It’s December 7, and I’m going to try a new rye whiskey every day this month. And while my rye game is not as weak as my Scotch game was this time last year, I’m always up for suggestions on good rye whiskies. And now that I have goals (it’s good to have goals), there are some key players I could use your help finding. Send me your worst. Goals (abridged): 5 ryes. 4.5 stars. Readily available. (1/5, WT101) I want to recognize the difference between any bourbon and any rye. First try. One of these must be an Empire Rye. I want a raunchy rye. I want the one that tastes like you just remembered tragic memories from your past because your joy is wearing off. >>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<< My favorite part about visiting Preservation Distillery was poking at the staff with regard to the rumors running around their whiskies. That and getting called by the front desk about your tasting that is about to start while you’re sitting 4 feet away finishing up the previous tasting. Whoops. Nose is reminiscent of Rare Perfection. Please don’t do this to me again Marcy. It’s a choose your own adventure dram. If you want to like it, you better start with campfire notes. Marshmallow, vanilla, coals, crackling wood. If you don’t want to take your joy, it smells like eraser shavings, rubber, nail polish remover, and something that would probably clean your shower very well. Damnit. Body is faithful to the nose. If you can get the happy notes, the vanilla is strong. I guess I could see maple, but vanilla is far more accurate. Sugar content is turned up to 11, so marshmallow works. Some sort of white chocolate coated marshmallow. If you want to walk the dark side with me, it tastes like someone tampered with your glass. This body might as well be a vanilla liqueur. It just tastes vanilla and unhappy. Can vanilla curdle? Finish - screw this. I’m done. I don’t want to play anymore. This is terrible. Don’t even do this to enemies of your friends.