Batch 3 Bottle 329 My second purchase from Bluegrass Distillers during my recent trip, this one was my favorite out of all of their rye whiskeys. I loved the unique barrel finishing in the whole line, most of which I have never seen another distillery use for finishing any kind of spirit, let alone whiskey. The friend I was with enjoys his wine more than spirits, and he really enjoyed the sauternes finished rye because it imparted enough from the secondary cask for him to pick up on some familiar flavors. I'm not sure what the deal is with the identity crisis between Bluegrass Distillers and Midway Distilling Company, which further confuses me since all Midway ryes are sourced from MGP, and then bottled in Lexington rather than Midway, KY, where they'll soon be moving to. Still, since I make a lethal amount of Manhattans, this was an instant hit with me, and I can't wait to play around with portioning and adjuncts when I inevitably make one (or three) later tonight. An impressively dark color for 5 years, but some of that must come from the secondary barrel; it may be placebo, but it seems like there's a tint of ruby or maroon throughout as well. The nose is concentrated, but very calm for 110 proof. It sounds cliché, but all the notes from a good Manhattan are here: deep, black Luxardo cherry, bitter and floral fortified sweet wine, and cinnamon as well as grass from the rye. There's additional notes of wet earth, milk chocolate, and a touch of leather, but overall easily painting a cocktail mental picture. The initial body is very hot, and gives off notes of wet earth and mushroom, but is too hot otherwise to taste anything else at first. Softer oak, not quite toasted but not heavily charred, as well as classic grass and extra spicy cinnamon are tasted after more sips. The rye spice is felt deep into the gums, but is more focused at the front of the mouth rather than moving all throughout. The earth flavor continues, with some floral and more concentrated botanical notes fighting for the spotlight, but are being shot down by a very powerful and spicy ethanol-fueled finish. Maybe I didn't detect it at the distillery because I was already acclimated from some other samples by the time I got to this one, but the body on this one is almost too hot and powerful to enjoy neat. It's still quite a tasty rye (MGP knows how to make a goddamn proper rye whiskey), and definitely has detectable flavor from the finishing barrel (as does the rest of the Midway line), but still just a tad too high of a price point for me to easily come back to it. I would feel better if I were showcasing a small distillery's product, but I could buy good MGP rye whiskey from dozens of other competitors for much cheaper, albeit not having used finishing barrels. I'm hoping that Bluegrass/Midway/whatever continues this line with their own product, where I will excitedly wait to see what other casks/barrels will be used for finishing at that time. In the meantime, I'm still very excited to craft many Manhattans with this, or even just throw an ice cube in to calm down some of the harshness.