Clear Creek uses Holstein pot stills and one pass distillation, then barrel-ages the distillate in Limousin oak and air dried Oregon Oak barrels. The result is remarkably smooth for a 3-year-old, and peaty with a surprisingly clean finish. Mentions: Jim Murray's Whiskey Bible Jim Murray’s 2010 Whiskey Bible, Jim Murray declared, [McCarthy’s Oregon Single Malt Whiskey] “An American masterpiece..and now an institution. This is, unquestionably, the finest bottled whiskey I have tasted anywhere in the world from a small-batch distiller.” The 2008 edition of The Whiskey Bible gave McCarthy’s a phenomenal score of 96. Jim Murray, The Whiskey Bible. “... stylistically somewhere between Bowmore and the monsters on Islay’s south shore... It is nothing less than a superb peated whiskey, able to stand toe-to-toe with any young Scottish malt, and likely best more than a few of them.” -Jay Erisman and Lew Bryson, The Malt Advocate -First Quarter, 2009.