse with temperatures ranging from freezing cold to swelteringly hot, and humidities ranging from bone dry to unbelievably damp. A strict regimen of climate changes yields a spirit with amazing complexity unrivaled by more temperate warehouses.

Our love of a smoky dram is well documented, so when the opportunity came up to try a variation on the whole smoked barley thing, we jumped at the chance to give this Colkegan Single Malt a try. It sure sounds delicious! But is it? Click play on the following video to find out:

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Many thanks to the fine folks at Big Thirst Marketing for sending us this very generous sample!