Willett Family Estate Small Batch Rye 4 Year
Rye
Willett // Kentucky, USA
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Mis-Ter-Justin
Reviewed November 8, 2020 (edited March 30, 2022)Holy rye. Smooth. Little burn. Sweetness. Complex. Like a old timey candy that cannot be appreciated until you lived 60 years. Tons of flavor after 4 years -
Doug-Murphy
Reviewed November 6, 2020 (edited March 30, 2022)Really good rye. Does not drink like 113 proof. Smooth with great rye spice. Top notch rye. -
LouisianaLonghorn
Reviewed November 6, 2020 (edited January 6, 2021)After revisiting my bottle of Russell's Reserve Single Barrel Rye last night and basking in its magnificence, I thought it high time that I review this bottle, which I spent a considerable amount of time hunting down, only to be moderately disappointed, and relegated it to making the most expensive Old Fashioned's I've ever made. The bottle's been open about a month and a half, and it's about halfway empty with plenty of air. How does it hold up? Nose is rye. Rye, rye, rye. No mistake what you're drinking here. Digging deeper, we find some chocolate (more dark than milk), brown sugar, cherry, and dusty oak. Ok, fine. The palate betrays the proof. At 55.1%, it drinks like 43%, even into the finish. I will say, the taste is intriguing. It's unlike any rye I've tried. It has a distinctly malty character to it, which indicates a high percentage of malted barley in the mix. It almost reminds me of a Kudos bar (when I was a kid they would have those as snacks after baseball games, which are basically granola bars with either a chocolate glaze or chocolate chips in them). Interesting nostalgia hit taking me back thirty years...There's no mistake you're drinking a rye, but it's not in your face like RYE! The finish is a bit underwhelming, again, betraying the proof. For a cask strength dram, I expected longer. So what to rate? It took me months to hunt this down in Texas. SRP for this hovers around $60, but I paid around $90 for it at the one shop in all of central Texas I found this at. Stupid markups...it's not like Buffalo Trace made this...Do I think this is worth $90? No way. How about $60? Still no. I'm not loving sipping on this. I want that wow factor for what I paid for this. It does make a damn good cocktail, but so does Rittenhouse or Old Overholt for a fraction of the price. I'll give it a 3, because it's good and does make a good cocktail, but the VFM really isn't there. I can see why this is a shelf turd in California. Save your money and buy RR SiB if you want a good sipping rye, or perhaps one of the Sagamore cask finished ryes. I'm disappointed given the high rating it has from the community here, but such is life. Cheers all, and happy weekend. Hopefully for all my American friends this long nightmare of an election week is almost over. It could almost drive a fella to drink...95.0 USD per Bottle -
joshonki
Reviewed November 6, 2020 (edited July 18, 2022)Nice light flavor, hits first with a musty barrel flavor that I find pleasant. Follows with a good rye spicy hit and a super smooth finish.
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