Sagamore Spirit Straight Rye

Cherry and maple nose. Wood and raw cinnamon flavors dominate the palate, with cherry reappearing towards the end. Short bite on the finish. $40.

Although it’s a Maryland Rye whiskey it still has a nice corn finish to it.

Thanks to Jason as part of our little trading team, I got to sample this craft distillery. Craft distilleries are really a hit or miss. How do they stay in business while waiting for their own product to mature? Make gin? Source from others? Most do both, but it's rare to see one source from others and make something better ( like High West). These guys at Sagamore seemed to have taken the route of blending two different ryes, hoping to create a sum greater than the individual parts. It'll be interesting to see where these guys take their future products. For now, seems like this one has some ways to go. Nose is a bit artificial, almost like polish. Taste is young rye, thin and minty. It was interesting to try, but they have some ways to go before becoming the next High West, Wyoming Whiskey, or Westland.

This is an extra, rye whiskey sample sent by the newest member of our tasting team: Telex. Sagamore Spirits is a craft distillery based out of Baltimore, MD and this is sourced whiskey from Indiana that is blended on site, bottled and sold while they wait for the actual distillery to get up and running. It’s not actual Sagamore product, but this is a common practice that new, small distilleries do to start returning investment to their business and the banks. It is somewhat of a testament to their master distiller’s blending skill, though, so there is a bit of authenticity to it- but not a whole lot. The nose on this one is typical rye spiciness with a bit of a strange sweetness that doesn’t exactly remind me of corn whiskey. There’s also a bit of a strange furniture polish smell in play here, as well. The palate is rye pepper, corn and plenty of raw oak. The overall feel is very thin and watery- I guess they are stretching the sourced stuff as far as they can. The finish is short, uneventful and heavy on the oak. Overall, there’s nothing here to go nuts over, but it would be interesting to see what these guys get up to once they start making, aging and blending their own spirits. Here’s to drinking local. Thanks again, Jason. Cheers.