Tastes

Served: 1 Finger pour with 5 drops of water to bring out the notes. Notes: (I'm comparing this alongside the regular Bone Snapper Rye. This allows me to explain how the age changes the notes.) Right after my pour, I bring her up to the nose. I set her down, and then I bring her up a second time. The nose offers what the regular bone snapper rye presented, yet slightly different. The aroma immedialtey gives off a whiff full of apple cider vinegar followed by tannins, sweet vanilla carmel, pine, chrism, and a saltiness like the sea. I go in for a sip, and the X-ray coats the mouth with a thick oily consistency. I’m greeted with salted carmel, sweet-16 apples, tannins, and buttered oak. The mouthful finishes with a perfumey apple and vanilla tobacco taste. This rye is as smooth as can be while still giving off a pepperiness akin to tannins rather than peppercorn itself. It maintains complexity and sweetness, but it’s a lot more mild than the regular Bone Snapper rye. Comments: With age, the bone snapper rye known as the X-Ray 4 year reserve develops a lot more smooth and mellow complexion without sacrificing a slight bite that rye drinkers will surely appreciate. Backbone Bourbon Co. is just phenomenal! Both X-Ray and the standard bone snapper ryes are must haves in one’s cabinet. This Rye is a 4.0 instead of a 4.25 like the regular bone snapper since, I myself, enjoy a nice kick and deeper compexity accompanied by greater pepper-like notes in my ryes. Think of regular bone snapper like a younger brother to the X-Ray. The younger brother is a lot more wild and spicy, while the older brother is a lot more mature and smooth. Both are equally amazing, though slightly different.

Served: 1 Finger pour with 5 drops of water to bring out the flavors. Notes: (I’m comparing this alongside Bone Snapper X-Ray Rye. This allows me to explain how the age changes the notes.) After my finger pour, I bring her up to the nose for a first smell. I set her down, and bring her up again. The aroma presents candied apples, cinnamon & carmel, followed by buttered bread. I go in for a small sip, and I’m immediately greeted with similar tastes that I recieved from the prior smell, albeit slightly different. This rye is oily and it coats the mouth with suitable viscosity. I’m immediately hit a buttery & oily mouthful that brings bitter apples, allspice, cinnamon, cardamom, and pepper to my palate. All of these noted are encompassed with a perfumey carmel that lingers throughout the whole sip. The aftertaste once again presents a rich butter, this time with a faint earthiness to finish the notes. It is slightly salty, hence why I added the briny tag. This Rye is far from simple, so for those that desire something complex, this is it. Comments: When comparing this to Backbone Bourbon Co.’s X-Ray, the palate of the regular bone snapler rye offers a sweeter smell than the taste, while X-Ray offers a more bitter smell than its taste. This is presumanly due to age, and it seems the kick of the regular Bone snapper mellows out after another year. The regular bone snapper reminds me of a sofisticated gentleman’s drink of choice while bringing about enough spicy and tannin-like qualities to leave Rye lovers smiling. As of this review, this is my favorite rye of all time, and for very good reasons. It’s complex in all the right ways, offering amazingly complimentary flavors. If this doesnt put Indiana on the map for a serious bourbon/rye distillery, I don’t know what will. Highly underrated and a must try. Why isn’t it a 5/5 you might ask? There’s always room for improvement, and I think that’s how every distillery approaches their next bottled release of rye or bourbon. Although I don’t know what those improvements could be, very few Rye’s meet the cachet of 5/5.

Served: One medium sized ice cube over a regular pour Notes: Extremely smooth notes of oak & a tinge of pine fill the mouth. This eventually settles down as the cherry and vanilla swirl around before the spice of the wood finishes it off. Comments: Very good notes for a very good price. It is a great sipper, but if you dont like a woodsy mouthful, I wouldn’t recommend this bottle. In a sense, it is so oaky that it gives off a bit of the bitter aspects of the wood. It’s a lot more velvety and cherry-like without is being over ice.

Served: small pour with a dash of water to bring out flavors. Notes: Sweet red apples show as soon as it hits the tongue. This turns into a solid mouth of licorice and cherry/orchard fruits finished with vanilla oak. Comments: This batch & bourbon is very subtle and the notes are not too prominent, but if you are looking for a licorice and sweet vanilla apple tasting bourbon, this is it. It’s not that it’s bad, there’s just nothing astounding to write home about.

Served: One ice cube Notes: Very suntle hints of ripe apricot, toast, vanilla, and brown sugar. That’s all I am really getting. Comments: Nothing to write home about, but it isn’t bad either. It would be great for cocktails.

Served: Neat for 3 sips, then 1 ice cube the rest of the pour Notes: Starts peppery & hot but trickles into a warm velvet mouthful. Slight hint of raisins, then cinnamon & cream, with a subtle lingering of oaty bread. Probably got small swells of licorice. Comments: Got these notes only from my first drink. I’d say it’s worth the price simply because of the amount of complex flavors it offers. Only advanced drinkers will acknowledge the work put into this Bourbon, and it would be an amazing weekend sipper if price wasn’t an issue.