2019 selection from Big Red Liquors, bottle #39 of 240, nicknamed "Spice." MGP is an absolute leader when it comes to rye whiskey, and Rossville Union (among other products) proves it. Prior to this bottle, I've only had the barrel proof, and that's all I needed to sample before pursuing more. I've seen this single barrel pick and two others ("Savory" and "Sweet," the former of which I also purchased) about a year ago, and I don't know why I haven't purchased sooner. Excited to find out if it was worth the daydreaming or not. Good color, moderately dark. In my mind, I know exactly to what whiskeys I'll compare this, being that this is supposed to sell the spicy side of rye. Disappointingly, it's actually corn sweetness that I get most on the nose, which I would imagine makes up a large part of the brother mash bill used which only contains half the amount of rye (rye whiskey should never see the light of day if made with less than 95% rye). I can smell good, fresh rye as a grain, yet mellowed some by the barrel, but really the only spice I'm detecting comes from the ethanol. Thankfully, the taste does build to some spiciness. The initial flavor is still a majority of sweet, but the rye spice digs into the gums to burn from the inside rather than on the whiskey itself. This is enjoyable and burns even hotter with introduced air, but the finish presents a curious malty note, which does not blend well at all with the fresh grassy and minty flavors of the rye grain that also come out during the finish. The continuing burn is decent, but not really all that unique. So, this is good, and if this is anything like what standard Rossville Union tastes like, then it's definitely a winner. My beef is that someone, somewhere, thought that the predominant flavor here was spice, compared to the other barrels tasted. If this is truly the spiciest barrel offered that year, then I yield, but I doubt it, because I've had plenty of rye whiskeys that can burn like horseradish, and MGP should certainly be a distillery to figure out that magic recipe. Although, as I said earlier, the issue may lie in the use of the super low 51% rye mash bill (if truly used in this batch), because the real key to making a rye whiskey spicy and sticky to the gums is, if you can believe it, rye.