1792 Series (9 of 11): High Rye Did you know: “High-rye” can be a meaningless adjective. Four Roses has two mashbillls, one with 20% rye and one with 35%. Buffalo Trace (who does not disclose) is generally considered to have an 8-10% rye mashbill and a 10-15% rye mashbill, yet their staff will refer to these as the “low-rye mashbill” and the “high-rye mashbill.” This means BT’s “high-rye mashbill” likely contains less rye than the “low-rye mashbill” from Four Roses. (Note: back in 2019, both distilleries, unprompted, had a tour guide that cracked a well-natured joke toward the other distillery with regard to this irony.) However, there does seem to be some consistency when distilleries put a moniker on their bottle to suggest a higher rye content. Here are a few: Redemption High Rye = 36% Blue Run High Rye = 30% Garrison Brothers Rye Bourbon = 37% There are others that aren’t disclosed, like Jim Beam’s High Rye, but reasonable assumptions put those in the high 20s to low 30s. So while there isn’t a true “high-rye” distinction, there do seem to be some norms. Given all that plus the estimation that standard 1792 is 18% rye, I think we can probably make the same assumption here (high 20s-low 30s). Nose is honey, oak, syrup, apple. Cherry. Baking a cake. Raspberry. Jam. Love it. Body is grapes, apples. Bit of dust. Fruit punch is there. Raisin. Sugar. Whipping cream. Blood orange. Finish sneaks in late building up a baking spices note. I love it when the mouth feel changes over time on a finish, and this one is dynamic. It lingers with you. This is a spicier small batch. The flavors aren’t altogether that different from small batch, and this makes me want to adjust my speculation down to about 25% rye, all other factors equal. I like it a lot, and if this were a regular offering, this would be a 1792 that I keep in stock. The finish has about as good a mouth feel as a bourbon can supply. Looking forward to the next on-deck: 1792 Sweet Wheat