Cascade Hollow Distillery

John F. Brown and F.E. Cunningham ran a distillery in the valley by 1879, when Brown sold his share to Matthew Sims.^4,10 In 1883 McLin Davis became the Cascade operation's distiller, and he is credited with the whisky's recipe.^4,10 The label's slogan, "Mellow as Moonlight", came from his method of cooling the mash at night.^4,10 In 1888 Victor Shwab, a partner in George A. Dickel & Company, bought a two-thirds interest in the distillery.^4,5,10 The deal made the Dickel firm the sole distributor of Cascade whisky.^4,5,10 After Davis died in 1898, Shwab acquired his heirs' interest and gained full control of the distillery.^1,5 In 1910 the operation moved to the Stitzel Distillery in Louisville, Kentucky, where the whisky was made until 1917.^2,4,5

In 1937 the Shwab family sold the Cascade Whisky trademark and recipe to the Schenley Distilling Company.^2,5 Schenley believed it would make better whisky back in Coffee County, and after a special vote, Ralph L. Dupps rebuilt the distillery, making its first mash on July 4, 1959.^2,4,5

Diageo was formed in 1997 when Guinness merged with Grand Metropolitan, and Dickel came with the deal.^7,8,9 A push in the 1990s left more whisky than buyers wanted, so production stopped in 1999 to let its value recover and to ease wastewater issues.^2,4,9 Diageo restarted production in 2003, with master distiller David Backus making 60 barrels a day.^2,4,9 John Lunn was master distiller from 2005 to 2015.⁴ In March 2018 the George Dickel Distillery became Cascade Hollow Distilling Co., with Nicole Austin as general manager and distiller.⁴

In 2003 Backus weighed grain by hand, distilled the spirit twice, and filtered it through maple charcoal.^2,4,9 Dickel says its spirit has always been chilled to 40 degrees before charcoal filtering.³ Its whisky ages in single-story warehouses, which keeps barrel aging more even.^4,11