New Riff Bottled in Bond Rye

Stress. It’s an insidious thing. When I was a young man, I always thought I thrived on stress. I thought that I did my best work just under the deadline. And as such, I reveled in the thrill of rushing to get a project done. The rush of relief as I was finishing was worth the stress of rushing to get to that point.

But one day I had a panic attack at work. Somewhere along the line, I had gotten older and the stress and my anxiety had caught up to me. Stress was now a trigger. And it triggered both my anxiety and my depression. All of a sudden, work was a lot less fun. But luckily for me, I soon found myself some freelance clients. And shortly thereafter, I also found myself involuntarily self-employed as the company I worked for decided to let their entire marketing department go.

For me, this was the best thing that could have happened. I actually thanked the sympathetic (and now very surprised) HR person who came to have me sign the severance paperwork. It was great. I no longer had the stress of a 9 to 5 job. My mental health improved as I was now working on my own schedule and could balance my own workload. But on top of that, I was able to develop a second source of income as a dog sitter. I love dogs. I like them better than most people. A dog may tire me out, but seldom will they cause me stress.

Well until last night. Last night I had a 150 pound Great Dane decide that he was the boss and he bit me. Twice. Once on each arm. No worries, I was and am alright. It could certainly been worse. Just a bit of bruising due to his very large and powerful jaws. The stress, however, didn’t come from the bite. I’m pretty good at letting even big dogs know that I am the alpha in the house. No, it came from telling an owner that I wasn’t going to be able to take care of his baby. That is the hardest part of the job. I’ve only had to do it a couple times and this is the only time that it was because the dog bit me.

Afterward, I decided that I really wanted a drink. And since we had just done tasting notes for the New Riff Rye and it was still on the counter, I decided to grab that. I won’t say it was worth getting bit for, but it was damn good.

New Riff Rye Bottled in Bond

Purchase Info: $45.99 for a 750 mL bottle at the distillery gift shop. (I also bought a bottle at Old Town Wine and Spirits in Louisville, but lost the receipt. I assume I paid a similar price.) 

Details: 50% ABR. 4 years old (Fall 2014-2018)

Nose: Cinnamon, mint, vanilla, brown sugar

Mouth: Cinnamon, spearmint, vanilla, allspice, cherry, pipe tobacco. 

Finish: warm and medium length. Lingering cinnamon spice and just a touch of dill.

Thoughts: Folks, this is a delicious rye. Nice and spicy with just a hint of sweetness. I really enjoy this as a sipper. Works pretty well in cocktails too. Plus it sells for a relatively decent price. I just wish it was sold locally. But we already get their Bourbon, so I’m assuming that it is just a matter of time. 

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Bulleit Rye 12-Year-Old

In light of recent allegations made by the daughter of Tom Bulleit of his homophobia and mental and physical abuse toward her, I have made the decision that BourbonGuy.com can no longer endorse products bearing the Bulleit name. The review below has been revised from the original version to reflect this new policy. New commentary has also been added.

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I’d like to thank Taylor Strategy for providing this sample to me with no strings attached. All notes and thoughts are my own.

I am a big fan of the MGP 95% rye style of Rye Whiskey. I’ve been a fan since I first tasted Bulleit Rye shortly after it was released. In fact, it was the first rye that I ever really paid attention to. Other ryes just sorta tasted like bourbon but this one tasted different. And over the years, the MGP 95% rye style (of which Bulleit is but one of a number) is easily the most common rye to sit on my shelves. And now that I’ve found that it plays amazingly nice with Amaro Montenegro, I’m guessing it will be on my shelf even more often in the future.

So like I said, I’m a fan of the MGP 95% Rye style of rye whiskey. Some of my favorite aged rye whiskeys have been sourced from MGP. Willett used to put out beautiful 5-12 year old ryes that were the prize of my whiskey shelf (while they lasted). These days, even if they put one out, you couldn’t afford one without a trust fund.

So I was initially pretty excited when I got the press release stating that Bulleit would be releasing a limited edition 12-year-old version of their rye. Especially when I noticed that it was only going to be about $50. I was less excited to learn of the allegations of abuse and homophobia by the face of the brand. Previous to learning of these allegations, I had requested a sample of it and get a taste.

Bulleit Rye 12-Year-Old

Purchase info: This sample was graciously provided by Taylor Strategy for review purposes. It is available in Colorado, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Oregon, California, Kentucky, Texas, Georgia, New Jersey, Arizona, Massachusetts, Maryland and Washington D.C. Suggested retail price is $49.99.

Details: 95% rye mashbill. 12 year old age statement. 46% ABV

Nose: Mint, pipe tobacco, cinnamon, dill, caramel

Mouth: Spearmint, dill, tobacco, black pepper, anise

Finish: Of medium length. Lingering mint, black pepper and anise

Thoughts: MGP makes a fantastic whiskey. Luckily for me, there are options for the MGP 95% rye on the market that don’t involve the moral balancing act required by the Bulleit brand. On one hand, MGP rye is delicious, on the other I’d rather not continue to enrich a man alleged to have abused his own daughter over her sexuality. So, I will be seeking out this juice from other brands, you however are free to make your own choice in the matter.

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Just a Couple of Cocktails

In light of recent allegations made by the daughter of Tom Bulleit of his homophobia and mental and physical abuse toward her, I have made the decision that BourbonGuy.com can no longer endorse products bearing the Bulleit name. The article below has been revised from the original version to reflect this new policy.

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I have spent most of the past five days on my hands and knees. After scraping off the glue from 30 year old linoleum and removing two rooms worth of carpet, even with a respirator, my nasal cavities were in no shape to be doing any tastings. But after a hard day of scraping, what I was in shape to do was drink the cocktails that my wife made for me. And they were delicious.

When I was in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago, I drank at a bar called Bound in the Cromwell Hotel. They did craft cocktails and they did them well. One of my favorites was an original that they called The Frontiersman. It had an MGP 95% Rye Whiskey, Drambuie, an amaro and Angostura bitters. I didn’t ask for the recipe but did try to recreate it when I got home. I think I got pretty close.

The Frontiersman

Adapted from Bound Bar Las Vegas

1.5 oz MGP 95% Rye Whiskey
0.5 oz Amaro Montenegro
0.5 oz Drambuie
3 dash Angostura Bitters
Orange Peal and Mint for garnish

Stir with ice and serve in a rocks glass with a large piece of ice. Express the orange peal and garnish with orange peal and mint. Do not skip the mint, the scent of the mint really helps this one.

Of course, Drambuie is sweet and I’m really more fond of bitter flavors. So I took this the other way. I really liked how the MGP 95% Rye Whiskey and the Amaro Montenegro played together so I kept them and did a riff on a Black Manhattan. I like things pretty bitter though so I also added Campari to the mix.

Arok’s Black Manhattan Riff

2 oz MGP 95% Rye Whiskey
0.5 oz Amaro Montenegro
0.5 oz Campari
3 dashes Orange bitters
Orange Peal for Garnish

Stir with ice and serve in a rocks glass with a large piece of ice. Express the orange peal and drop it in.

I think this last one is my favorite cocktail right now. I’ve started keeping An MGP 95% rye whiskey on my cocktail station just because it is really the only cocktail I make for myself anymore. Enjoy!

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Old Forester Rye

There were a lot of social media posts that featured the color green on the Old Forester feeds in the weeks leading up to January 15th, 2019. Posts that teased that something new was coming. Whiskey lovers, being the smart, attractive and sophisticated people that they are, soon guessed that all that green could only mean one thing: Rye.

Somewhere along the line green became a default color for Rye whiskey. And although not all ryes use green in their labels, a staggering number do. Currently it is in use on Rye whiskeys from Wild Turkey, Russel’s Reserve, Bulleit, Jim Beam, Woodford Reserve, Jack Daniel’s, Angel’s Envy, Michter’s, Knob, Creek, Pikesville, George Dickel, Balcones, Rabbit Hole, Dad’s Hat, Peerless, Filibuster, Ezra Brooks, and…I stopped looking when I hit page five of the Total Wine website. Needless to say, in at least a few minds, green started meaning rye. And honestly it kinda makes sense. I mean many ryes have prominent mint and dill notes. Two things that are very green.

So when the announcement of a new Old Forester Rye showed up, I wasn’t terribly surprised. Their campaign was cute and clever and it helped spark a real interest in the product with me. I love rye whiskey. Especially when I read that the suggested price was going to be $23 per bottle. That price was icing on the cake. You guys know that when it comes to whiskey, I am a big fan of it being affordable. Affordable and tasty is even better. And I didn’t have to wait long after that announcement to find a bottle of Old Forester Rye sitting on the shelf of my corner liquor store. You can bet that bottle came home with me.

Old Forester Rye

Purchase Info: $24.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Viking Liquor Barrel, Prior Lake, MN

Details: 50% ABV. Mashbill: 65% Rye, 20% Malted Barley, 15% Corn

Nose: Mint, almond, allspice and cardamom.

Mouth: Minty and spicy with cardamom, nutmeg and honey.

Finish: Minty and of medium length. Lingering baking spice and mint.

Thoughts: This has now become my new house rye. I plan to have this on hand all the time. It has a great price, it works well in cocktails and I’ve been enjoying it neat. The flavor profile sort of splits the difference between a typical Kentucky-style “barely legal” rye and the MGP-style 95% rye. It replaced my “favorite rye this week” as my favorite rye, mostly because it is better, is premade and I don’t have to buy two bottles to get it.

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Three Whiskeys from Filibuster Distillery

I state in my Statement of Ethics that if I accept a review sample, I will disclose it at the beginning of the article. Please consider it disclosed. I’d like to thank the folks at Filibuster Distillery for providing this sample to me with no strings attached. As always, all thoughts are just my opinion.

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I’ve gotten used to whiskey showing up at my house. It took a while, but now that it happens about once a month or so, it is getting to be old hat. Usually it starts like this:

Hi Eric,

I stumbled across your blog and was very excited about it!

I was wondering if you’d be willing to review our (fill in the blank). 

They almost always just stumbled across my site and are always excited by it or are enjoying it so far. In return, I almost always say yes when someone comes out and offers me free whiskey. I mean it’s free whiskey. Even if it isn’t any good, I’m sure I can find something to do with it after the post goes live.

Most often, I’ll get a notification from UPS or FedEx, within a few days of replying in the affirmative, that there is a package on its way to me. Sometimes I tell them yes, and nothing happens. But one thing that never happens is that a sample shows that I didn’t have an email about first. Mostly because that is really the only way to get my physical address, which is obviously needed in order to ship something to me.

So, when a box of whiskey bottles showed up in mid-December from Virginia and I didn’t have a record of an email correspondence? Yeah. I was confused. I am an email hoarder. I almost never delete an email. And even if I do, I never empty my trash. I said above that “Filibuster Distillery” sent these to me because I honestly have no other idea as to who did.

Looking through their website, I come away impressed by the company. It is a woman, and minority, owned business. One of the ad agencies I worked for was the same, it’s something to be proud of. Unlike many of the folks that enter the craft spirits business, they aren’t strangers to the spirits business, having “experience in specialty spirits retail.” Plus they seem to be doing a lot of things on the distillery side to run an environmentally friendly operation. They do source some of their whiskey, but based on their labeling they also distill some as well. Based on their website, they seem to cask-finish a lot of their products in wine barrels. Seems like a good operation.

So then I ran into some questions. The bottle lists the bourbon as “aged for less than four years in new charred oak casks,” but the website states that it “is a blend of older and younger barrels – 4-6 year being typical.” Their bourbon is described on the bottle as a straight bourbon. It also says that it was “Bottled by Filibuster” as well as being “Distilled in Virginia and Indiana” thus disqualifying it from the straight designation (as per §5.22(b)(1)(iii)). The Boondoggler whiskey doesn’t use the straight designation. It seems to be a blend of different styles of whiskey. Once again this one states it was aged “for less that years” [sic]. The rye says that it is “Bottled by Filibuster Distillery” and doesn’t mention a state of distillation.

So now I am throughly confused. I’m not sure who sent this to me or how it got here and I have no idea which of the information they are using is correct as the website contradicts the label and sections of the label contradict other sections. I reached out to the distillery in mid-December via the contact form on their website to try to get these questions answered, but didn’t receive a response prior to publication time.

However, one thing I am not confused by is whether I like them or not.

Filibuster Dual Cask Bourbon

Purchase info: This review sample was provided by the distillery for the purposes of this review. It sells at Total Wine locally for $42.99.

Details: Batch 27. 45% ABV. The label lists a mash of 70% corn, 20% rye and 10% barley.

Nose: Cinnamon, honey, light mint and some dried grain notes.

Mouth: Warm with cinnamon red hots, cherry and some oaky notes.

Finish: On the short end of medium and warm. Lingering notes of black pepper and coconut.

Thoughts: This has notes of both mature whiskey and very young whiskey. Which would make sense if they are blending some of their juice with MGP as the label seems to describe. The problem is that unlike some people who have done this very successfully, this one is a bit all over the place in terms of flavor profile. Not a fan of this one. Pretty meh. It’s ok but doesn’t align with my palate. It might do ok in a cocktail though where other ingredients can smooth over some of the rough spots of this one.

Filibuster Dual Cask Rye

Purchase info: This review sample was provided by the distillery for the purposes of this review. It sells at Total Wine locally for $43.49.

Details: Batch 8. 45% ABV. The label lists a mash of 90% corn and 10% barley.

Nose: Mint, pipe tobacco, dried grasses.

Mouth: Spicy, mint, cherry.

Finish: Spicy and of medium length. Lingering sweetness, mint, spice and a hint of coconut.

Thoughts: This tastes a lot like MGP rye and with the mashbill they list, that makes sense. 90/10 It isn’t far off from 95/5. In fact, based on the fact that their other styles list Indiana as a state of distillation, I had assumed it was until I read the back label.

I like this one. But then I am a fan of the MGP style of rye. This one does say “Bottled by” on the back and there is no listing for a state of distillation. The price is in line with other ryes on the market so I’d say that this one is worth a shot if you can get past the confusion on the label.

Filibuster “The Boondoggler” Whiskey

Purchase info: This review sample was provided by the distillery for the purposes of this review. It sells at Total Wine locally for $33.99.

Details: Batch 20. 45% ABV.

Nose: There is a good hit of rye spices right off the bat with mint and honey coming along with it.

Mouth: Honey, mint, black pepper.

Finish: Decent length. It follows the mouth with lingering notes of black pepper, mint and honey.

Thoughts: This one is also pretty good. It tastes like a lot of my house-made rye/bourbon blends. I like it. And at less than $35 it is decently priced as well.

Overall, I’d say that two out of three are worth the asking price (locally) and I guess that ain’t bad when you are talking randomly appearing whiskey that you are not sure exactly who it came from.

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Knob Creek Twice Barreled Rye

Did I miss the memo letting everyone know that the new hotness was putting your rye whiskey into a second new barrel for finishing? Sure, I ran across one this fall, but it was a distillery-only release. It came in half bottles that sold for $50 each. That was a company playing around and stumbling upon something good. Cool, right?

But then, I started seeing reports that Beam was doing something extremely similar as a limited release in the Knob Creek line. Two data points isn’t a trend, but it could be the beginning of a trend. I mean, finishing your whiskey in a second barrel is nothing new. People have been doing that for years. But finishing it in a second, new barrel? Well, that’s new. At least to my limited memory. I mean, barrels are expensive. And sure, the big guys can resell them for somewhere around the price they bought them for, but still that seems like a serious outlay of cash.

So what are they getting for that extra expense? Well, think of it this way. A new charred oak barrel is like a basket full of freshly ground coffee beans. They smell good, they are full of flavor and they impart that flavor to the liquid that is interacting with them. But once you use them? Well most of that flavor is gone. Ever been so tired that you accidentally made today’s coffee with yesterday’s grounds? Yeah. Barrels are kinda like that too. Only in this case, they are running that metaphorical coffee through a new set of grounds imparting even more of that flavor to the resulting liquid.

Hmmm…I wonder if that would work? I love coffee, it might be the one thing I love more than whiskey.

Anyway, the result for both of the double-barreled whiskeys from this week was to impart a richness that was lacking in the standard releases. After tasting each of them side-by-side with their respective standard release rye, I’d say that running these particular whiskeys though the barrel again definitely had an effect. But did in Knob Creek’s case, did it make it better?

Knob Creek Twice Barreled Rye

Purchase Info: $49.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Ace Spirits, Hopkins, MN

Details: 50% ABV

Nose: Black pepper, dried fruit, and cloves

Mouth: Spicy and sweet with black pepper, clove, cinnamon, apricot, maple, caramel, honey, and oak.

Finish: Spicy and warm. Medium length. Lingering cinnamon and clove along with a fruity sweetness.

Thoughts: This is good. I like it much better than the standard release Knob Creek Rye. Of course, since I am finding my self falling further and further out of love with the Knob Creek Rye, is that really saying anything? In this case, yeah, it is. Lately I’m finding standard Knob Creek Rye to be very grain forward and since there is a hefty portion of corn in there, unfortunately, one of the grains that is coming through the most is corn. That kinda defeats the purpose of a rye to me. If I want a high rye bourbon, I’ll buy one. When I want a rye, I’d rather have one that tastes more of rye than bourbon.

And in a way, this is also very bourbony. There is a lot of the bourbon-like sweetness coming through. Luckily, in this case it is in the form of maple, caramel and honey, not grain flavors. And that really does make a difference as I think the sweetness helps complement the typical “rye” flavors that you would expect in a rye whiskey. There is also a richness that is severely lacking in standard Knob Creek Rye. All in all, I’m a fan. At the price, I’m not sure I’ll be buying a second bottle. But I don’t regret buying the first.

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Woodford Reserve Distillery Series: Barrel Finished Rye

I’ve loved good food for as long as I can remember. I’ve loved cooking for most of my adult life. I wasn’t always very good at it, at least not at first, but I was extremely enthusiastic. So much so that I spent almost 20 years improving and perfecting a recipe for homemade pizza sauce, starting with the recipe, then growing tomatoes, then growing multiple breeds of tomatoes. There were false starts and restarts, but once I had something that was as good as I could get it…I moved onto the crust. I learned so much, from the biology of keeping a sourdough starter alive (7 years and counting now) to how various baking temperatures affect crust texture and density.

You might have guessed this already, but I’m a bit obsessive about subjects that fascinate me.

So yeah, I like to cook and I love the science behind it. The book Cooking for Geeks was written just for people like me. One thing that I always wanted to try was sous vide cooking. If you are unaware, this is cooking that uses a circulating hot water bath to cook your food to a precise temperature and keep it there long enough to kill the harmful bacteria that might be in undercooked food, especially if you are like me and like your meat a bit on the rare side (in a complete oversimplification: killing the little nasties is a function of both temperature and time, the lower the temperature, the longer you will need to hold it at that temperature to kill off the buggers).

To that end, I recently bought myself a gadget that I have fallen in love with. I bought the Anova Precision Cooker. This thing allows me to seal some meat in a bag, drop it in the water and come back in a few hours to finish off the meat in a skillet (can’t miss out on the crispy crunch goodness of a Maillard reaction). In fact, once I am done here, I’ll be doing just that with the pork chops I started a few hours ago.

Now you might be thinking to yourself, what if anything does this have to do with whiskey? And I’ll be honest, I really just wanted to recommend that product to people because it has upped the quality of the steaks and chops served in my house by leaps and bounds. But I do have a reason it popped into my mind tonight, other than hunger. One of the reasons I love cooking is that it is a weird blend of both science and art. Which is the exact reason I love whiskey. You can know the science, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t need to experiment to figure out how to apply it. And experimentation leads to trying new things and learning new things.

Which leads me into what is in my glass tonight. For the last couple of years, Woodford Reserve has been putting out distillery-only experimental whiskeys. These aren’t always ground-breaking. They are releasing a Bottled-in-Bond bourbon soon. Bottled-in-Bond is about as old fashioned as you can get, yet it is a departure for the brand. By definition it has to be distilled at one distillery, and Woodford is usually a product of juice distilled in both the Woodford Reserve Pot Stills and the Old Forester Column Still. It will be an interesting product when it comes out.

But tonight I’m sipping on a Rye that made its way home with me on my last trip to Kentucky. Woodford Reserve Distillery Series: Barrel Finished Rye. This is a Rye whiskey that started life just like any other Woodford Rye. It was aged in a new charred oak barrel. For the whiskey that ended up in these bottles though, there was a second heavily toasted new barrel used to age it a second time. Think Double Oaked without the light charring on the second barrel.

Woodford Reserve Distillery Series: Barrel Finished Rye

Purchase Info: $49.99 for a 375 mL bottle at the distillery gift shop.

Details: 45.2% ABV. Rye whiskey finished in new heavily toasted barrels

Nose: Mint, candied apple, maple, floral rye bread, and leathery oak notes

Mouth: Fairly gentle for a rye. Floral mint dominates at first with baking spices and dried fruit showing up after a bit.

Finish: Spicy and warm. Floral rye bread notes linger along with a nice sweetness.

Thoughts: This is a pretty good rye. I like it more than the standard Woodford Rye. It is sweeter and has a nicer mouthfeel. If this were a regular release that was priced similarly to Double Oaked, I’d certainly be picking it up now and then.

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Little Book 2018: Chapter 2 "Noe Simple Task"

Tonight I am drinking a true FrankenWhiskey. And, not to spoil the results for you, but I love it. Released by Beam Suntory, Little Book is a label that celebrates unique whiskey blends. It's, to quote the label, "crafted by Freddie Noe," son of Jim Beam Master Distiller Fred Noe. I've never met the younger Mr. Noe, but I have to say I like what he's doing with Little Book.

Last year's Little Book was a blend of bourbon, corn, rye and malt whiskeys ranging from 4 to 13 years old. I...never tried it. For some reason, it just didn't interest me. Maybe it was the malt whiskey. Adding malt whiskey to something is usually a sign that I won't care for it. In any case, I passed on it. I sort of regret that now...

This year's, however, was a different animal altogether. It blends 8-year-old Kentucky Straight Rye whiskey with two different Canadian Whiskies. A 13-year-old Canadian Rye with a 40-year-old Canadian whiskey made from corn. I have been house blending US and Canadian Ryes at home for quite a while and was really looking forward to seeing what a company with access to nearly unlimited stocks could come up with. And when I saw it at Total Wine for less than $75, I pounced on it.

Little Book 2018: Chapter 2 "Noe Simple Task"

Purchase Info: $73.99 for a 750 mL at Total Wine, Burnsville, MN

Details: 59.40% ABV. Blend of 8-year-old Kentucky Straight Rye whiskey, 13-year-old Canadian Rye, and 40-year-old Canadian whiskey.

Nose: Cinnamon, nutmeg, candle wax, non-specific wood.

Mouth: Nice and spicy with good heat. Cinnamon carries over to the mouth with a honey sweetness and dried fruit notes backing it up.

Finish: Spicy and long with cinnamon, rye spices, mint, honey and dried fruit.

Thoughts: I saw some people in online comments bashing this for using Canadian whisky. As far as I’m concerned, those people are very wrong as the Canadian whiskies are the ones that are providing most of the flavor. This is a well crafted whiskey that has a lot of the Canadian rye flavors with the spicy brashness of a US-style rye. It’s fantastic. Spicy and bold with a great mouthfeel. I think I’m in love.

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