Review #226: Found North Snow Day First Flurry

MASH BILL: 50% corn, 47% rye, 3% malted barley (derived)

AGE: A complex blend (and I mean COMPLEX) of 20 different component whiskies ranging from 10 to 26 years, aged in 12 different cask types. This drastically oversimplifies what this blend is. Please read my “Behind the Bottle” section for full details about this blend. It’s fucking wizardry!

PROOF: 115

COST: $110 for 750mL bottle

Found North released Snow Day First Flurry as an exclusive release available for their mailing list only in early December 2025. I was fortunate enough to get a bottle and have been sitting on this jewel for the obligatory photo in snow. (Because I’m a basic bitch.) Well, it’s Icemageddon this weekend in upstate South Carolina, and this might be the closest I get to a Snow Day this winter, so while these photos are of the bottle sitting on sleet and ice and my glen literally just kept sliding around for these shots, this will have to do. Let’s check this bad boy out!

Reviewed neat in a Glencairn.

APPEARANCE: Bright sherry color (1.7), syrupy looking with fat legs and beautiful beading.

NOSE: Layers of earthy, spice with fruity undertones. In the beginning cinnamon, ginger, and a touch of clove combines with earthy notes of spicey rye, toasted oak, and light cedar. The sweetness starts to appear with toasted marshmallow, vanilla cream, a drizzle of maple syrup, and raspberry compote with a hint of cherry jam. Digging in a little deeper I get more fruit notes that have a little tartness to them: blackberries, underripe apricot, and a caramel green apple. The more I nose this there are light floral notes that blend in with the spice notes on the front-end lending to the slightly herbaceous and floral profile from the rye components. Layered and complex.

PALATE: The mouthfeel is creamy at first and turns crisp later on with a spice bite and proof heat on the back half of the palate. Loads of caramelized brown sugar with vanillin rich toasted oak overwhelm the palate at first. As I let the whiskey roll around on the palate, I get some maraschino cherry and burnt marshmallow. There is a fleeting note of honeysuckle. Baking spices and orange peel build in with a slightly herbal rye spice. Dark fruit notes of black cherry, raspberry, and red currant become more robust late on the palate while the vanillin rich oak note becomes more tannic.

FINISH: A long finish that leans tannic but with consistent dark sweetness. Tannic oak and black cherry pie filling with some vanilla extract mixed in. Burnt brown sugar, and a touch of toasted almonds with a caramelized cinnamon sugar coating. A hint of cedar provides some brightness and a kiss of maple syrup to top it off.

RATING: 9.0/10

OVERALL: Like all Found North expressions, this is layered and complex. Full of sweet and spicy notes that just take you down a rabbit hole of tasting notes, it doesn’t disappoint. Found North set forth with a target profile in mind for cold, snowy, winter days and absolutely nailed it! The various rye components brought spice, vegetal, and floral notes. The aged whiskeys and new oak casks brought a creamy texture with rich vanillin and tannic oak notes with a wonderful mix of winter spices. The port finished casks and old corn whiskey components brought loads of dark, sweet flavors from brown sugar to black cherry and everything in between. In the end, the balance was on point for a warming dram on a snowy day (or icy in my case). This was a fantastic pour, and while I haven’t thought about my top whiskey of 2025, this was easily in the top 3 if not #1.

Behind the Bottle

So, let’s dive into the age, blending, and maturation process of Snow Day. Buckle in and get ready for a wild ride!

First off, Found North wanted to create a whiskey that embodied the flavors and spirit of winder. This led them to picking a blend that was high rye for those spices and port finishing for the dark fruits. They first created their high rye blend using the High Altitude process (more on this below) to create the following blend:

• 50% 10 yr rye whiskey
• 5% 22 yr rye whiskey in ex-bourbon barrel
• 28% 15 yr corn whiskey in new wood barrel
• 10% 22 yr corn whiskey in ex-bourbon barrel
• 6% 15 yr corn whiskey in ex-bourbon barrel
• 1% 20 yr corn in ex-bourbon barrel

The blend of these 6 components was matured for approximately 4 months in 37 different barrels of new charred American oak or ex-port wine casks of toasted French and European oak. Of the 37 barrels, the following 29 were selected for the final blend:

• 4 French Oak Ruby Port
• 6 European Oak Ruby Port
• 3 French Oak Rosé Port
• 2 French Oak White Port
• 6 Kelvin American Oak, Heavy Toast, Char #1
• 8 Kelvin American Oak, Heavy Toast, Char #2

These 29 barrels made up 89.1% of the final vatting of Snow Day. The remaining 10.9% of Snow Day comes from the following:

• 6.9% Goldfinch in new wood and sauternes casks
• 1% Peregrine First Flight in cognac casks
• 1% blend of 22 year corn whiskey aged in new American oak and 26 year corn whiskey aged in Hungarian oak
• 2% blend of 2 different vintages of 19 year corn whiskey aged in ex-bourbon barrels

After you put all that together, you got this here Snow Day...no big deal…

Found North's Blending Processes Explained

Found North generally uses two different blending processes to make their whiskies: the “High Altitude process” and the “Batch process.” Their expressions are generally created from one of these two processes and the names generally indicate the process used (the High Altitude series, using birds as namesakes, and the Batch series such as Batch 10, Batch 11, etc.). Snow Day is its own beast in that it does not strictly use either the High Altitude or Batch processes. However, I feel like it could be helpful for people to understand the subtle differences in these two processes.

Found North’s Batch process is your typical blending process that most producers use where you combine fully matured whiskeys to achieve your desired profile. In Found North’s case, they use all Canadian whiskey to make their batches. This follows traditional Canadian whiskey blending where the blends are made using components that are single grain distillates, i.e. 100% corn whiskey, 100% rye whiskey, etc.

(NOTE: you may see 1% malted barley in a lot of Found North expressions but may also notice there is no 100% malt whiskey component in the blends. This is because it is common for “100% rye whiskey” to have trace amounts of malted barley in it. This is done because rye grain is high in starch and yeast can’t ferment starch. Malted barley is exceptionally high in enzymes that help breakdown these starches into sugars that the yeast can ferment.)

Found North’s High Altitude process starts off the same as the Batch process in that they create a blend of fully matured single grain whiskeys, but then Found North takes that blend and redistributes it into various finishing casks for a second maturation. The finishing casks are then reblended in desired ratios to produce the final High Altitude product.

They generally do not use all of the contents of the High Altitude finishing casks for the final product. This results in left over finishing barrels containing the final High Altitude blend (not the final High Altitude product). The barrels that were not used in the final product are vatted in stainless steel containers to stop the second maturation and may be used in future releases. For example, in Snow Day, you can see above it contained “1% Peregrine First Flight in cognac casks.” What they are saying here is that Snow Day contains the final Peregrine blend that was finished in cognac casks, not the final Peregrine First Flight product. The final Peregrine First Flight product contained the Peregrine blend finished in Cognac, French Limousin, and new American oak casks. Snow Day does not contain the Peregrine blend that was in French Limousin or new American oak casks, just the cognac finished blend.

Hopefully this helps shed some light on how Found North does their blending and what the subtle differences are in their processes. While I feel like I initially understood how they were doing all this early on, I feel like I’ve continued to gain a better understanding as Found North has released more whiskey. Found North creates products you can really nerd out on which I personally love. It certainly helps that its always killer whiskey that doesn’t disappoint.

1 | Disgusting | see my 1/10 ratings

2 | Poor | see my 2/10 ratings

3 | Bad | see my 3/10 ratings

4 | Sub-par | see my 4/10 ratings

5 | Good | see my 5/10 ratings

6 | Very Good | see my 6/10 ratings

7 | Great | see my 7/10 ratings

8 | Excellent | see my 8/10 ratings

9 | Incredible | see my 9/10 ratings

10 | Perfect | see my 10/10 ratings