Batch 5. 112.3 proof. 100% rye mash, a low 110 entry proof, NCF, locally-sourced barrel wood, and an 18-month age statement. Quite an unusual combination brought to you exclusively by the craft distilling movement. A deep chestnut brown, despite the age. The venerable @robertwayne64024 notes undersized casks were used and that would almost have to be the case given the color and flavor. Current listings from the distillery note 5+ years, so I’m speculating that my bottle predates the switch to fully-aged stock (which is likely matured in standard casks). Despite bottling at cask strength, the low barrel entry point leaves the final proof quite modest by today’s standards, but I’m still wary of youth+proof. It is, however, surprisingly nose-able and it really can’t drive me out. Vanilla and maple come right out of the gate to cross-check your olfactory holes like Kris Letang. Butterscotch and char. A quick line change brings lacquer, oak, and cinnamon spice. Clean, bright, and young. It dances around a vegetal spicy chili influence, but ultimately sticks closest to the sweet baking notes supplied by the barrel. Pleasant. The opening is quite gentle and ancillary to sweet desserts but lacks the actual sugars, then settles pleasantly into a thin but lasting caramel. Abruptly, the rather demure opening falls away, and rye spice rushes in to bloom on the palate, bringing a drying astringency, vanilla again, an approachable cooked serrano, simple syrup, more char, and morphs into a finish defined by that astringency and a lingering medicinal note somewhere between licorice, gentian, and anise. Correction - it is definitively fennel, which is actually pleasant enough but I’d expect to land a bit out of mainstream preferences. Calls to mind my dad’s “Tom’s of Maine” fennel toothpaste from my childhood. Honestly… this is really dang good. It is assertive and memorable and not mainstream, and 90% of that is a good thing. Pretty mind-blowing the amount of flavor, barrel, and character they captured for something so young. Low entry proof, small casks, NCF and cask strength is really a great concept to let quality distillate and the unaltered rye shine, resulting in a respectable body and mouthfeel that belie its youth, and show off the distinctive and appealing features of rye that other common whisky grains can’t replicate. This is pretty impressive for the price paid - not sure what MSRP is for the updated version. Ultimately I’d still lean toward an affordable stalwart with a touch more centrist appeal, like Pikesville, but would recommend this to about anybody. I hope the fully-aged replacement is even better, and I will purchase to find out.