Basil Hayden Dark Rye

someone knew what they were doing...tastes like a Manhattan, but with a big nose

A real odd-ball--Basil Hayden's Dark Rye builds on the success of Aberta Premium Dark Horse (rebranded as Alberta Rye Dark Batch in the US) by flipping the formula. Where the original was mostly Canadian rye with a dollop of high rye bourbon and a splash of sherry, this fellow leads with an American rye and throws in a measure of Canadian rye and a splash of port. Okay, sure. A dark, almost ruby-ish colour. Nice--if light--nose: leads with red fruits (lots of berry), clove, vanilla, a tiny bit of Beam peanut funk, some baking spice and green herbs. Sourdough bread. Yeasty--it actually reminds me of the way my hometown smelled when the Hiram Walker distillery was in the process of fermenting. A little bit of ginger, some pickle juice. Gravel. Taste is light and again leads sweet--the red fruits from the port, followed by a bit of vanilla and butterscotch, and the spicy, herbacious rye coming through just a bit at the end. The finish is strangely sour and tangy: vinous, a whiff of vanilla, and then it's gone. Aside from that finish, this whisky is nice enough (if maybe leaning a bit too sweet), but it's hamstrung by two fatal flaws: a super-low ABV (baseline 40% for, *sigh*, "smoothness"), and a pretty unreasonable price ($69 Cdn. out here Alberta-ways). Drop the price and raise the ABV and you've got a winner here. Which, come to think of it, is exactly what I say about everything carrying the Basil Hayden name.

Light and sweet, maybe too much so. But there's a nutty finish to this that is nice. Simplistic but let's not be snobby about it, this is decent. 10/27/17