Copper Fox Rye

Nose: A bit muted and flat, caramel, sour cherry, a little walnut Palate: very thin peach tea, cane sugar Finish: white pepper, sour cherry and apple, a hint of vanilla Value: C- It’s a quintessential craft distiller whiskey. A bit thin and muted, with a distilling process that could probably be tweaked slightly with a far better outcome in the hands of a true master distiller. The applewood and cherrywood smoke comes out but it’s quite unbalanced and astringent. It’s okay, but it doesn’t beat the big distilling companies ryes.

An intense, Rye Whiskey by Rick Wasmund founder of Copper Fox Sperryville Distillery in Sperryville, Virginia. It is double pot stilled & progressively aged for 15-20 months using apple wood toasted chips inside a used Bourbon barrel. The mash bill is 66% Virginia Rye, and 33% Virginia Thoroughbred hand-malted barley, kiln dried with apple wood & cherry wood smoke. It has an aromatic birth with notes of Sherry, plum wine, Apple-pie, cinnamon, raisin toast & a hint of caramel; while a rich & spicy life adds notes of toasted almond, pepper & flowers; that leads to a spicy death of medium length with notes of bitter-apple, flour & unbaked dough. May / October 2020 / February 20221/ February / August 2022 / January 2024

Light smoke and rich, sweet,

This has quickly become my favorite rye. I’ve always felt that to be a great rye it needed to be 100% rye malt bill but the cherrywood/applewood smoked barley really nakesbthis pop.

The nose has notes of dried fruit, wood, a little smoke, and general sweetness. On the palate, there is smoke and a general spicy rye flavor that's nicely rounded out with some fruitiness. Pretty decent finish. The applewood and cherrywood smoke are very present, and that makes this rye unique to many others.