Always there is a breeze on the East End.  For months crispy and snowed, giving to cool & fresh, and the eventual sublime squall of autumn.  This weekend the trees whispered sun warmth—Summer is here.  As time would have it, the end of spring closed two full years of aging one of our favorite one-off whiskies.  A whimsical project we started with one of our favorite collaborators when MDC was a toddler.  Andrea, our go-to maltster and all around powerhouse, floor malted and bespoke smoked a small barrel’s worth of a few different scented barleys.  A handful are still sleeping in the rickhouse to on their own schedule, but perfect and on time for July our Sandalwood Smoked Malt has arrived. This time of year Out East is for pools and sand, cliff hikes and late fires.  Friends and condensation on iced glasses.  Ocean bleached eyes and late mornings.  Our whiskies here at Matchbook are reflections of our collaborations, our locale, efforts and our seasons.  We have our Bourbons and Ryes for Old Fashioneds and nipped noses.  Our Flatlander for Autumns homage to heirloom harvest.  And here Sunsetter, a daytime sipper to have over ice, with ginger and a lime, to fall asleep next too under an umbrella with a friend. A spirit of Summer. The barley, grown upstate, was spread out on the floor at Valley Malt, left humid and warm to germinate and generate.  Dried over a campfire of Sandalwood, capture a balance of sweet smoke and golden barley straw.  A subtle barrel touch is all that was needed—any more would cover too much. Sunsetter is for the outside, the East End’s brightest time of year.  For sandy feet, a daytime sipper, a summer whiskey.