Hell Diver 2025

Hell Diver Genealogy

We have a unique approach to making whisky, both in process and style. The High Altitude method of blend, finish and reblend allows us to create flavors and assemble them into truly differentiated compositions. We don’t lock onto one age statement, one cask regimen, one blend. We explore. We iterate. Each release is an opportunity to improve the process and search out new flavors.

When we made Hell Diver First Flight, the Pedro Ximénez finishing casks were varied, intense and difficult to blend. We excluded nearly half of the finishing casks from the final marriage because the barrels were too incongruent to come together in a simple vatting. Nonetheless, the culminating blend was a vivid juxtaposition of chaos and order. It was a tempestuous crash of wild berries and warm spices.

Hell Diver 2025

With Hell Diver 2025, we adjusted the initial blend, forming a sturdier foundation that could withstand the sweet and dry resonance of Pedro Ximénez. This yielded more obliging profiles amongst our finished casks. We also reduced the number of new wood barrels in favor of Cognac casks to cultivate orchard fruits and tempered oak tannins. Easier cask integration during the reblending stage unlocked a richer, creamier fruit profile across the mid-palate and finish. 

While we lost fewer casks and achieved greater harmony in the final reblend, Hell Diver 2025 retained the rapturous red fruit notes and unfettered baking spices that define Hell Diver.

Flavor Notes

The nose is a vermilion storm cloud, echoing an ominous rumble of red velvet cake, hazelnut and brandied chocolate cherry. It looms in the glass, pulsating crimson lightning, each strike illuminates the cloud with baked brown sugar, galvanic bursts of sweetened chai, a nimbus of raspberry infused honey and cara cara marmalade.

The landing is like a diving loon. Chaos above, calm below, it glides unperturbed across the palate, leaving toasted caramel in its wake and a dusting of ruby chocolate over creamy mocha. The maelstrom above displays sweet secondary earth tones, reverberating mint, camellia sinensis and vanilla glacé. All the while, our Hell Diver navigates the undercurrents, a spiral of strawberry conserva, canela-coated Brazil nuts and a twining of toffee.

The finish approaches. The bird breaches. The storm crescendos as its nutmeg, white tea and French wafer coalesce. A final flush of red comice pear flashes bright before its silken descent into an everlasting swirl of maple, walnut and cocoa powder.

Components and Maturation

Hell Diver 2025 began as a blend of 17, 20 and 24 year corn and 22 year rye. The 20 year corn was critical to the blend, providing the necessary thickness in the mid-palate, laying a viscous foundation for the Pedro Ximénez casks to impart a broad range of sweet, dry, herbaceous, earthy and spicy qualities, without dismantling the whisky’s structure. After 7 additional months in Pedro Ximénez, Cognac and New Wood casks, the final reblend marks the return of Hell Diver in its newest form.