Thomas H. Handy Sazerac Rye (Fall 2021)

Light body, graham cracker, very herbal and dill forward, long dry finish with sweet notes

Neat. Nose sweet spicy caramel. Taste is sweet caramel vanilla with spicy sweet finish. Not usually a big rye fan but this is pretty spectacular.

Neat. Bar pour. This is the last BTAC I have not tasted after knocking Sazerac 18 and Eagle Rare 17 off the list the last couple weeks. Looking forward to this. The other two let me down… On the nose, initial impression is underwhelming but delicious. It’s been a year if incredible ryes though. Gosh, I spoke too soon. There is a note here that is amazing. It’s like pure honeycomb with a hint of pistachio. There is a bright inviting vanilla coupled with glaze donuts. So scratch that whole underwhelming thing. Growing on me. The rye notes are a bit earthy and barnyard, fresh haystacks in the morning. Now I am thinking about cinnamon rolls and sweet cream frosting. Delightful, dessert of a rye. On the taste, mouthfeel is syrupy and viscous. Really covers all parts of the tongue. Getting cinnamon and eucalyptus, initially a bit drying even. Wow the rye really escalates more than the nose let on. Man, that honey note. It’s there and it’s the main event too. Backing up - it’s very rye toast, little charred but that toast is drenched in butter and honey. And after you gulp the toast down, the honey coats your mouth and takes it’s sweet time oozes down your throat. I adore this finish right now. The spice and the rye is there and omnipresent, a white pepper on the finish behind that honey. On subsequent sips that eucalyptus note really takes over. Almost morphing into an agave. Very enjoyable. Soooo if I had my order on BTAC now (obviously hard to judge across time versus in a single year so this is overall across the batches I have had) - #1 WLW, #2 GTS, #3 Handy, #4 Saz 18, #5 ER17. This was an amazing pour but… if I got my hands on one, I think I would trade it still. Amazing but not special enough for the premium.