Willett Family Estate Small Batch Rye 4 Year

5.0 stars - Exceptional, 750 ml bottle The king of botanical ryes. I love the botanical ryes. Anything that grows in a garden, I love in rye whiskey: mint, rosemary, dill, green pepper, chives, oregano, etc. This tastes like Swedish rye bread with an herby butter spread. Rich, oily, fresh. It also has the black licorice, root beer and old library books element found in Rowan’s Creek and Noah’s Mill. I absolutely love it. This is unique to Willet and I hope it never changes. This is in the same space as WhistlePig 10 yr, High West Rendezvous Rye and Double Rye, and 95% MGP. It is my favorite of the bunch. I was lucky enough to buy two bottles from my local liquor store via their allocated bottle raffle. I gave one to my next door neighbor since he is a Willet super fan.

Cherry bomb of a rye. Will not disappoint!

2021 release.

Spicy but also sweet for a rye (which I like) like cinnamon or allspice, shorter finish

Heat. Lack of complexity

At $79.99 at Total Wine in Albuquerque I won't buy a bottle anytime soon, but I am so glad I received a sample of this rye whisky. If it weren't for the price this would have immediately become my favorite rye (though generally I prefer sweeter, less spicy whiskies). This is a barrel proof whisky, and this particular sample is 108.2 proof. Yet it's not until the finish that the alcohol really asserts itself; going by the nose and taste I'd have thought this was 100 proof or lower. It's a lovely copper gold in the glass. The legs run quickly and long, and a leg will run down in the track of a previous leg. The mash bill is 95% rye and 5% malted barley. NOSE: Rye spice is definitely the first thing that comes through, but then there are notes of vanilla, a slight smokiness, caramel, and honey. Upon putting my nose fully into the glass I detected salt, apple, citrus, cinnamon, something faintly but pleasantly medicinal, and new-mown grass. TASTE: This is a very creamy whisky, considerably more so than anything I've tasted hitherto. It's rye forward, with honey, vanilla, caramel, and oak involved. FINISH: This is long, and begins with oak. Then there's a long stretch of emphatic spice, fading to a smoky oak. This is certainly a rye whisky, but in some respects it resembles a bourbon. I suspect the difference here is that being barrel proof, water hasn't reduced the complexity and washed away the sweeter notes from the wood of the barrel. Whatever the explanation, the only thing keeping this from moving to number 1 on my rye list is the exorbitant cost.

It’s December 27, and I’m going to try a new rye whiskey every day this month. And while my rye game is not as weak as my Scotch game was this time last year, I’m always up for suggestions on good rye whiskies. And now that I have goals (it’s good to have goals), there are some key players I could use your help finding. Send me your favorite, readily-available rye. Goals (abridged): 5 ryes. 4.5 stars. Readily available. (5/5, WT101, Whistlepig 10, Whistlepig 12, Old Riff, VOSN Summer Rye) I want to recognize the difference between any bourbon and any rye. First try. One of these must be an Empire Rye. (1/1, Hudson) I want a siren rye. I want the one that tastes like a liar and a thief and a damned old fish. >>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<< Big thanks to @ScotchingHard for recommending this. Apparently I tried this about 2 and a half years ago, but as I have literally no memory of that happening, I’m going to count it as “new”. What I love about all of this is that in my review from years ago, I had trouble detecting flavor notes because of its intensity. I specifically said: “I can tell that I have some room to grow on what I can detect on ryes.” Let’s find out if the past month helped me out at all. Nose is maple syrup, sugar, watermelon. Red apple. So good. Body is watermelon, honey, strawberry, orange. There’s praline and caramel on the end of the body. I could see cherry, but the other fruits are better descriptors I think. Finish is sweet and spicy. The watermelon comes back, and a mild cinnamon. Bit of walnut as well. Milk chocolate. Cream. This is a juice bomb. Phenomenal flavor, and I absolutely love it. I hope this qualifies as the “intense rye” I’ve been looking for, because if so, I have come to a place where I can enjoy ryes to the same extent that I do bourbons. This is going to be a whiskey I try to keep in stock at all times.