After many years at Islay distillery , including a long stint as distillery manager (the only Islay native to hold that title), last year John Campbell packed his bags and departed for someplace a bit warmer—Southern California. He is now the master distiller and COO at the small Oxnard distillery Sespe Creek, which just released its first under his direction. Batch 22 of Warbringer isn’t just any bourbon, however, it’s a thoroughly unique whiskey made from a mashbill of mesquite-smoked grains.

While this is obviously a completely different category of whiskey than the single malt scotch made at , the smokiness of this bourbon does bring to mind the peated whisky produced at that Islay distillery. Sespe Creek was founded by biochemist David Brandt in 2017 in Oxnard (about 70 miles north o

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