Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. Straight Rye

I'm what you might call a bit of a whiskey stalker. I make the rounds pretty regularly at the liquor stores around me; Binny's dominates the Chicagoland market, but each location has its own distinct personality, and you never know what the store manager will pick up. I was making my monthly reconnaissance of the location nearest the church yesterday, and I spied the unmistakable tall, yellow-ish khaki canister that Colonel EH Taylor bottlings come to the shelf in. I went to investigate further. There were TWO separate EH Taylors...but Binny's website only lists the standard bourbon bottling. Intrigued, I realized that one was in the rye section...and suddenly, recon shifted into search-and-rescue, as there was no way I was leaving a bottle of this lonely on the shelf or, worse, in the hands of someone incapable of appreciating its glory. I babied this bottle - kept it with me in the AC at church so it didn't bake in the car, the whole nine yards. And, sweet mother of God, it was worth the hassle. This is not your normal rye, from the mashbill on. There is no corn or wheat to be found here; the only other grain in the mash bill is malted barley. Not surprisingly, there is a certain scotchiness to the dram - while the new oak barrels give plenty of caramel and vanilla notes, there is a rich, dark undercurrent of dried figs and plums, a nuttiness, and a fudgy chocolate from the malt. The rye contributes the spice and dramatic punch you'd expect, but the dill and vegetal notes have all aged away, leaving Christmas spices and cayenne pepper. The finish is long and luscious. I have no idea how the Binny's in this little suburb came to possess four bottles of this treasure of a rye, but my whole seminary education and four years in this parish may have all been worth it just to find this bottle. Really wonderful stuff.