New Riff Kentucky Straight Rye Bottled In Bond

Spring 2020 bottling. Citrus, rye spice, soft oakiness, faint clover honey, mint, salty, faint caramel, sawdust, clove, thick vanilla parfum, farmed strawberries. Each flavor is pronounced but lacks potency. Shows its youth. Passable as a decent whisky, though not quite enough to pick up again at this price point. Better than 1776 swill. Comparable to High West Rendezvous.

This was my first sip of whiskey. On the nose I picked up licorice and caramel, but the burn from this whiskey was serious. I wouldn’t enjoy sipping this but plan to finish the bottle

Hilbrand tasting

Nose - orange zest, clove, allspice, cinnamon, bubble gum, spearmint, apple, malty cereal grain, oat, honey, dry caramel, tobacco, leather, dill, spiced vanilla, pine, smoked meat, grilled plantains, barrel char, moderate to high ethanol burn. Taste - clove, allspice, cinnamon, spearmint, orange zest, cherry, apple, bubble gum, dill, sweet tobacco, leather, vanilla, dry caramel, honey, oat, charred meat, banana, spicy oak, moderate alcohol bite, finishing medium length with an assortment of spicy rye spice, sweet baking spice, burnt caramel, and pleasant fruit flavors. I really like this rye, especially in cocktails. I bought one bottle, tasted it on its own and in a variety of cocktails, and immediately bought three more. First, let’s cover the one drawback for me. It’s four years old and tastes four years old. However, I feel the adolescent brightness suits it’s particular flavor profile nicely, although I can’t wait for some older expressions to be released. I find that (even more than with bourbon) rye flavor profiles are all over the map. Some love the sweet, barely legal ryes and others the 100% rye spice bombs. Heck, some love them all. The point is that this is my personal favorite rye flavor profile, thus far at least. It shares some similarities with the 95% MGP mash bill, but this tastes far better to me. I’ll need to do a head-to-head to tease out the differences, but I know I prefer this significantly. In addition to tasty sipping, I stock this mainly for my Old Fashioneds and Manhattans. Pure, unadulterated spicy deliciousness. I know this review comes in higher than the average and I’m probably giving it more credit than it objectively deserves, but hey, I like it and I’m sticking to it. New Riff is doing great things, and I can’t wait to taste more of their offerings in the future.