Black Maple Hill Straight Rye

A lot of smoke on the nose. Oak is prominent. Maybe a little pepper. Not worth the money.

Much like tasting Hay

American whiskey tasting evening, Sydney, 21 September 18. Whiskey #2 Nose: Bright gingery spices and a musky syrup note. A hint of leather and pepper. Palate: Dry molasses and spices – powdered ginger, nutmeg, paprika and clove. Quite a forceful arrival, a little thin but not particularly hot. In the background, when tasted neat, there was a combination of herbs, brine, pickles and cheese – a bit like spiced feta. Not disagreeable, but a bit weird. The addition of a little water smoothed and developed the palate remarkably by developing some sweetness to balance the pickles. Finish: Medium. Dusty and woody spices. Overall this whiskey had a warming character rather than a hot one. The texture, although a little thin, was chewy and satisfying. The main problem I had with it was how it collapsed quickly in the glass. You encounter this sometimes – a whisky will be OK on first nosing but when you leave it to develop in the glass instead of improving it goes downhill. In this case when neat the nose seemed to close down and lose impact over time, while the palate became more obviously briny. Adding water made this even worse. Initially water killed the nose but greatly improved the palate by bringing out sweet notes, but over the next 30 minutes the whole profile fell apart with both the nose and taste eventually seeming stale and a bit like wet cardboard. It’s drinkable and quirky, but I wouldn’t call it “good” - it’s average at best and I’d recommend using it as a mixer. However at the excessively high asking price there is really no way I'd recommend this whiskey at all. “Average” : 77/100 (2.5 stars)