ctbeck11
Oregon Spirit Straight American Rye
Rye — Oregon, USA
Reviewed
January 10, 2021 (edited June 11, 2022)
Nose - apple cider, mint, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, rye bread, clover honey, grape, sweet tobacco, floral notes, wax, apricot, peach, and other stewed fruit, vanilla, moderate ethanol burn.
Taste - apple, apricot, mint, ginger, cinnamon, clove, cardamom, honey, spicy rye, leather, tobacco, licorice, caramel, floral notes, moderate to high alcohol bite, finishing medium length and hot with rye bread, spiced apple, and mint flavors.
This is much sweeter and fruitier than other 100% ryes I’ve tried, specifically Whistlepig and New Riff (which is 5% malted rye, to be exact). However, there’s enough herbal spice to let you know it’s not a barely legal rye. The spiciness is muted, though I wouldn’t say balanced, by the fruity sweetness. The nose and palate are a veritable potpourri of aromas and flavors; everything but the kitchen sink, so to speak. A more elegant whiskey would integrate these contrasting facets beautifully, but here it’s more mixture and less solution.
That said, this is not a bad rye at all. Probably slightly above average, per my rating scale. However, the elephant in the room here is the price. At $50 a bottle, this is up against the likes of New Riff, Pikesville, and High West DR!, which are either much better (Pikesville and New Riff) or of similar quality and much cheaper (High West DR!) than this offering.
This completes my Oregon Spirit review series. I was more impressed with this brand than the other Total Wine house brands I’ve reviewed. Overall, each of the three expressions (Bourbon, Wheat Whiskey, and Rye) has been average or slightly above average for me, but none is competitive in price against offerings in the larger market.
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For everyone who is offended, welcome to America, the land of free speech! It’s a common ploy to throw out a lure to see others who are just as guilty of ruining the whiskey journey for others looking for honest feedback. It is physiologically impossible (go ahead look it up from a medical perspective) to taste all of those notes in one sip, and as the sips continue and you acclimate to certain tastes it becomes more centered and focal. What is offensive is the open thesaurus and contradictory flavors thrown around when writing a review, how does that help? There has to be a Whiskey snob app out there for you all to congregate. Just keep it real, you’ll get more followers, which is the primary reason you write long reviews, isn’t it?
@MunsuLight Thank you! Taste buds are fully back, or at least back enough to no longer be noticeable to me.
@proatc I'm not getting as much notes as everyone else I follow here, but saying that it is impossible to get so many notes and say someone is lying is unacceptable. It is like saying to a sommelier that he is saying c* @ctbeck11 Continue doing an awesome job. I hope you got back to your pre-covid tasting buds.
@ContemplativeFox @Anthology Thanks, guys. Definitely don’t have plans to stop anytime soon.
@ContemplativeFox @PBMichiganWolverine Oregon Spirits is part of their Spirits Direct program. I’m assuming Total Wine takes the majority of their output, but I don’t know for sure whether there’s any sort of exclusivity agreement in place.
@ContemplativeFox @ctbeck11 I had no idea either that this was a TW product. Thought it might be a bottler in Oregon that buys from MGP
+1 to @Anthology 's keep 'em coming - they're always great reads :) On a side note, I had no idea that Oregon Spirit is actually a TW house label - I'd figured just a craft distillery with a cozy relationship. Just checked wine searcher and sure enough only TW (and Frootbat) are selling it! Thanks for the tidbit of knowledge :)
@proatc WTF! We don’t do that here! My mum (and a lot of mums) used to say, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything. As @ContemplativeFox alluded, everything here is subjective, so if your PoV is different from someone else’s, keep it moving! Please keep ‘em coming @ctbeck11
@proatc You don't need to agree with or like @ctbeck11's 's review, but please keep it civil and don't accuse him (or anyone else on Distiller for that matter) of lying.
@proatc Thank you for your thoughtful feedback. Truly, I had no idea I was ruining the app. I will endeavor to ruin it less for you in the future.