Root Shoot Spirits Drops a Limited Peach Brandy Cask Whiskey That Colorado Won't Forget
There are whiskey releases, and then there are whiskey releases that tell a story so deeply rooted in a single place that the liquid inside the bottle almost doesn't need a tasting note — the origin does the talking. Root Shoot Spirits' newest limited-edition drop, the Colorado Peach Brandy Cask Finished American Single Malt Whiskey, is firmly in the second category. Timed deliberately to Colorado's short and celebrated peach season, this release threads together a fifth-generation grain farm in Loveland, a pioneering fruit distillery perched on the Western Slope, and the most famous stone fruit in the Rocky Mountain West. The result is a whiskey that could only have been made in one state — and, frankly, by very few people within it.
The Whiskey Behind the Whiskey: Root Shoot's Award-Winning Base Spirit
To understand what makes this finishing experiment so compelling, you first have to understand what was put into those peach brandy casks. The limited-edition expression begins with Root Shoot's award-winning four-year American Single Malt Whiskey, crafted entirely from Colorado-sown, grown, and malted grain cultivated on Root Shoot's fifth-generation family farm in Loveland. That's not a marketing phrase — it's a production reality that sets Root Shoot apart from virtually every other craft distillery operating in the American single malt space today.
Root Shoot Spirits was founded in 2016 by fifth-generation farmer Todd Olander and his family, and all grain used in its single malt is grown and malted on the Olander family farm in Loveland, Colorado. After harvest and malting, the distillery's whiskeys are fermented off-grain and pot distilled before aging in new charred American oak. From field to bottle, all Root Shoot Spirits whiskey travels only about 30 miles, representing a uniquely hyper-local and sustainable supply chain journey of Colorado agriculture. That kind of provenance transparency is rare anywhere in American whiskey — in the craft segment, it's nearly unprecedented at this level of quality.
The quality argument isn't theoretical. This year, Colorado's Root Shoot Spirits walked away from the 2026 London Spirits Competition with a trio of awards: American Single Malt Whiskey of the Year, Whisky of the Year, and Spirit of the Year (U.S.A.). Root Shoot Bottled-in-Bond American Single Malt scored 97 out of a possible 100 points, making it the highest-scoring whisky among American entries — a remarkable achievement for a small family operation competing against established global players. Co-founder Emily Olander didn't miss the weight of the moment. "Earning American Single Malt Whiskey of the Year (for the second year in a row), and now Whisky of the Year, and Spirit of the Year (USA) at the London Spirits Competition is incredibly meaningful to us, not just because of the recognition, but because of what it represents," she said.
The flagship is aged in first-use medium char American oak barrels for four years and bottled-in-bond at 100 proof. The Root Shoot American Single Malt whiskey experience starts with aromas of cobbler and honey granola, and upon first sip, clean flavors of alpine florals breeze across the palate, and the whiskey finishes with an alpenglow of rich pastry, faint cocoa dust and long, lingering bright-yet-spicy flavors. That aromatic and flavor architecture — already pointing toward fruit and pastry — turns out to be a perfect substrate for a peach brandy finish.
The Cask Partner: Peach Street Distillers and the Legend of Palisade
Root Shoot didn't reach out to just any brandy producer for these casks. The choice of Peach Street Distillers as the cask source is a pairing that anyone familiar with Colorado's spirits landscape will immediately recognize as inspired. Peach Street Distillers was established in November 2005 by Rory Donovan with Bill Graham and David Thibodeau, the co-founders of Ska Brewing Company in Durango, Colorado. It was founded by three friends from Durango and was one of Colorado's first licensed distilleries. Peach Street Distillers released the first legal Colorado bourbon post-Prohibition — not to make history, but to honor this place and the people who make it special.
The distillery sits in Palisade, a small agricultural community on the Western Slope of Colorado that has built its entire identity around one crop. At an elevation of 4,700 feet, Palisade is blessed with abundant sunshine, making the area a near-perfect place for growing fruit. A feature of fruit grown in these desert-like conditions is that it has a better concentration of sugar, which allows for the distilling of some superior adult beverages. Palisade peaches are the crown jewel of Colorado produce — known across the region for a sweetness and density of flavor that sets them apart from anything grown in lower, wetter climates.
Around 2011, the distillery introduced fruit brandies made from local peaches and pears, drawing on the region's abundant orchards to diversify its portfolio beyond grain-based spirits and revive traditional American styles like oak-aged peach brandy, which had largely vanished after Prohibition. The distillery's Peach Brandy is made from freshly picked Palisade peaches, fermented in open air and distilled once to retain the fruit's lush, ripe character. Their brandies are crafted in small batches with pure Rocky Mountain water, emphasizing single-varietal distillation to preserve orchard freshness, and each bottle requires at least 20 pounds of fruit, resulting in sweet, robust profiles that reflect the region's agricultural heritage. When those spent casks become the maturation vessel for another distillery's whiskey, every ounce of that character is available to migrate into the spirit.
The Release: What's in the Bottle
Production and Specs
Root Shoot Spirits has released a limited Colorado Peach Brandy Cask Finished Whiskey with only 480 bottles produced. That number is not a production choice made for marketing mystique — it reflects the physical reality of a small farm-based distillery finishing whiskey in a discrete set of casks. When those casks are emptied, the release is over. Bottled at 49% ABV (98 proof), the release carries an SRP of $70. For a limited single malt with this level of provenance, an internationally award-winning base spirit, and a finish sourced from one of Colorado's most storied fruit distilleries, that price point is genuinely reasonable.
The spirit is finished in Peach Street Distillers' peach brandy casks, whose brandy is made from Colorado-grown Palisade peaches. The finishing step is where the magic of cask selection reveals itself — the residual brandy soaked into the wood imparts not just flavor but a structural memory of the fruit itself, softening the malt's edges and layering in a sweetness that feels organic rather than additive.
Tasting Notes: What to Expect in the Glass
The whiskey opens with aromas of cobbler, honeyed granola, and clean alpine florals, followed by notes of rich pastry, faint cocoa dust, and spicy botanicals. Those are the characteristics already present in the base single malt, now amplified and given new direction by the time spent in brandy-soaked wood. The finish layers Colorado's famous Palisade peach character with the malt and spice of Root Shoot's American Single Malt Whiskey, capturing the essence of summer in every sip.
What's notable about that flavor profile is the coherence. Too many fruit-cask finishes result in a jarring clash between the spirit's native character and the flavors being imparted — a kind of forced sweetness grafted onto a dry, grain-forward base. Here, the existing cobbler and pastry notes in Root Shoot's flagship whiskey mean the peach character isn't arriving uninvited. It's completing a sentence the base spirit started. The result is a distinctly Colorado American Single Malt Whiskey: smooth, lush, and shaped by Colorado grain and peach farmers at every stage.
The Farmer's Perspective
Todd Olander, who farms the grain that becomes every drop of Root Shoot whiskey, framed the release in terms of the land rather than the still. "Everything we make starts on the farm, so finishing our American Single Malt in Colorado peach brandy casks was a natural fit," he said. He added: "It's a whiskey that celebrates two of Colorado's greatest crops, barley and peaches, and the farmers who grow them." That framing matters. Root Shoot isn't approaching this release as a distillery executing a clever cask strategy — they're approaching it as farmers paying tribute to fellow farmers. That distinction shapes everything from the sourcing of the casks to the timing of the release.
Availability and the Hunt
The distribution picture for this release is limited by both geography and bottle count. Root Shoot Colorado Peach Brandy Cask Finished Whiskey is only available exclusively in the Colorado market and will soon be available to purchase online at rootshootspirits.com. The seasonal expression is available now at retailers across Colorado and will soon be sold through the distillery's online store. For collectors and enthusiasts outside Colorado, that online availability window may represent the only realistic shot at securing a bottle.
This highly anticipated release may be a bit hard to come by, as there were only 480 bottles produced, so if you are a whiskey enthusiast and come across a bottle, you should just buy it. That's not hyperbole. When a distillery with multiple international awards behind it releases fewer than 500 bottles of a collaboratively finished expression timed to a specific agricultural season, the math on availability is not favorable for anyone who hesitates.
Colorado's Craft Whiskey Moment — and What Root Shoot Represents
The Peach Brandy Cask release doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's the latest expression of a Colorado whiskey identity that has been quietly building for years and is now impossible to ignore on the global stage. Root Shoot wasn't the only Colorado distillery awarded medals at the London competition, which Emily Olander says is a testament to Colorado's spirits climate. "More broadly, I think this says a lot about what's happening in Colorado right now," she said. "There's a strong ecosystem here — farmers, maltsters, and distillers — who are focused on quality, collaboration, and a real sense of place."
Right behind Root Shoot's whiskey and also earning a double gold medal was Stranahan's Original American single-malt whiskey from the acclaimed Denver-based distillery. Stranahan's was the first modern microdistillery to legally make whiskey in Colorado and an early craft whiskey distiller in the United States. The two distilleries represent different chapters of the same story: Stranahan's pioneered the Colorado single malt identity in the mid-2000s, and Root Shoot, a generation later, is defining what it looks like when that identity is rooted all the way back to the soil.
The Homestead High Proof Series, launched earlier in 2026, offered another window into Root Shoot's ambitions. The inaugural 2026 vintage, available across Colorado in limited quantities, is a high-proof blend of four and five-year American Single Malt Whiskey, bottled at 120 proof. Homestead is a blend of five American Single Malt barrels — three five-year and two four-year — built from three distinct mash bills and incorporating eight Root Shoot malts in total, with all barrels distilled in 2020 and 2021 in a traditional pot still and fermented off grain, then aged in first-use, medium-char American oak barrels. That breadth of experimentation, all executed within a rigidly defined local sourcing model, is what makes Root Shoot such an interesting study in what the American single malt category can be when geography and agriculture are treated as non-negotiable.
The Broader Significance of Fruit Cask Finishing in American Whiskey
Cask finishing is not new — the Scotch industry has been sending whisky into sherry butts, port pipes, and wine barriques for decades. What's newer, and more interesting from an American craft perspective, is the use of domestically produced fruit brandy casks as the finishing vessel. It creates an entirely different dynamic than sourcing used wine barrels from Europe: the casks carry a story that is traceable, local, and often made by people the distillery actually knows.
In Root Shoot's case, both producers operate within the same state, drawing on crops grown within the same agricultural ecosystem. The barley comes from the Front Range foothills around Loveland; the peaches come from the sun-drenched Western Slope around Palisade. These are two distinct growing regions separated by the Continental Divide, but united by their Colorado identity and by the distillers who have chosen to make that identity the foundation of their work rather than a secondary consideration.
Peach Street's move to introduce fruit brandies from local peaches and pears helped revive traditional American styles like oak-aged peach brandy, which had largely vanished after Prohibition, and quickly gained demand while helping establish the distillery as a pioneer in fruit-forward craft distillation in Colorado. That the spent vessels of that revival are now being repurposed to finish a world-class single malt is a satisfying full-circle moment for Colorado's craft spirits community — and a signal to the broader American whiskey industry that the most interesting finishing experiments may not require a trip to a European wine region at all.
Final Assessment: Why This Bottle Matters
Root Shoot Spirits' Colorado Peach Brandy Cask Finished American Single Malt Whiskey is a limited release that earns its scarcity. The base spirit is one of the most decorated American single malts in the world right now, built from grain grown and malted on the same farm where the distillery was founded. The finishing casks come from a Colorado institution with a two-decade history of turning Palisade's renowned peaches into serious spirits. The production run is small enough that the release will be over before most people realize it started.
At $70 for 480 bottles of a 49% ABV single malt finished in genuine Colorado peach brandy casks — from a distillery that has won Whisky of the Year at an international competition — the math points in one direction. At 49 percent ABV, the suggested retail price of $70 is a no-brainer for a whiskey lover. Seasonal releases tied to local agriculture have become something of a craft distillery cliché in recent years, but this one is backed by the kind of production integrity and award-winning credentials that separate the genuine article from imitation. If there's a bottle left on a shelf near you, it won't be there long.
