It's a situation I find myself in from time to time: I want to order a bottle that's online only from the PA Fine Wine & Good Spirits site. The bottle is $65 and shipping is about $12. If I order $99 of whisky, I get free shipping, and since I'm probably going to buy more whisky later in the month anyway, why essentially give away $12 when I can just add $35 and put the whole sum toward whisky. Sure I'm spending an extra $23, but it's all going toward something I want rather than a portion going toward something I want and another portion going toward transporting that thing toward me. So what do I do? I search the site for bottles that get me excited starting the filtering at $35 and working upward from there. I'm not going to tack on something I don't want just to get the free shipping. No, I'm going to buy a bottle I want. I'm just going to start with the lowest cost possible options. I can't remember what I ordered that this was the add-on for. It was probably about six months ago, and it's likely I drank whatever it was I ordered that I really wanted first and saved this for a time when I was in the mood for a New Riff. After all, I've had the New Riff Single Barrel Barrel Proof Rye and the Barrel Proof Bourbon and both were excellent sips for the value. I also had the Bottled-in-Bond Rye and that was quite nice as well. To reach the Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon might have actually been working backward, since of these four, it's the least expensive as well as has the lowest community rating here, but it should be noted, that community rating is still a 3.8, which isn't too shabby for a $40 bottle. I have to admit that I haven't had many bottled-in-bond bourbons, so this is an area in which I have further explorations ahead of me. I've had Evan Williams BiB, which is touted as a best value, but I wasn't particularly a fan. It was all right and the price tag was fantastic, but to me, it was more a mixer and I don't make a lot of cocktails (unless my wife wants a cocktail, that's usually when I'll mix two and join her). I've also had the new Jack Bonded, which is similarly priced to this New Riff BiB and which was good though not as mind-blowing as its press would have you think. I always wanted to try the Henry McKenna back when it was $50 but it was always unavailable then, and now it's been hiked to $68 and from the reviews of people I trust on this site, it sounds like that's priced beyond the reward of its quality. Old Granddad is still on the list and it's widely available and affordably priced, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. And my go-to, given that it was $17 in PA was either Jim Beam Bonded or Old Tub, which struck me as pretty much the same whisky with Beam Bonded being chill-filtered and the Old Tub non-chill-filtered. Both of these reminded me a lot of summer carnivals after baseball games in that they combined caramel corn and peanuts with oak, sawdust and leather. They're probably not as good as the Jack Bonded, but much better than Evan Williams, and priced accordingly. As for this New Riff, I'd put it on par with the Jack Bonded, only the New Riff has a much different flavor profile. While the Jack Bonded was cherry syrup sweetness and bananas and and overall fruity sweetness, New Riff Bonded, much like other New Riff products, amps up the spice. One thing I like about New Riff, in fact, is that regardless of whether you have a rye or a bourbon, they all have a spicy rye edge, and favoring the spicy to the sweet, that's right up my alley. The nose on this one, the New Riff Bonded, is a combination of spice and caramel, quite peppery with the caramel adding a trace of sweetness and a little bit of leather mixed in. The palate keeps that going, upping the caramel and adding a hint of cherry, not to the extent that you find in the JD Bonded, but subtler, and a very nice touch. The finish is particularly interesting in that, as it fades, you get a combination of spice, mint, and tobacco, almost like a menthol cigarette without the nastiness of having to inhale smoke. Overall, even if this is better than the Beam Bonded or Old Tub, it's better only by degrees. While I'm much more likely to repurchase this than the JD Bonded because of the spice over the fruit, I'm not sure either is a run out and buy another straightaway, and might not actually ever be repurchases, but that's okay. Now, if only they could get more New Riff in my area beyond these four. I'm always reading about some new New Riff being released, whether it's Balboa Rye or Winter Whisky or Malted Wheat or Malted Rye, but they never seem to reach Pennsylvania or Jersey. Oh well. I'll keep an eye out whenever I travel. I always do.