Sagamore Spirit Barrel Select Rye

Tasting an A&B store pic tonight. This one looks great on the shelf with great color in a nice bottle. Hoping the juice inside lives up, but the reviews have been a little mixed so here goes. Nose on this one is almost sweet bourbon at first, but then the rye notes come in just as you are about to give up on them. Mostly brown sugar here with a just a hint of baked bread. First sip brings some lovely toasted caramel on the front end. Then a soft burn starts to come on in the middle, but it is more cinnamon than traditional rye pepperness. The dram closes to more traditional fresh baked bread notes and a soft finish. Not going to lie here, this one surprised me a bit. I know barrel picks can vary so you have to keep that in mind, but I am really impressed with this bottle. I will need to try some others from the line, but this is an excellent bridge for bourbon drinkers that haven't been able to find a rye they can drink. Definitely recommend this bottle at the price.

Neat. Neck Pour. Bourbon Junkies Swordfish Oil. The Bourbon Junkies first barrel pick. This is also my first Sagamore experience. This would be tough to identify as a rye blind. Vanilla royal frosting on a lemon cake. Clove and cinnamon for days. The frosting is what dominates and it’s very sweet forward. Decent mouth feel. Not creamy but the edges are really oily keeping it from being thin. Spicy and breast on the tongue. Shows up strong mid-palate and especially the finish. Lemon cake still stands but more of a sweet cream icing. Orange zest. And more cinnamon and sweet cream icing on the finish and it lingers strong. Rye spice builds up on the back end with subsequent sips. This one was so close to letting me down. Nose is kind of bland. Not a lot of flavor up front. But mid-palate to the finish, it really ramps up. The finish especially. Great finish on a rye.

OBS + Barrel&Taps Pick: more than meets the rye 6yr (f4/r4)

Caramel nose, spicy on the finish. Tastes hotter that 55%