WhistlePig RoadStock Rye

I am a fan of WhistlePig in general. The 10 and 12 yr barrel picks can be outstanding and often more than justify their steep price point. Here we have something a little experimental. They take their Farmstock Rye and dump it in multiple Firestone Walker Beer Barrels and a Jordan Winery Red Blend barrel. They then contract large 18 wheeler trucks in "moving Rickhouses" driving coast to coast on Route 66 to finish this Rye. The final product is bottled at a tame 86 proof with a great label and rubber tire stopper to boot! The SRP is $75 with NAS. Let's dive into the tasting... Entry is light with spice and caramel .... Some orange peel and tart grape notes.... A bit of rye spice, bitter oak and more fruit notes all hit at the same time with a short finish. Its a bit of a cluster to be honest. Very disjointed. The problem here is WhistlePig are charging a premium for a backstory. The end product is disjointed and honestly unbecoming of the brand. We can excuse the Farmstock releases (which while not great are better than this release) as they are a journey for their new make coming of age (and priced a lot less). However, you can't put out a "special release" for $75 with haphazard finishing and a backstory and expect postive results. But hey, the label and rubber tire stopper are dope! I strongly recommend you try a pour and dont buy this blind.

Huge WP fan but this misses the mark. Super thin. Interesting story about the blend and road trip, bit not mentioned anywhere on the bottle. Only going to appeal to WP fans and people who know the back story not your average whiskey drinker