Willett Family Estate Small Batch Rye 4 Year

Rating: 15/23 N: It starts off with tropical fruit (orange, pineapple, and other stuff), but then it gets earthy with a bit of spice. Perhaps faint jalapenos? From there, dry wood with no sweetness to it comes out. There's something a bit savory that goes beyond the savoriness of the jalapenos. It's definitely a kind of youthful nose. A little mint and maybe some black pepper, but this is not a normal rye profile, to be sure. A hint of dry grass. This is weird. It's not a bad nose, but there isn't anything that really makes me like it. It's more interesting than it is anything else. P: Ah, here's the herbal character. The jalapeno and tropical fruits still come trough, with the latter being fairly syrupy, though still carrying a bit of mineral character. Some earth turns into bittersweet chocolate a bit. Swishing it, floral vanilla comes out. The spices also evolve to include black pepper and some ginger. Some mint. A bit of clove with the dry wood, and then a little cinnamon sneaks its way in. There aren't a lot of tannins from the wood. I do get a bit of clean alcohol at points too. OK, so this clearly needs more time to age. I think that some more wood would be beneficial, but definitely some more air is called for. This is complex for sure, but it's young and out of balance. F: Tropical fruits, fresh broccoli, jalapeno, a bit of cinnamon, ginger, sweet water. Weird, but not bad. - Conclusion - The youth absolutely does show through here. I'm hopeful that time in the bottle will improve this situation, but as it is, this is a fun but young dram. It's funky, but that doesn't make me love it. Woodinville Rye (16/23) is more refined and holds its own against this despite its lower proof and slightly off balance. This is more interesting and I think that it could be quite good if given some more time to mature, but right now its balance is lacking. This seems more in line with the quality of Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon (14/23). The Wild Turkey is still more coherent than this is, but it's certainly less fun. And that's where this one trips me up a little: it's interesting and kind of fun, but it's not at all a typical rye and I find its profile challenging. I would probably, however, take this over Wild Turkey 101 Rye (12/23). Actually, I would definitely take this over that because although there are qualities about the two of them that roughly balance out, the Wild Turkey 101 Rye is just to bland and thin to ever be worth consuming. So this is going to be a 13 or 14 most likely. So over repeated tastings I'd been moving up to a 14 or 15. I was pretty ready to give this a 14, then I left it sitting in my glass for something like 45 minutes before tasting it and wow - what a difference! Giving it time to let the alcohol burn off really helped it balance out. The complexity remained, though it didn't quite taste older because it didn't acquire additional oak. Still, it became pretty enjoyable, possibly as high as a 17. That said, is 45 minutes really reasonable? I'd say not really. Fresh out of the bottle, this is not a 16, nor even a 15. I might end up giving it that 15 though, depending on how quickly it can achieve substantial aeration. I really like what's going on here with all of the funky flavors, but this just doesn't taste mature enough at 4 years. I do feel like this deserves some credit for taking air so well without needing some comical amount of it (e.g. 50 ml left in a 750 ml bottle for a year - yeah, I've tried that). At around 20 minutes airing in a glencairn, this achieves a solid 15 level of quality. I can see it getting to 16 shortly thereafter, but I think I need to go with a 15 right now.