Wild Turkey Rye

N: Butterscotch, toffee, caramel, and a medicinal sort of ethanol. P: Sweet and spicy. Butterscotch again with bread pudding made with a hearty dark bread. Rye and anise spice starts as a general flavor, then continues into the finish. Finish is also tannic and woodsy, slightly bitter, a bit stinging (ethanol), but generally pleasant. Nothing off in it. Nothing spectacular either. Easy drinking, great value.

Backend kick that sticks with earthy taste

Delicious Rye, great sweet caramel flavor up front with spice in the finish. Easy drinking, could possibly have more rye spice but I enjoyed it the way it is!

I’m still getting around to ryes in general but I liked this one pretty well. It’s definitely got the spicy kick you’d expect with some sweeter after tones that draw a bit closer to their bourbons which is actually perfect for me at this point. If you’re just getting into ryes also, let this be your standard by which you compare all others.

Rating: 10/23 I threw this into a bunch of mixed drinks in order to get rid of the bottle as quickly as possible, but even that didn't work too well. Finally, I'm on to my bottle kill tasting. N: Rye with a bit of meat. It doesn't smell like a super young rye, but I suspect that's because low amount of rye is masked by the other grains. I get a bit of mint and floor polish. Not much going on here and it doesn't smell really good either. P: Like the nose, this is pretty flat. I get some herbal and vegetal flavors from the rye. It tastes a little bit young, but not too bad. It's actually a bit better than when I first tried it so it could either be just a different palate or maybe the air was good for this. I do get a bit of meatiness from the alcohol though, and a bit of minerality further increasing the lightness. So there's a bit more complexity than before, but it's still flat and bland with some off notes. F: The off notes of alcohol and meat linger, along with a faint hybrid of mineral and floor polish. There are faint herbal notes, but not too much. This is probably the worst part of the experience. This is still a really disappointing rye. It didn't even make a great mixer because it is fairly light. At its best, there are genuine flavors that make me consider giving it a 12, but I often find myself thinking of it in 10 or even 9 territory because of the off notes. At least it isn't harsh though. I think I'm going to settle on a 10 to 11 because it isn't all that bad, but I really would rather not ever drink it. It might be comparable in quality to Ezra Brooks, but that's as generous as I think I can be. I think I'm going to go with a 10 this time I would consider raising it up to an 11 if I ever tried it again (but I hope I won't).