Wigle Single Barrel Straight Rye

In an old fashioned. Straight cherry vanilla cream soda. Pretty nice in a cocktail.

Batch 20, Barrel 36, Bottle 84. 4yr6mo 4-Grain: 68% rye, 8% wheat, 12% malted barley, 12% corn. Verdict: Very smooth, nothing harsh, just doesn’t hit on the flavors. Feels disjointed and lacking. Seems a shame to relegate a craft single barrel to cocktails but probably won’t finish this one as a sipper alone. Light reddish-gold honey color. Relatively thin. Widely-spaced legs. Simple, singular note on the nose, but pleasant. Very sweet honeyed vanilla with a hint of cherry and you get the feeling that it wants to show its fruitful side, but there is an overriding deafening note that I just can’t place. It just smells flat 5 times out of 6, like the higher frequencies have been removed. Unfortunate, as the rest is very nice. Perhaps an uncooked grain, lacking the cereal sweetness. Thin mouthfeel. A similar flatness shows itself immediately on the tongue. Like the flavor of a mouthful of oil... just neutral. Cardboard bland, then slowly replaced with a gentle minty sweetness, like the reside of a recently finished breath mint. Some black pepper and a mild, meaty nut flavor, like an almond or chestnut. A quick sip highlights the mint much more strongly and allows it to enjoyably fill the mouth. The bottle claims a cedar note that I think I can get onboard with. Finish is relatively long and pleasant and may be where this one shines the best, in competition with the (more) delightful but incomplete nose.