Ry3 Cask Strength Special Reserve

Nice rum notes and not much else on the nose. This proved to be the best feature of this dram. Wow! Blast of spice and heat on the palate with some typical young rye notes. Finish is rather short but full of spice and heat, plus a little bitterness. A generous dose of water tamped the heat down and brought out some general sweetness on the palate but wasn’t really an improvement overall. Thanks to @ContemplativeFox for the sample.

Rating: 9/23 I've heard some good things about Ry3 and I'm looking forward to trying another rum-finished rye. Angel's Envy's rum-finished rye was funky and sweet, but I enjoyed it. I think I've also heard that Mission Wine & Spirits does a solid job of picking barrels, so I'm pretty optimistic here. Hand-written on the label, it says that this is bottle 4 out of batch 3. It's always kind of fun to get a low-numbered bottle and/or batch. Just kind of neat. N: After a few minutes in my glass, I get some rich sawdusty wood. It's a little bitter, but there's also a touch of chocolatey sweetness to it. A little leather in it too. Sort of a musty vanilla backing. And then also a surprisingly large amount of fruit. I guess the rum cask is at work. I'm getting some weird fruits. I think there's a layer of mint and then it's like starfruit and lime with a lesser amount of orange and just a touch of cherry. There's still a bit of youthful roughness to the spirit, but it's not too bad. A little minerality mixes with some moderated herbaceousness in a kind of appealing way. This is a funky nose. It took me a few minutes, but what it reminds me most of is Willet 4 year rye, with all of its fruitiness bit of chocolate. There's a lot more barrel here though and I'm hoping that will work to the Ry3's advantage, but I'm wary of the possibility that it will be over-oaked like my single barrel bottling of Old Scout Rye. P: A big woodiness hits first. It's rich, fairly full, and sweet, with a nice mellowness to it. Then it explodes into a spicy burn. So much barrel spice it's nearly scorching. It's just spice everywhere. Digging into this more, there's a bit of maple syrup in the back. It takes some determination to keep sipping this one to try to get flavors other than the spice out of it. It's not nearly as much of a woody blast as I'd expected - it's just spicy burn. It really isn't even a lot of one sort of spice so much as it's just just a burning. I get hints of various spices there, but it's like someone mixed pepper, chilis, ginger, and cinnamon together, then sucked most of the flavor out of them while leaving the heat. It's a shame because I'm tasting some nice flavors hidden underneath. I think the rye barrel really helped, but the base spirit is highly questionable. Water does help bring out some flavors, but it doesn't tone the spice down enough. This isn't quite in dare territory for a regular cask strength drinker, but it probably is for anyone who regularly imbibes at 40% ABV. It's 61.5% ABV does not adequately represent how much this burns. F: Burn. Just so much spicy burn. - Conclusion - This is very unfortunate. I was prepared to be underwhelmed by this, but I wasn't prepared to actively dislike it. I'm so confused. Just who decided to bottle this as a craft spirit? And just why did Mission think that this was a pick worth getting. Despite the difficult of drinking this need, I'm thinking I might be able to make a pretty good cocktail with it. That spicy punch way above its weight could make it a nice addition in small quantities or could add a big punch to a kind of watery cocktail without just ratcheting up the booze. I love Booker's Shiny Barrel, but sometimes it's just a bit young and hot. Not right now. Side by side with this it's rich with big peanut butter flavor and and a bit of chocolate that give it the decadence of biting into a reese's cup. It's just heaven in comparison to this. As much as it pains me to conclude this, Ry3 just isn't very good. I have no idea why anyone thought it was one to watch. The one thing I will give it is that other drams often taste a lot better when tried after a half pour of this. That won't be something I consider in the rating though. I'm looking in the 11 t o14 range here. This is a really sad outcome. I won't be trusting Mission picks in the future. I remember when I though that Russell's Reserve Single Barrel was pretty much just cinnamon in a bottle. How wrong I was. But side by side with this it's loaded with rich, decadent peanuts that give me some real peanut butter vibes. I'm sorry, Ry3, but I just can't find a side by side to save you. You're just kind of challenging, one-dimensional, unenjoyable whiskey. The single best thing about this is that is makes good bourbon taste even better in comparison. I don't know of any other ryes that do that. It's, uh, an accomplishment. Actually, it can even make even pretty...decently solid... bourbon taste better. In a sense, it's an excellent palate cleanser. Look, unless I find that small sips of this function excellently for palate cleansing prior to hedonistic tastings, I'm going to have to say that this is tremendously overpriced. As a whiskey itself, I certainly wouldn't pay $20 for this. Pretty much all bourbons acquire a peanut or even peanut butter flavor in comparison to this. That's positively decadent. And it unfortunately says a lot about the lack of decadence in this. I really thought that a rum-barrel-aged whiskey would be on the decadent side. I don't recall ever finding a whiskey so far astray before. What were the producers even thinking? And it isn't like they got a bad batch because their whole thing is that they blend 3 different mash bills. My impression is that this isn't quite on the level of my bottle of Old Scout (14/23). Frankly, that's devastating. I really thought that this would be at least as good. That was a chore to work through and I fear that this may be worse. It isn't a ton worse, but it's probably worse. We talk about taking one for the team at times. Consider this me taking one for the team. I've had worse, but let me spare you the curiosity: don't buy Ry3. I love to support craft distillers, even when the value isn't quite there. The value is sadly far away here. But I'm having a great time with my dwindling Booker's side by side. There is no way that this can even be a 14. The Old Scout and Evan William's Single Barrel (14/23) are both clearly better. Buffalo Trace (13/23) is also better. The Buffalo Trace definitely packs less fullness, but it's way less challenging and more complex. How about Ancient Ancient Age 10 Star (12/23)? I'd probably still take the Ancient Ancient Age over this. I have this weird feeling that this isn't actually bad, but it's painful to drink. Taking a step back though, there is really remarkably little flavor here. It pains me how much this reminds me of my Compass Box Hedonism (12/23) tasting, where I kept trying to find some more richness and nuance, but it wasn't there. Sadly, I think that this is likely not even going to be a 12. That's a separate problem though because when it comes to bottles below a 12...I have very few. I'm struggling with this. Flavor-wise, it's pretty underwhelming, but when I factor in the pain I can imagine going as low as a 7. I think I'm going to give it a 10 right now. I'm really, really disappointed in this. I was prepared for it to be kind of mideiocre, but absolutely wasn't expecting it to be so painful. One final side by side with (a delightfully peanutty in comparison) Russell's Reserve Single Barrel. I used to think that this Russell's was really spicy? I mean, I wouldn't say it isn't spice. But this is so so much spicier and way less full. I'm not at all surprised that the Russell's is better, but the spiciness here, especially late on the palate, at the back of my tongue, is so much greater. I'm dropping this to a 9. I might come back and go lower. Ugh, I wish I'd paid $10 more and bought the Angel's Envy rye. Not that I was choosing between the two, but this is a heck of let-down in a rum finish. Aside from some notes on the nose, the rum finish is barely noticeable here. And I wish that were my biggest complaint. I did try a couple of cocktails with this, but they weren't very good. Not much to redeem this (aside from making bourbons seem more decadent side by side) it seems. Most unfortunate.

Pick by Bull City Bourbon Club; named "Sweet Heat" Batch No. 3 60.4% abv; 120.8 proof Open 5 months Nose - Black pepper, dill, eucalyptus, caramel, allspice, clove, vanilla, light oak, and strong ethanol. This is a classic spicy rye nose. Palate - Spicy black pepper and baking spices up front, caramel, light vanilla, much lighter dill and eucalyptus compared to the nose, and strong ethanol bite. Finish is medium-long with drier rye baking spices, noticeable lack of sweetness, and spicy black pepper. This pick by BCBC is classic barrel proof high rye from a newer blender in Virginia. (They also did the Ron Izalco 10Y Rum Cask Strength pick for BCBC.) I don't know the exact mashbill because it is a blend, but my guess is it is at least 80% rye with mostly 95/5 MGP rye. In this category there are some budget cask strengths that are one note or too spicy to be enjoyable neat for multiple pours (James E. Pepper and Stellum). This is better than those previous two but falls short of MGP excellence. I would rather drink Templeton or Old Scout cask strength in this mashbill/proof range. Don't let that deter you from RY3 though, there have been rum finished cask strengths floating around NC from various groups that have been reviewed favorably. I kind of wish BCBC got a rum finished pick instead of this.

#PR004 58.1% Tea leaves in a metal basin. Mild citrus. Touch of cinnamon spice. Rum finished hints at the end. Mouth coating.

Neat. Neck pour. Exclusive bottle for the Mash and Journey Whiskey Club. Nose is bright on first impression. Lemon zest, vanilla, hint of pine. Very clean, very fresh. Pepper starting to emerge. Little clove. It took a bit of exploring but getting this rye toast now. Rye toast covered in an unsweetened orange marmalade. Mmm, the mouthfeel is great. Super creamy. The glass is so oily and it is coating every part of my mouth and slowly running down my throat. On the taste, initially getting this combination of lemon, pepper and clove. Mid palate it brightens up fast and brings the sweetness. Orange marmalade. Gosh, maybe lemon meringue pie is better equivalent because the finish brings the crust. A buttery crumby pie crust. The finish then has a second wave that brings back the sweetness, lemon and vanilla. This is an interesting cask strength rye. It’s deceptive at ~124 proof for a rye because neither the proof or the typical rye flavors are aggressive for a cask strength. It’s also sweeter than the nose let on. Excited to revisit this one after some shelf time.

Fruity nose. Not strong for being cask strength. Nice spicy rye profile with dark fruity dark chocolate finish. Don’t really get the rum finish.